16

PACKED LUNCHES

STRICTLY PROHIBITED: Chocolates, Sweets & crisps Fizzy drinks, Glass bottles Fast food Food that needs to be warmed Nuts and sesame seeds (including seeded burger buns) RECOMMENDED: Fruit & Fruit Juice Sandwiches Cheese/fromage frais/yoghurt Carrots/salad vegetables Water...

Visit the school website for a copy of the school policy on school lunches!

The School Office

The Al Noor school office is a busy place full of action! The office staff deal with lots of day to day queries such as absences & lateness, parental enquiries, photocopiers, children feeling unwell and accidents. To make it more efficient we have listed a few pointers for parents: Phone calls – The office does not take calls between 1 & 2pm, when you will be put through to voicemail where you can leave a message. Absences - If your child is sick or unwell please phone the school to let us know and email a note to absences@al-noorprimary.co.uk detailing your child's full name & class. Sickness - If your child suffers from vomiting and diarrhoea, please allow 48hrs to pass before sending them back to school.

SCHOOL UNIFORM

Our school uniform is compulsory. Full de-tails can be found In the Parental handbook —available from the school website or the school office.

Since September parents have been asked to send their child to school wearing the school PE uniform where stock has run our for uniform in their child’s size.

Insha’Allah an update will soon follow from Umm Anisah for new arrangements for uni-form.

Please Label Your Child’s Uniform!

Please ensure that all uniform items are always labelled with your child’s name and class to help him/her hold onto them.

There are a number of companies that sell convenient labels for use if you wish to use them. One such company is offering the school 20% commission from orders placed by parents that select 'al-noor primary' at checkout.

Please visit www.easy2name.com for fur-ther information.

SCHOOL LUNCHES

School lunches are available Monday to Thursday at £2.30 a day (packed lunch on Fridays). They need to be bought a half term in advance. Contact the school office for details.

In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful. We praise Him and seek His forgive-ness. May peace and blessings be sent upon His final messenger, the Prophet Muhammad, his

noble family, his companions and all those who follow them in righteousness, Ameen.

As-salamu ‘alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh!

Jumada Al-Akhirah 1436

April 2015

We celebrated another annual Al-Noor Primary School Qur‟an Award Ceremony on 29th January

2015. It was an evening full of prizes and smiles of delighted children whose efforts in learning the

Qur‟an were rewarded. Pupils had spent the past month revising the portions of the Qur‟an they

had committed to memory in order to compete against each other in a range of categories for

Hifdh.

Many warm and sincere thanks to our wonderful PTFA team who worked selflessly to organise

the event . A very warm jazakAllahu khair to our good old Deputy Headteacher Abu Abdullah

who hosted the evening and all the sponsors and all those who helped out on the day!

INSIDE THIS EDITION:

Appeal for new secondary ¬ pg 2

Reflections Umm Anisah ¬ pg 3

Reflections Umm Maryam ¬ pg5

Reflections Umm Mariyah ¬ pg 6

Qur‟an Awards Ceremony ¬ pg 7

Forthcoming Events ¬ pg 11

Little Explorers ¬ pg 11

Darkness in the Day ¬ pg 12

World Book Day ¬ pg 13

Islam Awareness Week ¬ Pg 15

2

Editorial: Umm Anisah &

Umm Mariyah Reporters:

Ibrahim Asghar, yr 6; Sumayyah Rashid, yr 5; Elias Kheyar, yr 5; Rahma

Saleh, yr 5; Ameena Shafiq, yr 5; Zayd Kazi, yr 5; Yusuf Zishaan, yr 5

“Who is it that would loan Allah a goodly loan so He may multiply it

for him many times over? And it is Allah who withholds and grants

abundance, and to Him you will be returned.” [Surat ul-Baqarah ayah 245]

15

Once again Al-Noor Primary school held a success-

ful Islam Awareness Week, where they invited

schools from the borough to help them learn more

about Islam.

The theme this year was „Muslims in Britain and

their contributions to British society‟.

