The Junction

Friday 13 January 2023

A Note From Mr Parnell

ENJOY THE PROCESS

“The person who loves to walk, will always walk further than the person that loves the destination”

Reading Mr Green’s article about resolutions in last week's publication of the Junction made me reflect on the goals I would like to set for myself this year. I decided to go for the traditional ‘get fit’ and ‘spend less money’. But this year, inspired by the quote above, I have decided to take a new approach to these challenges.

I absolutely love having a goal! I will even admit I feel a bit lost when I don’t have a goal to work towards. Goals can add meaning and purpose to our lives, create welcome distraction from the monotony of the day to day, providing focus, excitement, and a sense of accomplishment once achieved. However, many people tend to focus on the end product rather than the process. There are two concerns I have with this; 1) It can be stressful. As progress is not linear, and most goals require effort and an element of challenge, this process naturally leads to some setbacks and disappointment. 2) Not living in the moment. Focusing on the end game means I am often guilty of not appreciating the here and now, or being present.

Then, once my goal has been realised, my mind immediately thinks ‘what next?’, barely taking a moment to celebrate what has already been achieved.

We can become so focussed on the outcome that we do not necessarily enjoy or appreciate the lessons learned along the way. Learning to love the journey allows us to recognise the positives and the negatives from the experience. Taking action does not always lead to success, so during this process we often face setbacks, disappointment, and failure. Each time we do, we learn something new and adjust our approach. It is important to recognise the progress made and celebrate the small wins. So I am doing just that, enjoying getting fit. Each time I lift a slightly heavier weight in the gym, or complete an extra rep, maybe spot a change in my body shape, I am taking time to appreciate that moment. It’s even better when you can share the journey with a friend. Having support and recognition from a peer only heightens that feeling of success.

When you learn to love the journey, you achieve milestones as a side effect of that process. The students at JAS are on their own academic journeys. Along the way they will set their own goals of academic success, whether it’s an end of unit topic test, GCSE coursework, or A Level examination. Improving, developing and adjusting their approach each step of the way. As teachers and parents it is our responsibility to help our young people learn to enjoy and appreciate their journey. If they only focus on the end game, they will risk becoming stressed and miss out on enjoying not only the process, but those special moments in their lives as a teenager. Creating an environment that allows young people to develop a love of learning will allow them to seek out and rejoice in their achievements (no matter how small), grow from their disappointment, and enjoy the many positive experiences that JAS has to offer.

Whatever your resolution or goal this year, take time to appreciate and reflect on the journey. Enjoy the ride!

Mr Ben Parnell

Deputy Headteacher - Pastoral

Week in Review

Year 7

Sometimes, when students hear ‘Shakespeare’, it is followed by groans and grumbles, or a feeling of fear at the thought of interpreting the Shakespearean language - but not in our Shakespeare Shorts unit! Using game as a learning tool for staging and blocking, the students are learning the physical skills needed to bring a Shakespearean scene to life, gaining understanding of plot, character and how to create an effect (such as tension) on stage! This week in ‘Macbeth’ we were exploring the murder of Banquo through the well known game ‘Grandama’s Footsteps’ (Red light/Green light).

Year 8

Continuing with ‘Arabian Nights’, we began exploring the use of proxemics to communicate character relationships on stage. Students were introduced to this new terminology and worked through a short section of script, considering their use of space, direction, levels and physical skills to portray how the conflict in the relationship between Shahrazad and Visier develops in the Prologue.

Year 9

Introducing GCSE devising strategies we are learning how to creating original drama, including developing plot, character and style through the exploration of theme.

Inspired by ‘Lord of the Flies’, the students are starting to create performance work from the themes of civilisation, isolation, power and tribes. This week we watched some fantastic improvisations of discovering themselves and others on an island.

Year 10

Blood Brothers is the focused for this term, looking more in depth at key scenes and characters. During this lesson our GCSE students were exploring the way in which the police officer interacted differently with Mrs Johnstone than with Mr Lyons and why. We have also began to look at Section B of the GCSE Drama written exam. In this section they have to answer 4 questions; 4,8,12 and 20 mark questions. This term students will be exploring the 4,8 and 12 mark questions.

