The Junction

2 September 2022

A Note From Mr Green

Welcome back everyone!

I love this time of year. The return to school is so exciting for staff, students, and their families, often accompanied by new-found energy and optimism for the year ahead. For me, this year, in particular, brings a great sense of enthusiasm for the opportunities to build positive relationships that support the well-being and engagement of students in meaningful learning within classrooms that are welcoming, safe and inclusive. It’s also exciting, as a parent, to introduce my own daughter to the Sixth Form. I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with many parents this week who were dropping off their children in secondary school; some parents were more nervous than their children and some parents were more excited and delighted about the start of school! For me, there was no nervousness or worry, only happiness, and reassurance in knowing that my daughter is joining such a great school, filled with kind, generous and caring people.

As a growing secondary school, we welcome additional ‘great people’ who have joined our Secondary department:

Ms. Sian Davies - Assistant Headteacher Sixth Form & English Department

Mr. Adam Timcke – Head of History and Politics

Ms. Liz Hitie - English Department

Ms. Danielle Irwin - English and Media Department

Ms. Megan Ratcliffe - Mathematics Department

Ms. Sinead O’Neill - Mathematics Department

Ms. Khloud - Arabic Department

Ms. Marina Gordon - Science Department

Ms. Louise Rose - Science Department

Ms. Kathryn Hansford - Drama Department

Ms. Theodora Maldar - MFL Department

Ms. Chloe Thompson - Computer Science Department

Mr. Luke Murdoch - Economics and Business Department

Mr. Rich Ritucci - Design & Technology Department

Although the summer break is already feeling like a distant, albeit warm memory, I was once again blown away by some of the magnificent sporting events which took place over the holiday. Be it the England Women’s Football team tasting European success, or the individual and team successes in the different athletics championships that took place in Birmingham and Munich, I am always fascinated by these amazing athletes who accomplish fantastic achievements in so many different events. I take a genuine interest in all things ‘Team GB’ and, naturally, I see a great deal of similarity with our very own ‘Team JAS’.

Mr. Brown, in next week’s ‘Junction’, will write in more detail about our wonderful GCSE students who achieved fantastic awards recently, and should you need reminding please follow this LINK. These individual achievements are amazing, but they should also be seen in a wider context. Our own ‘Team JAS’ is one defined by camaraderie, collaboration, and confidence. A genuinely special place where everyone pushes each other to be better, striving for the same goals. Athletes will often speak about having a strong team around them – coaches, physiotherapists, nutritionists, psychologists, and doctors. Here at ‘Team JAS’ we have the same; we have teachers, coaches, learning support, counselors, medical teams, site staff, administration teams, receptionists and so much more. It’s the creation of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts – a synergy.

Our very own ‘Team JAS’ has an undeniably strong culture of community, care, and support. I’ve witnessed first-hand the wonderful relationships that have been built on trust and respect amongst staff, students, and parents. These relationships are genuine. They allow us to really get to know our students and, importantly, it gives them the belief that they too can get better.

We celebrated 45 years of ‘Team JAS’ yesterday and whilst we can look back with pride on what has been achieved over this time, we now look forward. As a school, just like ‘Team GB’, we want to be the best we can be, we want our students to be even better, and we want to take pride in being great people. We invest in great learning to achieve great things today, this week, this term and we are firmly committed to being better than we were yesterday, last month, and last year.

To be the best we can be, we simply need to do what we believe in. It’s not just one thing. It’s not just learning and teaching. It’s not just assessment and curriculum. It’s not just care, wellbeing, technology, personalisation, relationships - it’s all of these. Look at our vision, our mission, our values. If we believe in integrity, in being kind, in being resilient and having a growth mindset, in celebrating and supporting inclusivity; then we will achieve excellence. We believe in these. The time we have spent together this week is simply the start of a great term and a great year and I, for one, cannot wait!

