The Junction

14 October 2021

A Note From Mr Green

One of the first words we read when looking at Jebel Ali School’s values is that of integrity. It’s not always an easy and simple thing to stick to one’s values and morals when the world around us continually tries to shape and form us in a particular way just so we can ‘fit in’. It can sometimes feel incredibly hard to be true to who we are, but its integrity which thankfully keeps us on track. It is why it’s a core value at Jebel Ali School. It means we are not afraid to show who we are and being honest about everything we stand for. Having integrity also makes us better, always. I believe it’s why we are trusted and respected, not only by our own community, but by so many others here in Dubai, the UAE and the wider world. Everyone, associated with Jebel Ali School are trusted. They are reliable. They have high morals and it reflects so much about who we are.

In recent weeks, I have had the pleasure to speak with parents of Year 6 and Year 11 about how we best support our students in their natural transition into Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 5 respectively. Being a school that nurtures and inspires our students from the age of 3 through to 18 means that they will grow to be truly wonderful young men and women. That won’t simply be because they will have achieved outstanding results, it will be because they have ‘grown’ in a truly special environment, that exudes positivity and trust; that embraces opportunities and achieves aspirations. They thrive in an atmosphere of kindness, resilience and inclusivity. This has been my overwhelming observation these past seven weeks.

We are fortunate that ‘life under COVID-19’ has, albeit slowly, started to relax. As a community we have demonstrated tremendous resilience during almost two years of uncertainty. This can take its toll. However, any ‘stress’ has been alleviated by being there for each other. Care, concern and compassion for everyone in our community means that we will always be able to navigate the difficulties that may lie ahead. Kindness should always be at the heart of this and we all have a moral obligation to keep this in mind. As a father, a teacher and a leader I always remind myself to show my children, and our students, what being kind can look like. As a school, we encourage our students and staff to get involved and support our local community by organising collections or raising much needed funds for those less fortunate or in a more difficult position than ourselves. Today, was a perfect example of this with money being raised for the Al Jalila Foundation and raising awareness of breast cancer. We are at pains to recognise and celebrate kindness when we see it in others. There has been patience, empathy and understanding when students, parents or colleagues appear particularly ‘reactive’; it stems from an understanding that we will all experience the effects of the pandemic differently and we should always be mindful of how we communicate with one another, no matter how frustrated we may be feeling. Lastly, we should be kind to ourselves by not expecting perfection. Being true to our values, having integrity in all that we do and simply doing our best, is inspiration enough.

We are very proud of the high standards we set ourselves at Jebel Ali School and our students rise to those standards. One thing that helps demonstrate how much we belong to JAS is our school uniform. Please refer to the school's Uniform and Dress Code Policy which can be found here to ensure your child is wearing regulation uniform. We will be having a big focus on uniform when we return from the break.

On this final note, I wish you all a safe and relaxing half term break and look forward to welcoming back the students for Camps Week on Sunday 24 October.

Week in Review

Geography

Year 7 Four Figure Grid References and Battleships

Battleships is a strategy type guessing game for two players. The locations of the fleets are concealed from the other player. Players alternate turns calling "shots" at the other player's ships, and the objective of the game is to destroy the opposing player's fleet.

Year 7 have been busily concealing their fleets of cruisers, destroyers and battleship on a grid and then using their knowledge of four figure grid references to locate and eliminate the opposing player’s fleet.

Arabic

The Year 7 students have been learning about their family members and had created wonderful posters about them.

This week, the Year 8 students have been learning about their daily routines and had fun writing comics about it.

The Year 8 students were working in groups using their critical thinking skills to put in order a conversation about daily routine.

The Year 9 students were creating a Healthy Food Pyramid to reflect on what they learnt in the topic: Healthy food diet.

After practicing their dialogues, the Year 8 students acted out their daily routine conversations.

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PE

The Year 10 boys have been alternating between swimming and handball and this week have been playing full court handball matches with a focus on their shooting. What a great video of Simon demonstrating an incredible jump shot!

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This week, the girls have been competing in a house netball tournament to end the half term. Teams were in charge of scoring, umpiring and leading structured warm-ups to help the tournament run smoothly. Team 'Fire' won every group game and were favourites to win going into the final. Team 'Air' put up a good fight in the final to end the game 2-2. To decide the game we had a shootout with every player getting 1 shot. 'Air' were the eventual winners, winning 3-2!

