QIS is a caring community. We provide a range of professionally staffed services to support students in their learning and to look out for their social, emotional and physical wellbeing. All staff – from tutors to class teachers, and administration leaders to specialist support staff – play an important role in this support network.
Pastoral Care
Pastoral care of all our students is the responsibility of the whole community. At QIS the way we treat, talk to, interact with and teach our students will all contribute to the quality of our pastoral care.
QIS operates a year group system and every student is placed in a tutor group. The tutors are led by a head of progress for each year group. The main focus for pastoral care, initially, will be the tutor as they will greet their students at the start of each day.
Secondary Pastoral: Lydie Gonzales – gonzalesl@qis.org
Primary Pastoral: Mehzabein Patel – patelm@qis.org
Learning Support
We are dedicated to helping students access the curriculum on offer. We strive for each student to walk into a positive environment where they feel safe, secure and happy in their learning, so they can achieve their highest potential. At QIS, our staff take the time to really get to know their students and are keen to enable all learners to progress.
All students access a mainstream education where they can develop alongside their peers and be a full part of our community. In order for this to be achieved, we ensure that all students are assisted with strategies to facilitate their learning, in order for them to succeed independently. This takes place on an individual basis, depending on the need of the student. They can also be supported in class through small changes in the classroom, which can make a big difference to accessibility of the work at hand. Parents, teachers and students can bring their concerns to the department and if needed, external agencies can be contacted to aid with assessments. We work closely with the school counsellor for a variety of behavioural issues, as often these can be resolved in our school setting.
If a student has an assessment report from an external agency, then they will meet with the department to create their own Individual Education Plan (IEP) and Pupil Passport. These are shared with the student’s teachers only and include specific targets that are tracked and changed when necessary. Having a BPS Registered Test User on the staff also means that at the Key Stage 4/5 exam stage pupils with additional needs can be tested and awarded access arrangements where necessary. Where a student is attending individual therapy such as Speech and Language Therapy (SLT), or Occupational Therapy (OT), then we appreciate termly progress reports must be submitted.
Our policy is that all students require a formal external assessment before they become part of the SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) register.
How do we identify in school?
• Teachers will flag a concern (behavioural or academic) with their head of department or head of progress after their Quality First Differentiation.
• General strategies from whole school training are used.
• Parents are called/a meeting will take place to discuss the concern.
• If no progress is made, the SEND Department is notified and an observation takes place of the student in the classroom.
• The outcome of the observation is discussed.
• More specific strategies are tried.
• A further external assessment may be requested by the SEND assistant.
• An IEP is created based on recommendations from assessment report(s) and input from parents and teachers.
• Teachers’ differentiation will also include accessibility for children assessed as having Special Educational Needs.
• Teachers, SEN assistant and parents meet to review the student’s IEP each term.
This process is overseen by Steve Jones (Head of Primary) and James McBlane (Head of Secondary).
Should you wish to contact the school regarding SEND, please email: sen@qis.org.
We would be very happy to hear from you and assist you if we can.
School Counselling
School counselling is offered at QIS by fully qualified staff members. They work with students of all ages and their families, from Early Years Foundation to Year 13. They provide valuable support, counselling, and psychological assessment for students with specific needs. The services include counselling students, assessing students’ learning and behaviour, helping families make informed decisions about their child’s education, identifying impediments to students’ learning from a social and emotional perspective and liaising with external agencies regarding students’ wellbeing.
The counsellors at QIS are vital members of the education team. They help all students in the areas of academic achievement, personal/social development and career development, ensuring today’s students become the productive, well-adjusted adults of tomorrow.
Please contact Mrs Mehzabein Patel should you require any additional information about our school counselling services. Email patelm@qis.org or phone 4483 3456 ext 243.
Attendance Officer
Mrs Rima Harb is the link between home and school with regard to attendance. When a tutor records a student as absent, Mrs Harb will ring the family to find out why the student has not attended school. Parents are therefore requested to inform the school when their child will not be attending school. This is a safeguarding issue.
If a parent wishes their child to leave school during the day, the parent should write a note to the tutor. The student should show the note to their tutor during registration and the tutor should sign and date the note. When the student is ready to leave, they should show the note to Mrs Harb and sign out. Mrs Harb will then issue the student with a gate pass which informs school security to allow the student to leave the premises.