Week in Review

Science

Year 12 Chemistry A Level

Before 1982, the US penny was made of pure copper. Due to the high cost of copper, the government changed the composition of the penny to copper-coated zinc in 1982. In the first lesson of Chemistry, the Year 12 students had to chemically determine the percent composition of copper in a post-1982 penny. They then determined the cost saving to the US government by converting to the copper-coated zinc penny.

Music

A huge welcome back to all pupils from Jebel Ali Music.

If you are wanting to start the new term receiving music lessons, please head to

https://sites.google.com/jebelalischool.org/musiclessons

and sign up. If you were already receiving lessons last year, please also sign up using this years form so that your tutors know that you want to continue.

Jebel Ali Music are always looking for participants in our two whole school ensembles, J-Band and JAS Singers. J-Band rehearsals are on a Wednesday Lunchtime and JAS Singers on a Tuesday Lunchtime. Make sure you sign up for these using SOCS.

Finally, a big welcome to our Year 10 students who opted to study music at GCSE. This week, the students learnt about different Clefs and used their knowledge to participate in a spot of nate naming. (PIC)

Business and Economics

Introductory lesson for Year 10 Business students. The students had five seconds to identify each of the 100 business logos! The level of competition to identify the most logos was high!

Year 13 spent time working during their summer holidays to complete presentations covering International Trade, Inflation and Exchange rates to share with their peers this week.

Year 7CTH Art

The new Sixth Form Art Studio

A Level Photography

Welcome to the A Level Photography students

Spanish

Year 11 Spanish

Mrs Sims and her Year 11 Spanish GCSE class played a game of ‘Si o no’ (Yes or no) as part of their starter activity this week to revise key question words, adjectives and nouns linked to their current module of work ‘Ciudades’. The students took it in turns to guess what was written on their post-it note by only asking questions that their peers could answer ‘si o no’ to. Lara and Simon were our winners. Alex also stole the show by completing our very first ‘Daily 5 review’ where he was able to translate with ease and no support five questions from the start of the week. A fantastic start to Year 11 Spanish.

Drama

Secondary Production ‘23

We are very excited to announce our auditions for our Secondary Production will commence NEXT WEEK!

Auditions are open to Year 7 - Year 13. Please sign up to an audition slot on the Production Board (outside music). Audition materials can be found on Google Classroom (aztar5o - students only). If you would like to be a part of the production Crew or Band please specify this on the form.

Living in the Online World

Dear Parents,

The online world is posing an ever-increasing risk to children, and it is important that schools, parents work together to take an active role in teaching children about online dangers. Learning how to act safely when using the internet is an incredibly important part of safeguarding our children.

We are therefore delighted to announce that Jebel Ali School have shown our commitment to protecting our pupils online by working with National Online Safety- providing resources for all parents.

The resources include Parents & Carers courses (presented by Myleene Klass), online video resources and weekly guides covering a huge range of topics, including:

Online Relationships
Fake Profiles & Social Bots
Online Bullying
Online Grooming
Child Sexual Exploitation
Sexual Harassment & Violence
Sexting
Live Streaming
Online Identity
Screen Addiction
Online Challenges
Overspending
Social Media Platforms

Online Gambling
Radicalisation, Terrorism & Extremism
Age Inappropriate Content
Copyright & Ownership
Hacking
Fake News
Online Fraud
Online Reputation
Personal Data
Pornography
Targeted Adverts & Pop-Ups
The Dark Web
Games & Trends

To create your account, please follow https://nationalonlinesafety.com/enrol/jebel-ali-school-1 and complete your details. When you’re set up, you’ll be able to set ‘Parent/Carer’ as your user type.

You can access National Online Safety online via any device- including via our brand-new smartphone app. To download the app, please go to:

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/national-online-safety/id1530342372

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.nationaleducationgroup.nos

Alternatively, search for ‘National Online Safety’ in the App Store/Google Play Store.

Answers to frequently asked questions and customer service can be accessed at https://helpdesk.thenationalcollege.co.uk/helpcentre .

Kind Regards,

Jebel Ali School

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 about each opportunity will follow.