History

This term Year 7 started learning about the Vikings! This weeks topic was Viking Gods where students gave some excellent presentations and an epic show was done by Shanzay and Cora 7TMA who wrote and performed a rap about Odin and Loki!

Secondary Production

Oliver! 2023 - Week 13 in Rehearsals

Two more numbers complete in two weeks - have a sneak peek of Oom Pah Pah below!

IMG_0754.MOV

Additional Rehearsals

All Cast, Crew & Band members will be needed all day on the following:

Friday 10th March - Crew Only till 4pm*

Thursday 16th March (till 3.30pm)

Friday 17th March (till 4.30pm*)

Monday 20th March (DRESS REHEARSAL)

Please try to avoid booking appointments during the school day on these dates.

*Students attending Friday Prayer are able to leave but please notify us in advance.

Weekend Rehearsal dates:

Saturday 11th March - Band only

Sunday 12th March - All Cast and Crew

Sunday 19th March. - All Cast, Crew and Band (TECH/DRESS REHEARSAL)

*All weekend rehearsals will take place between 9.30am-4pm. Production T-shirts will need to be worn for ALL of the above dates. Students will need to bring a packed lunch, snacks and plenty of water. They will not be allowed off-site.

Attendance on the above dates is of high importance. If there is a reason as to why a cast/crew/band member is unable to make any of the above, please notify us as soon as possible via schoolproduction@jebelalischool.org

Cast List

Director - Ms. R Channon

Musical Director - Mr. A Laird

Assissant Director - Miss. K Hansford

Choreographer - Mr. S Sonsin

Stage Manager - Yasmina Habib (Year 11)

If you need to contact any of the Production Team please do so via schoolproduction@jebelalischool.org

Secondary Production Google Classroom: Aztar5o (students only)

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScOAN7c63VxWtrfERmudXEBtof80VIm_xHh6r0RgJHE_mQdbw/viewformRehearsal schedule is updated on GC every Friday afternoon for the following week. Please check this weekly to see when you are needed in rehearsal.

CAST Rehearsal Times

Monday 12.50pm-13.15pm

Wednesday 3.30pm-5.00pm

Thursday 06.50am-7.20am

Photography Competition

Sixth form Team Building

Sixth form Team Building Beach Trip

The Year 12 students in our Sixth Form at Jebel Ali School are a range of young people, some of whom have been part of our community for many years, and some of whom were new to Jebel Ali School this year. What better way to try to ensure the students get to know each other, try new skills and get out of their comfort zone, than a trip to Kite beach for a range of sand and sea adventures and an opportunity for some team building?

On Friday 6th January, our Year 12 students were fortunate enough to experience a breadth of activities with Pirates Surf Rescue. We were lucky enough to escape the rain and instead experience beautiful dramatic skies and a calm sea. Students enjoyed a variety of adventurous activities, including: a giant Stand Up Paddle Board (accommodating 10 students working together to paddle), a surfing lesson, volleyball, a marine biologist sharing her skills, frisbee and rescue paddle boards. The end of the sessions saw students engaged with trust exercises, culminating in a balancing act of 40 students creating a giant sitting circle and a massive tug of war.

The day certainly provided the opportunity for the students to explore their strengths and challenges and get to know each other. They spent a day in the sea, being brave and trying new things, epitomising our ethos of exploration, resilience and exploring their best selves.

JAS Enterprise ECA

It’s the start of a new term and a fresh new batch of budding entrepreneurs have joined the JAS Enterprise ECA. This group is already full of innovative ideas and keen to start making their millions. I look forward to working with them this term, to set up their businesses and start selling their products as soon as possible. Watch this space - the winning team will be the business who make the most profit.

JAS Secondary Sport

JAS Secondary Sport

Please see a reminder below of any key documents you need for any information regarding JAS Sport.

U19 Boys Football Cup - Round 1

Jebel Ali Vs Safa Community School

2-2 (Penalties 9-8 JAS)

The U19 Boys football team had their first match of the new year and hopefully the first match of a long cup run! What a start it was. After going 2-0 down early on in the game the boys could have easily lost their focus, but thanks to a goal from Yanis just seconds before half time, they managed to maintain their composure. A motivational speech from Ben, our captain fired the boys up ready to play in their second half, this time the focus was controlling the ball, slowing down play and playing Jebel Ali quality football. After several attempts, hitting the crossbar and the post we thought the equaliser would never come. Fortunately, high pressure from Gonzalo forced a defensive error and we scored with 6 minutes left on the clock. Now back in the game, the boys maintained control and we saw out the rest of time until the penalty shootout. Again, it was difficult to separate the two teams, with calm cool and collected penalties scored, taking us to 8-8. Bryn stepped up, scoring to make it 9-8 and we just needed a save from our goalkeeper, or their player to miss. The opposition missed by the smallest of margins and hitting the crossbar meant the U19s walked away with a dramatic win.