If you have any queries about attendance or would like to inform the school about a medical leave or any other absences please contact Mrs Harb.
Email harbr@qis.org or ext 414.
Primary Library
The library is a place where students in QIS are eager to come, they feel at home. Students are able to choose what they like to read. We have many different types of books – fiction and non-fiction, and big books with simple words for FS1 and FS2 students.
When students enter the library, they go to pick a favourite book under advice and supervision of the teacher. Then they line up to borrow the book, and sit in a quiet atmosphere to enjoy reading.
On other days, the library staff are responsible for conducting various activities for students, such as giving their opinion on their favorite book using the book review form or orally with their classmates.
The Primary library always welcomes students and encourages them to read.
Secondary Learning Resource Centre
The Secondary Learning Resource Centre is a haven for students to visit before their school day begins, during break times and after lessons end.
Open from 6:30am every morning, we try to ensure that there is something to engage all students’ interest in the library in terms of genre on offer but also the facilities.
Students have access to areas for private and group study, comfortable reading areas, ‘Maker Space’ areas for our creative students, and computer access too.
Students access the library for study, research and reading purposes. We have reference texts which aid study, as well as the most up to date fiction novels. Students can also request resources that they’d like to have access to and we endeavour to do our best to source them in order to nurture their learning and joy for reading.
QIS recently invested in a new library software system called ‘Reading Cloud’ by Eclipse. This new system is much more efficient and up to date to support modern demands of the curriculum. Students can access the library catalogue online 24-7, meaning that they will be learning the life skill of navigating a library catalogue and acquiring the ability to search for resources independently.
The system encourages pupils to personalize their library profile, contribute to the online blog, explore a ‘word of the day’ and ‘fact of the day’ feature, reserve books for themselves, and submit reviews of books read. The free app for this system can be downloaded from the app store, it is called ‘IMLS’.
Students visit the library regularly with their English teachers to exchange their books. Senior students use the library facilities in order to conduct paired reading or to be ‘Book Buddies’ to younger students, at least one morning every week.
Junior students receive a library induction on how to best use the library to facilitate their learning efficiently and effectively. Students also become aware of the Dewey system and how it is used to catalogue books.
To encourage reading for pleasure the QIS library facilitates the processing of the Baker Books orders twice a year. Baker Books is a UK based company that provides quality reading materials as well as academic reference guides and textbooks. This year we saw the Baker Book order increase dramatically at QIS to over QR 32,000, which is very pleasing as it proves that our students really do enjoy reading and parents are supporting them too!
The Learning Resource Centre is always happy to cater for visitors to school. We regularly host visiting universities and authors. Visiting authors really inspire and encourage our students to achieve their best and to value reading. Joshua Raven from the UK was our last visiting author in 2016, we hope to host another one this academic year.
In order to continue with encouraging the love for reading, trips to the MIA library and the new Qatar National Library are planned for this academic year also. Please help us foster the love of reading within your children by trying to visit these free fantastic resources that are on our doorstep here in Doha.
Please don’t hesitate to come and visit our library anytime, everyone is always welcome! In the words of Roald Dahl: “So please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray; Go throw your TV set away; And in its place you can install; A lovely bookshelf on the wall.”
“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers,” Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States.
School Clinic
We at Qatar International School recognise our responsibility in maintaining the good health and wellness of our school community. To enable us achieve this goal we operate a well-equipped medical clinic set up under the guidelines of the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH). Our expert team of three qualified nurses provides essential care to students and staff throughout the school day.
The services provided in the clinic include:
- The creation and maintenance of medical records for each student.
- Treatment of minor infections and illnesses
- First Aid treatment of injuries.
- EpiPen training.
- Overviewing of food safety in the school cafeteria.
- Liaising with Qatar Diabetes Association.
In addition to these services we also participate annually in health wellness programs introduced and established by MOPH namely:
- National Growth Monitoring Program.
- Vision Screening.
- Tdap Vaccination of Year 10 students.
School Canteen
A cashless payment system for all students and parents will be activated starting Sunday 17th September 2023.
17 September – 14 October – Students and parents can still pay using cash or debit card.
15 October onwards – Cash and debit card payments will be discontinued, and the cashless payment system will be the only option available.