Ski Trip

KS3 SKI TRIP - Amazing opportunity!! A handful of Secondary Ski Trip places have come available! If you are interested in attending the KS3 Ski Trip to Passo Tonale, Italy please email secpa@jebelalischool.org as soon as possible. The trip is scheduled for 4th-11th February 2023. All trip details linked here.

Many thanks, Nahla Osman

PTA News

Helpful Hints

Preparing for the new school year

‘Summer days drifting away’ Sunday 28 August 2022, in the words of the legendary John Travolta and the late Olivia Newton-John, students, parents and teachers alike will have been pondering about their summer and asking vital questions such as:

Where has the summer gone?

Have we prepared enough?

Have we labelled the uniform?

Is our classroom ready?

Do we have our timetable?

Have we made the correct option choices?

Is my child ready for this next chapter in their education journey?

I myself going back to when I was at school loved a new school year, I loved going to WHSmith (Stationary store in the UK) where I would spend hours pondering which colour pencil case I wanted, what design I wanted on my different subject folders, and don’t get me started on what pens I wanted! However now as a teacher and a mum I look to the new school year as a new challenge, not only what am I going to do professionally in my career but also how am I going to help and prepare not only my son but also my students for the exciting challenges of the new academic year to ensure they achieve the ‘excellence’ that they deserve.

This short article will give some hints and tips to what students can do to help them prepare for the new academic year with the help and support of not only their teachers but also their families.

Prepare mentally

Review what you learned last year. You don’t have to study for long hours. This can be as simple as reviewing the subjects that you studied and skimming summaries of the books that you read last year. A quick refresher will get your mind ready for studying and make the first weeks back easier as you can see them as a continuation of progress that you have made.

Reread your notes. Your exercise book/Google classroom work will remind you of the material you covered previously, as well as your initial reactions to the material. Do not worry if you don’t fully understand all of the concepts that you review: reexamining and rediscovering specific ideas is a natural part of the learning process.

Set specific goals. If you want to achieve academic excellence, you can develop a study routine with time dedicated to each class If there is a specific subject that you want to excel in, ask your teacher for any additional resources or books that would help you. If you want to focus on making friends, explore the extensive range of ECAs and trips we offer at JAS.

Pick a study space. A good study space will mean different things for different people, and it can change from year to year.Pick a study space that is conducive to your goals.

Acknowledge your typical distractions. If you can, eliminate distractions in your work space or during set times of homework or revision. If you find it hard to ignore a television, find a suitable study space with no televisions in sight. If noise distracts you, look for a desk in a quiet corner of the library or purchase noise-cancelling headphones. Mobile phones and social media, are they more of a hindrance that can impact overall performance?

Establishing a routine

Sleep. To function at your best, you will need to be well rested and alert at the start of the school day. If you have slept late during the summer holidays, you may find it difficult to adjust to the earlier schedule. Since the amount and quality of your sleep impact your academic success,it is important to start this adjustment as soon as you can. Regular sleeping patterns lead to higher quality sleep. Establish a routine of preparation for sleep and a consistent schedule.

Study at set times. If you can, study at regular times. Once a pattern is set, you will find it easier to get started and use your time efficiently. On days that you don’t have homework or tests to prepare for, keep the routine by revisiting material studied that day or reading about a topic that interests you beyond the classroom. Your schedule will likely vary somewhat from day to day, especially if you are involved in ECAS and sports and clubs outside of school. Even if you cannot study on the same day every week, try to develop consistent hours or weekly patterns.

Time your morning preparations. Morning routines are often hurried as you rush to make it out of the house on time. Make sure you know how much time you will need to prepare in the morning and prepare to wake up early enough to do so properly - don’t hit that snooze button! Plan what you will need the night before. If your mornings are hectic or stressful, this will simplify the hurried morning routine and reduce stress.

Here’s to another fantastic year at JAS, if it is your first year with us, your first year at Secondary, the first year of your GCSES/A levels, your last year of your GCSEs/A levels or you’re simply returning to JAS, I wish you the very best of luck and all of the ‘JAS magic’ in the world.