Pupils interviewed a number of Muslims promi-

nently involved in a range of public services where

they are

making a

positive

contribu-

tion to

British

society. This reflected diverse roles, from busi-

ness men and professors to cricketers and mar-

tial arts champions!

All the schools that came said that they had a

very informative and enjoyable experience

learning about Islam from our pupils.

14

World Book Day is an international celebration of reading books and held

in March each year. It is also the day that everyone comes into school

dressed as a book character! Children came as different characters, such

as Little Red Riding Hood, Robin Hood and Alice in Wonderland. On

World Book Day had a whistle was blown by Umm Isa and then we had

to stop our lessons and read a book. By Ameena Shafiq

“We had to drop everything and

read! It was great fun!”

3

Assalamu „alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barkatuh dear parents, pupils and friends.

One of the most important goals of our work at the school is to provide tarbiyyah for the

soul and help nurture the Iman, Islam and Ihsan of our pupils. We have worked to pro-

vide this through the school‟s curriculum and through staff role modelling since the

school‟s inception. Work on this has never abated and has taken a renewed focus over

the past year and a half with the help of the school‟s Board of trustees. Together we are

working on developing a framework that seeks to develop essential characteristics and

skills through an outdoors and cross-curricular approach. This year we have increased

our use of residential trips at

year five and six and projects

across the school focussing on

traits such as gratitude, honesty

and perseverance.

A few weeks ago I revisited

shukr—gratitude in whole school assembly. Whilst extolling the virtues of thankfulness

to Allah and thankfulness in turn to parents and those who help us, I reflected on how

hard it is for children to be grateful. They have nothing to compare their state of abun-

dance and „having‟ with, and thus don‟t appreciate abundance and „having‟. It is through

the existence of opposites that we often give meaning to things. We understand dark as

we have experienced light, neither would make sense without the other, similarly for hot

and cold, night and day.

Gratitude is a feeling, an act of the

heart, that unless experienced by the

heart, cannot be reciprocated, cannot

be demonstrated. Children develop

the ability to feel early on, starting at

least at birth through bonding with

their mothers. Experts argue that

children need to experience five key qualities of their early environment in order for

their emotional development to progress healthily: attachment, containment, communi-

cation, involvement and agency. Any shortcomings or disruption to these key qualities

disrupts this development leading to serious repercussions, even mental health problems.

By the mercy and favour of Ar-Rahman, a good dose of functional parenting and family

life helps to avoid this, as does secondary emotionally healing experiences later on in life

to repair the damage.

Clearly the nascent development of iman and a connection to Allah, founded on the abil-

ity to feel emotions of attachment and love for Allah, also depend on these five qualities.

A child who is unable to feel empathy for others due to a damaged attachment with his/

her primary caregivers, is unable to develop an at-

tachment with Allah and empathy with his/her sib-

lings and peers. This child struggles to be fulfilled

emotionally and doesn‟t have the capacity to stand

“And (recall) when your Lord proclaimed: “If you

are thankful, I shall certainly increase (My bless-

ings on) you, and if you are ungrateful, then

My torment is surely severe.'” (Al-Qur’an, 14:7)

Allah (SWT) said, “And whoever gives his

thanks, he does so for the benefit of his own-

self. And who so ever conceals his thanks, then

he ought to know that Allah is self-sufficient,

worthy of all praise.” (Al-Qur’an, 31:12)

“He who is not grateful to people

is not grateful to Allah (SWT).”

4

in the shoes of others or feel grateful for the blessings

s/he has been given.

Thus it is that adults often find the young ungrateful

and parents often feel that their children are thankless. Parents give, children take and

consume, sometimes feeling sorry for themselves when they observe what others have,

sometimes complaining about their

parents apparent failings. Arrogance,

a sense of entitlement and hardness

of the heart can follow, increasing in

proportion to the volume of material

wealth they are given.

