A Welcome Message from our Head of School

Dear GISC families,

There is a remarkable positive energy in the air as we open Year 3 of GEMS International School Cairo! Over 100 teachers and education leaders, 40 teacher assistants, and an additional 100 support staff are ready and excited to serve our ever-growing student enrollment of 940 students in PreK through Grade 10.

As the international and IB school of choice in New Cairo, we continue to attract a diverse and inclusive community of staff and families. Our educators represent 14 different nationalities (Azerbaijan, Byelorussia, Canada, Cuba, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, Morocco, the Philippines, South Africa, Sudan, United Kingdom, United States) and their teaching and leadership experience spans the world from Indonesia to England, Mexico to Bahrain, China to Canada, KSA to the US, and most points in between!

Our students and families represent 38 countries!

Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Indonesia, Italy, Jordan, Keny, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, The Netherlands, Nigeria, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Pakistan, Palestine, Russia, Saint Martin (French Part), Saudi Arabia, Sint Maarten (Dutch Part), Sudan, Sweden, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom and the United States.

International Day will certainly be bigger and better than ever this coming year!

 

GISC Staff

 Please note that we also have some important new faces among our support staff with whom you will likely interact throughout the year:

School Doctor – Dr. Yomna Omar

Parent Relations Executive – Eman Nader

Applications/Education Subscriptions Manager – Ahmed Abdelhady

With a renewed emphasis on student behavior and well-being, we now have assistant heads at both Elementary (Fatima Seedat) and Secondary (Nathalie Hart), as well as increased staff for SEN, SEL, and EAL support at every level.

 

Our IB coordinators are also designated at each level:

Riham Helmy – PYP and continuum coordinator

Lorraine Sabbagh – MYP coordinator

Omnia Mostafa – DP coordinator

 

Facilities and Operations

If you visited us today, you would notice significant improvements to our football pitch and KG playground areas with the installation of high-quality artificial turf and new playground installations. All three floors of our building are now open with classrooms fully operational:

Ground floor – Early Years – Grade 1

First floor – Grade 1 through Grade 5

Second floor – Grade 6 through Grade 10

We will soon be opening a DP Research room on the second floor exclusively for G9 and 10 student study and project work.

 

We ask that you pay particular attention to new arrival and dismissal logistics as we safely and securely welcome many more students to our campus this school year.

 

Accreditations  

GISC is proud to be accredited with distinction by Cognia, fully authorized for the PYP and MYP International Baccalaureate programs, and an affiliate member of the Near East South Asia consortium of schools (NESA). On September 30 and October 1, we hosted our verification visit for the IB Diploma program to commence with our G11students next school year. We received our full authorization just weeks after, and now are a fully recognized IB continuum school.

 

Student Achievement at GISC

A truly significant student achievement milestone was reached in June of this year with outstanding Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) results in Grades 2 through 9. Nearly all subjects at all grade levels exceeded the median international average score:

Reading Comprehension and Science – all grades average above the international median

English Language Arts – all but one class above the international median (within 2 points)

Math – all but three classes above the international median (within 2 to 7 points)

 

We will intentionally and specifically focus on closing any gap with international averages, but more importantly, we are aiming to have our GISC students achieve at the average levels of US native speakers emphasizing Reading Comprehension. Our MYP students are within 2 points of the US average in Reading, and PYP students within 4 to 9 points. MYP students meet or exceed US national averages in Math, Science, and Language Arts. You will be hearing more about our literacy initiatives at each level throughout the school year.

 

Please note that we will begin MAP assessments for MYP during the week of September 22, and PYP the week of September 29.

 

Communication

TODDLE, our learning management platform, is now live for all classes. An addition to TODDLE this year will be a live events calendar detailing parent and student activities over a 2-month period.

 

As Head of School, I am very honored to welcome every family and every GENIUS to our most successful year of wellbeing and achievement at GISC yet!

 

We see genius in every child! We enable them to make an impact!

 

With warmest regards,

 

 

Catherine Spencer

Head of School