ISG Superintendent's Message
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Dear Parents,
Each year, ISG carefully creates a student calendar that supports both the academic needs of students and the work-life balance of families and staff. The calendar is uniform across all ISG schools to maintain consistency, ensuring that everyone in the community benefits from the same structure.
The student calendar typically includes 179 instructional days for students and 191 days for teachers, which include professional development days such as Convocation and ISG Learns conferences. To support work-life balance, the calendar also incorporates important holidays such as Saudi National Day, Eid breaks,and thoughtfully considers our annual fall, spring, winter and summer breaks.
ISG ensures flexibility by incorporating early student-release days for staff development and shortening school hours during Ramadan to accommodate the needs of both staff and students.
There is an ISG committee that prepares several versions of the calendar for leadership consideration. The versions are narrowed and presented to the Board Governance Committee for feedback. After this feedback, the proposed calendar is shared with the ISG Boards for review, feedback, and ultimate approval so that the final version can be shared with the ISG community for feedback.
The goal is to create a well-rounded, thoughtful calendar that balances academic rigor with cultural and personal time for everyone in the ISG community. We look forward to sharing the 2025-26 calendar with our community soon.
AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES
At ISG, we believe in the importance of providing students with opportunities beyond the classroom through our After-School Activities (ASA) program. These activities allow students to explore new interests, develop critical skills, and connect with their peers in an engaging and supportive environment. The opportunities we offer are in sports, the arts, technology and community service, etc. ASAs are designed to cater to a variety of student interests, ensuring that each child finds something that sparks their curiosity and passion. Furthermore, new activities are offered every eight weeks, giving students the opportunity to try different activities throughout the school year.
One of the unique benefits of ISG’s ASA program is the opportunity for students to participate in multiple activities. This approach encourages students to diversify their experiences, try new things, and fully engage with the learning environment outside of their regular academic schedule. This flexibility enables students to develop well-rounded skills such as teamwork, leadership, and creative thinking while fostering their social connections with students across different grades and interests.
Our ASA program is popular, with a good level of participation across all ISG schools. This year we have almost 1,700 students participating in activities across the district..
These participation numbers represent engagement in our after-school activity experiences that have a positive impact on the overall educational experience students have at ISG. To see the full list and variety of our ASA offerings this year, please click here. If you have any questions concerning our ASA program, please contact your school’s Activities Coordinator:
- ASD - Andrew Archibald
- BSD - Rae-leigh Lyons
- ISG Dammam - Betsey Hawkins
- ISG Jubail - Sara Al Fahad
- SVS - Jess Odendaal
DATES TO REMEMBER
A reminder that ISG schools will be closed for fall break from October 11-19. Classes will resume on Sunday, October 20.
ISG wishes your families a restful break.
We look forward to continuing to collaborate with parents on supporting students in their learning at ISG. We are pleased to invite you to attend the events listed below, please reach out to your child’s school for more information on times/locations.
Coffee Talks:
- October 20 - ISG Dammam ES Coffee Talk
Parent Teacher Group Meetings:
- October 20 - SVS PTA Meeting
- October 21 - WOW Week 1st Parent Meeting
- October 28 - ISG Dammam Parent Council Meeting
SCHOOL UPDATES
ASD
ASD Students Shine at Prestigious AMIS Jazz Festival in Düsseldorf.
ASD Welcomes 80 Students into This Year’s Best Buddies Program.
BSD
ISG Dammam
ISG Dammam Sports Club Hosts Inter School Volleyball Tournament.
ISG College and Career Programs Hosts Virtual College Clinic.
ISG Jubail