It is only by the blessings and mercy

of Ar-Rahman that He guides those of us who turn to Him through our lives to learn and

develop beyond the strengths and deficiencies of our early up-bringing. That individual

choice of turning to Him, sub-

mitting to Him, turns our spiri-

tual eye away from looking at

those who have materially

more, towards those who have

less and turns it away from

those who are spiritually impov-

erished towards those who are

blessed with knowledge, husn-

ul-khuluq and a disposition to

work good deeds.

Ultimately it allows us to move

beyond desire of the ephemeral and material world to the desire of His acceptance, His

Ridhwan, His love and His reward. It also gives us the ability to take joy in, and be

grateful for each of His bounties

in this life, and all the little things

that others do for us.

Thus it might be that we become

part of the „Shaakireen‟ -the peo-

ple recognised for having such

shukr that they have become

known for it by Almighty Allah.

Such that we demonstrate Shukr in our worship and perform meritorious deeds simply

for His pleasure, as acts of worship. Good deeds towards all seeking the face of Allah:

Muslims and non-Muslims, those near and those far, the community, wider society and

the world. Wassalamu „alaikum wa rahmatullah

“Wondrous is the affair of the believer for there

is good in every matter of his; for if is he is

happy, he thanks Allah (SWT), thus there is

good for him. And if he is harmed, he shows

patience, thus there is good for him.” (Muslim)

„A‟ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, reported:

When Allah‟s Messenger [SAWS] occupied himself

in the prayer at night, he observed it with such a

extended qiyam (posture of standing) until his feet

were swollen. A‟ishah said: “Allah‟s Messenger, you

do this in spite of the fact that your earlier and lat-

ter sins have been forgiven for you?” He [SAWS]

replied: “„A‟ishah, should I not prove myself to be a

thankful servant of Allah?” (Bukhari & Muslim)

“Allah will give reward to the

thankful.” (Al-Qur’an, 3:144)

It is reported in Tafsir al-Qurtubi that Dawud

(alayhi salaam) said, “O my Lord! How can I be

grateful to You when gratitude is a blessing from

You?!” Allah (azza wa jall) responded to him,

“Now you have shown true gratitude (because

you've recognized that all blessings are from Me).”

“...And have in their minds no favour from anyone for which a reward is expected in

return, But only the desire to seek the Countenance of their Lord Most High; And

soon will they attain (complete) satisfaction.” (Al-Qur’an 92:18-21)

13

On Monday 9th of March Al-Noor Primary School held World Book

Day. The school started the day of by having a performance from the Al-

Noor teachers. The teachers preformed a play called Umayrah Twist, a

copy of Oliver Twist. The play was very entertaining and all the children

were laughing.

Lots of people dressed up, most were from the book „Charlie and the

Chocolate Factory‟. It was a fun experience for all the children and staff.

Everyone got to express their favourite book characters.

Also as a part of World Book

Day a Book Review competi-

tion was held where children

were encouraged to write a

book review about their favour-

ite book in an interesting way.

We had many fantastic entries

and winners were:

Safa Shazad-Year 1

Uneisa Rexaphi-Year 2

Ibrahim Saleem– Year 2

Aaminah Kothia– Year 2

Runners up were:

Imaan bint

Mohammad

Hanifah Jalil

Yaqub Kheyar

Zaynub Hakim

Sumayaah Zanu

Maryam Saleem

Masha‟Allah to every-

one!

12

On the 20th of March 2015 a solar

eclipse took place. A solar eclipse

is when the moon blocks the sun‟s

light, as seen from Earth. It started

at 8.41am finishing at 10.41am.

All Al-

Noor pu-

pils made

pinhole cameras to view the eclipse without dam-

aging their eye sight. They all brought in a shoe-

box to create the pinhole cameras during lessons.

Pupils had the opportunity to pray Saalatul Khusuf

during the eclipse. As the pupils started praying,

most of them started pondering about the Signs of

Allah and how he controls everything.

After the pupils finished praying Saalatul Khusuf,

they noticed that is was darker than it was in the

morning. Praying saalatul khusuf was a once in a

life time thing to do.

By Sumayyah Rashid

DID YOU KNOW? Solar eclipses actually happen pretty regularly — they occur in cycles called saros,

and during the 21st century, there will be a total of 224 eclipses.