Jen Sims

Assistant Headteacher for Learning & Teaching

Article of Interest

In praise of the late developer: The success of late developers proves that our obsession with early achievement is wrong.

By Ed Smith

A fortnight ago, I fell into conversation with the head teacher of a local school. “You’ve got to create room for late developers,” he said. “The obsession with early attainment doesn’t suit most children.”

We were soon finishing each other’s sentences – talking about long-term confidence rather than short-term hothousing, how children don’t develop in a linear way, and the value of having transferable skills rather than a single focus from a young age.

What a shame, I reflected, that his message doesn’t reach a wider audience. We hear so much about prodigies and precociousness – Serena Williams and her pushy father, Tiger Woods and “tiger mothers” – and so little of the counter-argument: the high achievers who emerge at a slower pace in more balanced circumstances.

Our conversation ended when we both departed to watch England play Scotland in the Six Nations tournament. Only then did I learn that the head teacher’s son Huw Jones was playing in the centre for Scotland. He scored two tries, just as he did last autumn in his home debut against Australia.

Jones’s career is a tacit endorsement of his father’s philosophy. In his penultimate year at school, Huw was still playing mostly in the second XV. Five years on, he is a burgeoning talent on the world stage. The two facts are connected. Jones didn’t just overtake others; he also retained the naturalness that is often lost “in the system”.

As boys, he and his brother made up their own version of rugby practice: could the attacker sidestep and run past the defender without setting foot outside the five-metre line? They were just having fun, uncoached and unsupervised. But their one-on-one game was teaching the most valuable skill in rugby: the ability to beat defenders in confined spaces.

Jones had access to superb opportunities throughout – at home, at Canterbury rugby club and then at Millfield, the independent school in Somerset well known for producing sportsmen. But at Millfield, he was far from being a superstar. He seldom played “A-team” rugby. The message from home: just keep enjoying it and getting better and eventually your time will come.

There was a useful precedent. Matt Perry, who won 36 caps for England between 1997 and 2001, had been a “B-team” player at school. What matters is where you end up, not who leads the race at the age of 16. Jones also developed transferable skills by continuing to play other sports. “Don’t specialise too early,” was the mantra of Richard Ellison, the former England cricketer who taught at Millfield for many years.

When Jones was 18 and finally blossoming in the school’s first XV, rugby agents started to take an interest, promising to place him in the “academy” of a professional team. “But I’d seen so many kids take that route and seen how bored they got,” his father, Bill, reflects. So Bill advised his son to go abroad, to gain experience of new cultures and to keep playing rugby for fun instead of getting on the tracksuited professional treadmill.

So Jones took a teaching job in Cape Town, where he played men’s club rugby. Instead of entering the professional system, as one of a bland cohort of similar-aged “prospects”, he served his apprenticeship among players drawn from different backgrounds and ages. Sport was shown to be a matter of friendship and community, not just a career path.

The University of Cape Town spotted and recruited Jones, who helped it win the South African university competition. Only then, in 2014, did British professional rugby teams start to take a serious interest. Jones, however, was enjoying South Africa and stayed put, signing a contract with the Stormers in the Super Rugby tournament – the world’s leading club competition.

So, in the space of 18 months, Jones had gone from being a gap-year Brit with no formal ties to professional rugby to playing against the world’s best players each week. He had arrived on the big stage, following a trajectory that suited him.

The level of competition had escalated rapidly but the tries kept coming. Scotland, by now closely monitoring a player qualified by birth, gave him his spectacular home debut against Australia last autumn – remarkable but not surprising. Finding his feet instantly on each new stage is the pattern of his career.

Those two qualities – first, instinctive try-scoring; second, a lack of vertigo – are connected. Amid all the jargon of professional sport, perhaps the most important qualities – freshness, ingenuity and the gift of surprise – are undervalued. Yet all of these rely on skills honed over many years – honed, but not dulled.