We are extremely proud of how the boys handed themselves, showing true Jebel Ali resilience and heart from start to finish and a man-of-the-match performance from Alex. We are already looking forward to the next cup fixture.

Mr. Spurling

Secondary Boys Rugby

It has been great to see our rugby teams in action this week! Our U16 boys kicked off the week with their first win of the season followed by the U15 girls and the U14 boys competing in some tough first games but never the less putting out a great performance. The U13 and U15 girls will be competing in their first tournament of 2023 next Friday afternoon @ JESS! Watch this space!

Secondary Girls Netball

Our secondary netball teams have had a busy week with the U16 and U12 girls playing their first round of DASSA fixtures. Our U16A team took their frist win of the season against SAFA 21-15 with the U16B team losing out by one goal to JBS. Our U12A team had a great comeback finishing with a draw against EC (7-7) whilst our B team managed to score 7 goals against a strong Southview side scoring 12. Next week we see our U13 and U14 fixtures starting as well as the first DASSA Netball tournament of the year taking place on Saturday 21 Jan for our U16 and U19 teams.

What’s On - JAS Secondary Sport - WC 16 January

JAS PE

House Leaders and House Captains

This week our KS2 Sports Days have been taking place every morning. Our secondary house leaders and captains have played a pivotal role in making these events happen and run as smoothly as possible. Whether it be recording nalibiting times on the track, managing the all important egg and spoon race or running the frantic football stations they have been JASTASTIC! We look forward to seeing more of our leaders join us for the KS1 and Foundation Sports Days next week.

With the DASSA athletics league starting this term, students in KS3 have started their training in PE lessons.

Over the past 2 weeks, students have focussed on sprinting and relays. Technique has been developed through drills and fun games, ending in competitive races to decipher our fastest runners. Students have enjoyed games to test their reaction time, and used various equipment aids to increase their speed accross 75m and a longer 150m sprint.

In future weeks, we will be moving onto the jumps (long and high) and then continuing with the work started before the Christmas break on the throws (shot put, discus and javelin).

Living in the Online World

Looking Ahead

International & Residential Trips 2022-2023

We are extremely excited to share with you the upcoming international and residential trips for the 2022-2023 academic year. These experiences are subject to the number of students who sign-up. Below you will find the dates, a brief description, and approximate costs. Further information will follow.

Helpful Hints

Ways to have a positive digital footprint

All kinds of people are interested in your digital footprint. A digital footprint is the trace you leave behind when you go online. Unline actual footprints, a digital footprint is permanent! It's now very common for colleges, universities and employers to check out the online profiles of possible candidates as part of their application process. There are cases of people having missed out on jobs and places in college because their digital footprint didn’t impress the recruiters. So, remember: keep safe, don’t put too much personal information online and always think carefully before you post something. Ask yourself, ‘Would I be happy for absolutely everyone to see this?’

So what rules can you follow to keep a potitive digital footprint?

1. Be kind, helpful and understanding - leave a kind and positive footprint behind!

2. Use privacy settings - only share with people you know.

3. Don’t overshare - Think about what you post, would you be happy for your parents or grandparents to see it?

4. Google yourself - See what information you can find and what privacy settings might need updating.

5. At least skim the terms and conditions - check what you’re signing up for! What can they do with your data?

6. Know that sending or posting is forever - even if you delete something, all it takes is a screenshot for it to last forever.