5

I have been a parent of children at Al-Noor School for five years now, and like many

others am deeply committed to faith schools as they are integral to our nature. My reason

for writing this has come out of a culmination of experiences both as a parent and staff

member. Most pertinently the issue of „Al-Noor becoming Voluntary Aided‟. I believe

Allah is challenging our integrity and sincerity to Him (SWT). I myself am not sure what

is right and what is wrong. May Allah help us in this difficult time to do the right thing

for the right reasons.

What is sincerity? In the English dictionary the definition is „freedom from deceit, hy-

pocrisy or duplicity, probity in intention or in communicating‟. For Muslims this sincer-

ity should fundamentally begin with Allah and then everything else will fall in place. It

seems to me this is where we are going wrong. As I get older I realise, most of us can go

through a whole lifetime without fully understanding this. We need to take this seriously

for as Muslims this is integral to our practice of our faith. Being Allah fearing has its

essence in being sincere. Therefore the question we need to constantly ask ourselves

whenever we do something or say something is have we been sincere? Why? Being sin-

cere is a requirement, a prophetic teachings in Islam. It starts with the belief that we

should „worship Allah as if we see Him‟ and „say my living, worship.... is all for the

sake of Allah‟.

In social work training I was taught that to give genuine and honest feedback is one of

the greatest gifts we can give one another. This insight and wisdom was the nature and

personality of our greatest teacher the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh). Who was known for

honesty and sincerity. He (saw) said one of the rights another muslim has over you is

that you give him „sincere advice‟ when he asks you. This means even if we are upset or

disappointed in one another we stop and look into ourselves and can act and speak in the

best interests of others. To see the bigger picture always, very tough not easy.

The true worth of this prophetic of wisdom is something which comes to me more and

more as I get older. Intellectually it seems simple enough. In practice, it can be painful

both for the giver and the receiver. It requires emotional maturity, it means when we

want to cement good relations with people we do it for the right reasons. We speak the

truth even if it‟s painful for us. When someone asks for advice we need to truly look into

ourselves and say what we believe will be in their best interests and not just ours. As a

younger person and one who was in the helping profession, I thought this was easy and

simple enough. In reflection, I can see I did not truly understand this in its full sense.

Being genuine and sincere is not an easy task and some do it more easily than others.

However most do need time to reflect and make a conscious effort. Many of us go

through the whole of our lives not truly benefiting from this prophetic wisdom and there-

fore not allowing ourselves or others to grow and develop spiritually.

If we start by being sincere to Allah, if we remain truly conscious that our first relation-

ship is with Allah and it needs to be sincere then being sincere to fellow human beings

will be more natural and simpler. Everything in life has a price, the price of being close

to Allah is to be sincere there are no short cuts.

Was-salamu „alaikum wa rahmatullahi, Umm Maryam Haque,

6

Assalamu 'alaikum wa rahmatullah,

Assalamu „alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barkatuh

I pray you are all well and in the best of Emaan. For those of you who are not familiar

with who I am, I am The Assistant Headteacher and the Year 6 class teacher. I was

blessed to join Al-Noor Primary School in January and after completing a full term in

the school I would like to say a few words.

Firstly I want to thank Allah SWT for allowing me to work in only what can be de-

scribed as a truly blessed school. In my ten years of teaching this has got to be the best

school I have ever worked at. In my opinion the school has a lot of barakah Masha‟Al-

lah.

I initially joined Al-Noor assuming that it was a „good‟ school but after working here

for a term I have changed my opinion on the school. In my opinion the school is an

„outstanding‟ school as not only does the school do well in educating the children

Islamically, the school also ensures that the children do well academically. I was pleas-

antly surprised at the hard work, professionalism and commitment all the staff put into

ensuring that our children get the best start in their lives.

The children in the school are Masha‟Allah well behaved, polite and respectful children

(most of the time!) The children always seem excited about their learning and will al-

ways try their best. The have a very positive attitude to their work Masha‟Allah which

Insha‟Allah will enable them to achieve well in their lives.

