Harold Heindell Tejada / CC BY-ND 2.0
Welcome to Riffa, Bahrain!

Here We Are!
We're are pleased to meet you. We are Riffa Views International School (RVIS), with students from all over the world. In our classroom, we have 18 kids and 1 teacher. Our teacher, Mr. Griffith, is from Australia, and we are kids from Bahrain, Canada, Libya, Lebanon, Portugal, Morocco, Italy, UAE, India, England, Spain, and Egypt. Because we are an international school, we celebrate Think Pink, International Day, National Day, Terry Fox Day, etc. Look at our "selfies" on Think Pink Day and Sunglasses Day.

Photo: RVIS

Our RVIS School Building (by Talal and Kaelyn)
RVIS has 3 floors, and if you have been anywhere near RVIS you will have seen the huge flag of Bahrain on top of the school.There are more than 200 students here from over 30 nationalities. In our elementary school, we have 10 classes total with 2 classes in each grade. Our school is in the top 5 best schools in Bahrain. The elementary school has the kindest teachers ever, like our teacher Mr. David Griffith.

Photo: RVIS

Photo: RVIS

School Logo (by Aisha)
This is our school logo, and also our school name in several languages.

Photo: RVIS

School Mascot -- The Dolphins (by Anandini)
Our school mascot is the Dolphins. During our sporting events, such as the soccer tournaments, volleyball, etc., our uniform has the dolphin logo on it, to show our school spirit. This is also why our normal uniform is blue. The origin of our school mascot derives from the constellation Delphinus.

Celebration of National Bahrain Day (by Aisha)
Our school celebrates Bahrain's National Day, and this photo shows 5th grade students on stage singing an Arabic song to represent Bahrain.

Photo: RVIS

Red Hats (by Aisha)
In RVIS, 5th graders have a great responsibility of being a Red Hat Leader. What is a Red Hat Leader? Well, Red Hats are fifth graders that have specific jobs to keep our school safe and happy. For example, we have morning greeters, they greet people who come to our school every morning. Red Hats also lead our Show and Share assemblies. In this picture, there are Red Hats that were helping parents in Back to School Night.

Photo: RVIS

New Mosque Near the School (by Ammar)
This photo shows  a big mosque being built near our school. There is another mosque in Riffa, it is a small mosque and people go there every Friday. It is close to Alosra dome cafe. It gets crowded every Friday at the mosque. There is a male area and a female area.

Photo: RVIS

Our City's Clock Tower Roundabout (by Mr. Griffith)
Riffa is said to be the second largest city in Bahrain. One of the famous landmarks here is the Clock Tower Roundabout, near our school. Every year, for Bahrain National Day, the country is covered with hundreds of thousands of red and white lights, to represent the colours of our national flag. This is what the clock tower looks like around National Day each Year.

Photo: Mr. Griffith

Royal Golf Course (by Zayed)
The Royal Golf Club is a destination for people who love golf. It's also a country club. People play golf there almost every time. Open and closing hours are 6:30 A.M. to 10 or 11:00 P.M. It's located in Riffa near RVIS (Riffa Views International School). It's a very fun experience to play golf here.

Photo: RVIS

Desalinization Plant
One interesting part of life here is the need to treat seawater to remove salt, which is called desalination. An example of this is the desalination plant in Amwaj, Bahrain,located on Amwaj Islands.

Photo: RVIS

Land of One Million Palm Trees (by Amna)
Bahrain is a dessert. The only plants here are palm trees. In fact, there are so many palm trees people used to call Bahrain "The Land Of One-Million Palm Trees". Because Bahrain has so many palm trees they also have a lot of dates, so in a lot of places they sell dates and a long time ago they even made juice with the dates. Palm tree leaf weaving is used commonly to make almost anything that comes to mind.

Photo: RVIS

Wildlife
In Bahrain, some of the animals you might see in the countryside are Ibexes and Gazelles, and Ospreys too. Here are some photos of baby Ibexes, a herd of 25 adult Ibexes, an Osprey nest, and also a Gazelle skull.

Photo: RVIS

Photo: RVIS

Photo: RVIS

The Bahrain Fort (by Renad and Nureen)
One of the well-known landmarks of our country is the Bahrain Fort, shown in this photo with the second photo of the fort at dusk.

Photo: RVIS

Photo: RVIS

Bahrain Pearls (by Aysha)
This is a Bahraini pearl necklace. A long time ago in Bahrain, a lot of people went pearl diving. They did not have oxygen tanks back then, so they just closed their nose with a clip and dove underwater to find the pearls. Pearls are very rare to find in Bahrain now. Today pearls are worth a lot.

Photo: RVIS

Durrat Al- Bahrain Island
Durrat Al- Bahrain is the 3rd largest artificial island in Bahrain. It is located on the south coast of Bahrain. Durrat Al- Bahrain is a place that's sea and desert. It is also a place for people to relax, enjoy and make different kinds of sport activities. There are different kinds and shapes of houses, I like the one near to the sea, so you can go fishing.

Photo: RVIS

Flag and Farewell
We hope you enjoyed learning about our school, city, country and culture. We certainly enjoyed being a secret Mystery Class! As we bid farewell, we leave you with the flag of Bahrain. If you want to contact us, you can write to our teacher Mr. Griffith.