Chloe Thompson

Computer Science Teacher

Article of Interest

Nature Vs Nurture in Achieving Sporting Success

Dr. Chris Stankovich

Perhaps the most intriguing psychology question debated today has to do with how much of your personality is due to genetics versus learned life experiences — also known as nature versus nurture. Some human qualities, like hair and eye color, are clearly due to genetic influences, while other life skills like throwing and catching a ball are learned through experience. While there are many absolute examples of things like your height being attributed to genetics and learning how to shoot a ball being a learned experience, there are many more instances where nature and nurture intersect and influence each other. It is at this precise point where the introduction of skill acquisition builds from one’s natural genetic structure, thereby providing a new look at nature nurture, but in a less “absolute” sense

Developing skills

Many times in life biological aspects of human development emerge, and then are either capitalized upon or ignored. For example, let's say you have a son who from the very first time introduced to a baseball picks up the ball with his left hand. Dad, a former baseball pitcher, realizes the advantage of being a left-handed pitcher, and immediately praises his son each time he picks the ball up with his left hand. In fact, dad not only gets excited about this discovery, he finds himself now regularly handing the ball back to his son’s left hand. His son, now catching on that dad becomes very happy when he throws with his left hand, is encouraged to continue using his left hand and, over time, becomes a “lefty.”

Using this example, we can see an initial potential predisposition of left-handed throwing, but you could easily argue that it was dad’s encouragement and positive reinforcement (learned behaviors) that really prompted the kid to become a left handed baseball player. Would this be nature? Nurture? Or both?

Take-aways

Being good at something in life is usually a combination of have some natural talent (and interest), coupled by life opportunities that allow skills to develop and flourish. The challenge for parents is A) noticing natural interests and tendencies their kids display, and B) creating an environment around the child that allows him/her to further develop specific skills. Additionally, parents need to keep emotions in check when the potential for a skill develops, as in the case of the overzealous dad who quickly capitalized on his son’s potential to throw left-handed. The best-case scenario is when a child displays an above-average talent and interest toward something, and parents then create specific, reward-driven learning opportunities so the child can improve in the skill.

Final thoughts

Nature (genetics) alone will only provide part of what is needed in order for kids to fully develop specific life skills, including sport skills. In addition to good genes, kids need life opportunities to further enhance skills, as well as solid parenting and coaching around them to consistently shape behaviors through positive reinforcement. Kids with natural advantages will only go so far if they aren’t surrounded by adults who can provide important opportunities, as well as motivate kids to reach their best through positive encouragement and reinforcement.

Sports Parenting Tips for Success: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N-hwgeGqhA&t=140s

Original article available : https://drstankovich.com/sport-success-nature-nurture-or-both

Student Focus/Highlight

We have a published student author in our midst! Nicolas in Year 7, has written three books already, but this is the first one he has published! Co-authored with another student author whilst they were in Year 6, "See you in hell" was inspired by Nicolas's favourite author Karen McManus. "Karen McManus writes great supsense and drama novels, my favourite is "One of us is lying".

"The book took me four months to write and four months to edit and publish and I am very happy with it! My favourite character is Perry and he makes you feel sympathy for him - he definitely took me the most effort to create."

In Northeast England, a small town known as Whitby, had its fair share of problems. More than a decade after a local teen disappeared, small town Detective Dante, receives an email supposedly by the murderer, admitting to have killed her; threatening to strike again with more vengeance on the small community.

Local businessman and eccentric, Arthur, joins forces with a teenager, Jessica and young adult, Perry from the PAJ Club, and decides that they will assist Detective Dante in his mission to search for and reveal the identity of the murderer.

Trouble befalls the small town once again with tragic circumstances and despite their fears and confusion, the PAJ club continues their mission to right the wrongs of the troubled community and seek answers.

Will they solve the cold case and the identity of the murderer?

And will they all make it out alive?

Find out for yourself, the book is now available on amazon and Nicolas would be delighted to do a book signing if anyone buys his book.

Staff Profile

Beth Tucker - Secondary Inclusion Department

Beth joined the Secondary Inclusion team at the start of this year after working in primary inclusion since 2020.

Beth moved to Dubai three years ago with her husband and two daughters from The Wirral, UK.

Beth has brought with her twelve years of experience, working across schools in Liverpool as a Nurture and Inclusion Manager and Pastoral head of year.

Beth believes the best thing about working in the inclusion team is getting to know the students well, understanding their learning styles and celebrating their achievements.

Beth says of the JAS values

‘Resilience is the value that resonates with me most, all students face different challenges in their learning journey every day, and the pupils at JAS inspire me with their perseverance, strength and resilience in working towards their goals.’

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