I would like to say a big thank you to everyone at Al-Noor for making my first term so

enjoyable and rewarding. May Allah continue to shower his blessing on all of us and

continue to keep us in the best of Emaan.

As a parent and as a staff member I consider myself blessed to be a part of the Al-Noor

family!

DON’T MISS OUT ON

THE BEST FUN DAY

OF THE YEAR!!!

Put it on your diary: 10am

SATURDAY & SUNDAY 30th & 31st MAY 2015!

11

What do you like about Little Explorers?

“I think its a great magazine, its very col-

ourful and I learnt some stuff from it!”

How many countries do you sell your

magazine to?

“Whichever country wants it, they buy it.”

What inspired you to start little explorers?

“I always loved drawing, and I always

wanted to be part of a children's maga-

zine.”

How many people work here?

“Twelve people work here, it may seem

like a small team, but we get a lot done,”

How good was your first issue?

“It was published in Ramadan so lots of

people bought it.”

My experience at Little Explorers

“My experience at Little explorers was

totally awesome! From writing quizzes to

doing interviews. I just loved it. We left the

school at 8:45AM and arrived back at

5:00PM!

It took about 2hrs getting there but it was

fun. When we got there, We had a Power-

Point presentation followed by a break.

After that, We were given time to make

pictures and quizzes and the top five are

going to be published in there!!”

We were fortunate enough to go to

little Explorers on the 20.1.15. It

was based in Reading so it took a bit

of time getting there. We had a tour

around the studio, after which we

interviewed some staff members. I

learnt that a few people can produce

a great magazine for children!

By Elias Kheyar

(All dates are provisional)

Mon 11th May Test & Assessment Week Mon 25th May Bank holiday Fri & Sat 29 & 30th May Yr 5 & 6 Residential Sat & Sun 30th & 31st May Al-Noor Fun Day Sat 6th June AMS UK AGM Fri 12th June Year Six Graduation Eve Sat 13th June Sponsored School Walk Mon 15th June Sports Day

Tues 16th June Class end of year parties Thurs 18th June 1st Ramadhan 1436 Tues & Wed 30th June & 1st July Annual School Show Thurs 2nd July Parents’ Eve. YrR, 2& 6 Fri 3rd July School Transition Day Mon 6th July End of year assembly Tues 7th July Last day of school Wed 8th July Staff INSET

Mon 7th Sept. 2015 1st day of new school year

LOOK OUT FOR THE WONDER-NOOR SCHOOL NEWSPAPER TEAM, IN THE LATEST EDITION OF LITTLE EXPLORERS: Issue 25! http://leworld.co.uk/

10

Cool Milk - School Milk

Our school provides a milk scheme that is available to all of our pupils. School milk is free for all under-fives and is subsidised for pupils aged five or older at around £15 a term.

Each pupil that registers with Cool Milk receives a carton of semi-skimmed milk every day, which is delivered fresh and

chilled to the classroom. Milk not only pro-vides them with essential nutrients, but as it is rehydrating and energy boosting, it also bridges the gap between breakfast and lunch to help children stay focused.

How to register Milk is completely free for all children aged under five and is subsidised for children aged five or older. Register at www.coolmilk.com!

Category 1st Place 2nd Place 3rd Place 10 juz' Zain Butt Abu Bakr Majid Huzaifah Imrit

5 juz' Aishah Mirza Ibrahim Khan Elias Kheyar

Zaynub Hussain

3 juz' Aisha Nadeem Yaqub Kheyar Eesa Nadeem

Hafsa Ali Saima Rahman

2 juz' Muadh Hamza Haashim Ghafoor Tahani Alom

Saniyya Rehman

1.5 juz'

Laisa Syed Zaynab Hakim Ayesha Ali

Faiz Butt

Nadia Kasmani

1 juz'