Shoehorning all young players into rigid, quasi-professional systems long before they are ready comes with risks. First, we seldom hear from the child prodigies who faded away (often damaged psychologically). Many players who are pushed too hard miss their natural learning arc; the narrative of their ambition, or the ambition imposed on them by parents, is often out of step with their physical and psychological growth. Second, systems have a habit of overestimating their contribution: they become blind to outsiders.

In a quiet way, Jones is a case study in evolved education and not just sport: a talented performer who was given time and space to find his voice. The more we learn about talent, as David Epstein demonstrated in The Sports Gene, the clearer it becomes that focusing on champion 11-year-olds decreases the odds of producing champion adults. Modern science has reinforced less frantic and neurotic educational values; variety and fun have their virtues.

Over the long term, put your faith not in battery farming but instead, in Bill Jones’s phrase, in “free-range children”.

Reference: https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/sport/2017/03/praise-late-developer

Also worth watching: Wayne Goldsmith: Talent Vs. commitment in young athletes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6m81hkbb5M

Homework Timetables for KS3 and KS4

Now that lessons are back in full flow, homework activities will begin as an opportunity for students to consolidate their learning or to prepare for upcoming classes. Where possible, staff will try to stick to the allocated slots, but this may not always be possible.

Where students are not able to meet a deadline, due to commitments outside of school or for other reasons, it is imperative that they speak to the member of staff in person to try and make alternative arrangements.

Student Focus/Highlight

Hi JAS,

My name is Alex, I am in Year 8. I have been training in Rhythmic Gymnastics since I was 6 years old and currently train 4 hours a day 4 to 5 times a week. This involves stretching for flexibility, using apparatus, ballet and practicing my routines for competitions. Rhythmic Gymnastics is an Olympic sport that includes Gymnastics, Ballet, Dance and Apparatus such as hoop, clubs, ball and ribbon and requires high flexibility, strong hand/eye coordination and a good understanding of music interpretation.

I’ve recently joined a new club, “Talents of Arabia” and have a fantastic new coach who has helped me with 4 new routines which were performed at the recent DU Gym international competition where I achieved the silver medal competing against older girls from strong Russian and UK clubs. I have traveled to Germany, Russia and Uzbekistan to compete in international competitions as well as competing in several international events every year in Dubai. Of course none of this is possible without the support of my family and teachers, and it's highly appreciated as always.

Staff Profile

Sian Davies - Assistant Headteacher Sixth Form and English Literature Teacher

As that rare breed, a Welsh English teacher, Sian is a voracious reader and lover of literature. No stranger to expat life, for the past 27 years she has worked in Qatar, Spain, the UK and Dubai! Sian qualified with a Drama degree from Loughborough University, followed by a stint of travelling Europe and the Americas, learning Spanish and improving her speaking skills before completing her PGCE at Nottingham University.

Sian started her International Teaching career at Doha College and spent an enjoyable 8 years there before returning to Europe with two children. She has worked with and led highly successful English Departments in outstanding schools, developing innovative literature festivals, improving students’ debate and public speaking abilities and researching reading skills. Sian joins us from DESC, where, as a pastoral leader; she developed the house system and, as an ardent advocate of student leadership and growth mindset, initiated and led mentoring and intervention initiatives.

Sian is an avid reader of fiction and non-fiction and studied for her NPQSL through the memorable early Covid years, completing her studies in 2020. She is currently researching and writing her Masters in Education, specialising in inclusion. With a passion for pedagogy, student leadership and holistic education, Sian says of the JAS values:

“The JAS values are all significant to our lives for different reasons and at different times. I'm going to cheat a bit because I can’t choose one which is most significant, so instead I’ll say that excellence is the most important because you can aspire to and work on excellence in your resilience, in your integrity, in your kindness and inclusivity. And, of course, growth mindset helps you attain excellence in all of those areas.”

Sian is very excited to be joining JAS and in continuing James Batten’s excellent work with the Sixth Form. Sian’s intention is to develop the Sixth Form at Jebel Ali School to become an outstanding centre of academic excellence and leadership opportunities for young people; creating an environment where they can explore and develop their skills with confidence and ambition. We are very happy to welcome Sian into the JAS family.

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