Yunus Abdur-Rahman Umaymah Asim Adeena Khan

Halima Rahman Aiema Abbasi

Aaminah Shannon

34 surahs Fatima Imran Sufyan Hosenee Eemaan Saeed

Uthman Syed

26 surahs

Umar Bashir Yousuf Ali Ahyan Ahmed

Hafsa Umer Saifullah Ubaidullah Abdullah Zishaan

Alisha Asif

20 surahs

Muhammad Hussain Maryam Raja Ruqayyah Laher

Muhammad Gachi Zaynah Syed Safa Jalil

Sara Sattar

15 surahs Muhammad Ismail Nusaybah Khalifa Safa Shahzad

Ayyan Habbab Abdullah Raja Adam Amin

10 surahs

Anees Rehman Dawud Haque Muhammad Shaheer Adeel

Faiza Islam Rumaysa Khan

Sumayya Saajidur Rahman Yusuf Kothia

Yusuf Ahmed Uddin Zahra Kazi

Zainab Patel

7

When did the Quran competition

start and why?

It was started 5 years ago by Abu

Abdullah because we wanted to en-

courage people to read the Quran

and revise it.

What venues were used in the

past?

We used Mayfield High School hall

3 times to begin with. Last year we

used Krystal Banqueting hall in

Seven Kings and then this year for

the first time we used the Royal Re-

gency in Manor Park.

How much were the tickets in the

past?

It was £5 at the start because the

hall was smaller and its hire costs

were lower. There was not enough

space for the children to run around

in! The food was given in contain-

ers and not every participant re-

ceived a prize.

Do you think parents enjoyed the

ceremony in the past?

They did however parents with

young children found it difficult as

there was no space for children to

run around.

By Zayd Kazi and Yusuf Zishaan

If We had sent down this Qur'an upon a mountain, you

would have seen it humbled and coming apart from fear of Allah . And these examples We present to the people that per-

haps they will give thought.

[Surah Hashr, ayah 21]

8

Is the Quran Award Cere-

mony going to be held in

the same place next year? We are not sure yet. In-

sha‟Allah if the venue owner

from this year agrees to hire

out the hall at the same price

next year then it is highly

possible.

Will there be participation

prizes for everyone or just for the

people who get first, second or

third?

Yes, Insha‟Allah every child who

participates will receive a participa-

tion prize and if they come first,

second or third for any of the cate-

gories they will also receive an ad-

ditional winners prize.

Who will be our host next year

for the Quran Award Ceremony?

We do not know who the host will

be. It would be lovely to call Abu

Abdullah back as we thought that

he was a fantastic host!

Who will organise the Quran

Award Ceremony next year? Insha‟Allah the PTFA, Umm Ani-

sah and Hafiz Ubaidullah will or-

ganise the Quran Award Ceremony.

By Rahma Salah and Sumayyah Rashid

Some children are growing ever closer to completing the hifdh of the

Blessed Qur‟an masha‟Allah: here is a shout out to them to encourage

them to persevere!

Qasim Khan | Abubakr Majid | Huzaifah Imrit | Khadija Rehan

9

Q1: Who told you about this venue?

The PTFA found it. They are very organised & masha‟Allah went out

looking for a venue to improve on the previous year‟s ceremony.

Q2: How did you feel about this year’s Quran Comp?

I was very pleased because despite being in a distracting glitzy, venue, the

focus on the Qur‟an came through clearly & had the event had a special

vibe that is always part of our Quran comp.

Q3: Ratings out of ten, how good was the children's behaviour?

Some children were exceptionally well behaved, they were a credit to

their parents & teachers.

Q4:What’s the star attraction of the Quran comp?

The Quran itself and the fact that children just want to strive to memorise

it masha‟Allah.

Q5: Do you think you achieved what you strived for?

Yes, for the most part alhamdulIllah and many thanks to the PTFA. But

we have to wait for all the children to grow up to really see if we have

been successful!

By Elias Kheyar and Hashim Ghafoor

It was an evening of connection, by the blessings of Allah, to the Quran, to each

other & to Ar-Rahman Himself, all praise be to Him.

[All] praise is [due] to Allah , to whom belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth, and to Him belongs [all] praise in the Hereafter. And He is the Wise, the Acquainted. [Surat Saba’ ayah 1]