Year 11

The year 11 core group have continued to improve their skills and game knowledge of tchoukball. They have progressed to playing full court, self officiated matches. In the last lesson, the group were split into smaller groups and were given the task of planning a warm up, and skills drills incorporating the rules of tchoukball to teach the year 11 GCSE PE class on Thursday. The groups spent time planning, and then practising what they had planned. We are looking forward to seeing how they get on at teaching the other class. Maybe we will find some budding, future JAS PE teachers!

Dubai Fitness Challenge

The Dubai 30 x 30 Fitness Challenge is fast approaching and in true JAS style, we will be fully supporting this great event in our own way. Keep a lookout on social media for how you can get involved from 29 October to 27 November 2021. We will be creating a whole school fitness challenge that will last the whole thirty days!

Science

Year 12 Chemistry students performed their first A-Level titration this week. Having prepared their own standard solution in the previous lesson, they used this to work out the unknown concentration of an acid.

9JBR completed their first core practicals in their GCSE Science course. Their first involved separating the solvent from coloured ink in a distillation practical. The second was a chromatography experiment separating the dyes in different pens.

Secondary Production

During a Sunday lunchtime or a Tuesday afternoon, you should by now expect to hear the surrounding corridors of the auditorium filled with the delightful sounds of Bugsy Malone!

This week it’s been all about the Bad Guys. If you have see the show you’ll be familiar with this quirky number…we certainly had a lot of fun with it! A reminder to the cast to keep practicing over the half-term break.

Production tech crew were busy this week arranging the stage and trying to figure out how big our building process will actually be. There was a great sense of teamwork and collaborative working as pupils from all year groups got stuck into the task of planning the staging for the production.

Year 9

This week, Year 9 have been finishing their performance assessments based on major and minor chords. After the assessment, the students were given the opportunity to discover their own choice of song and play the chords to that song on the keyboard. As you can see, some pupils chose some really challenging repertoire!!

Music Mondays

This week, Uzair gave our JAS neighbours a wake up call as he rocked the reception: performing on his electric guitar. The whole crowd were buzzing after the show, and it is great to see some many people turn out for a staple in the weekly calendar. After half term,Music Mondays moves venue to the primary school, so make sure you keep an eye out for our next batch of performers. For those wishing to perform for Music Mondays, watch out for sign up sheets soon.

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Music Lessons at JAS

A reminder that our fabulous peripatetic music tutors are starting next week at school, so if you have not already done so, head to https://sites.google.com/jebelalischool.org/musiclessons to apply for instrumental (including vocal) lessons.

Music ECAs are still open to all who want to join and it would be great to see more faces at rehearsals.

The main whole school music ensemble rehearsals are:

JAS Singers - Monday lunchtime

JAS Strings - Tuesday before school

Jebel Gents - Wednesday lunchtime

J-Band - Thursday lunchtime

Book Review

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

By Ransom Riggs

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children is an incredible novel filled with fantastic writing and magical photos from the past, this mystery and adventure novel stars sixteen-year-old Jacob Portman on a mission to reveal his Grandfather’s secrets from the past because ever since he has passed away, Jacob has set himself on a mission to uncover the truth from his Grandfather's unimaginable stories of his past. When he finds himself and his father traveling to Carinholm, Wales, what Jacob finds is more than what he can believe.

I would recommend this novel for young adults who enjoy adventure and mystery. Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children is part of a 6 book series that contain as much suspense and action as the first.

Reviewed by Klara 10LH

If you are a keen reader and would like to write a review of a novel you have read, please submit an entry of around 150 words, including who you would recommend the novel for, to Mrs Horsham lhorsham@jebelalischool.org and we will feature it in The Junction! Happy reading!

EXPO Snippet

Top Tips on visiting Expo

Many of you may be considering visiting Expo during the half term break and with so much to see and do it is certainly worth a visit. So what should you expect from Expo2020?

Unlike past Expos, and in line with current global issues, the Dubai Expo is not about displaying new inventions and creating more ‘stuff’ but is instead focused on the theme of ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ which highlights the need to cooperate and collaborate and stimulate ideas that will establish what our tomorrow looks like. In many of the pavilions, you, as the visitor, are prompted to think about the part you can play in creating this better world.

In many of the pavilions we have visited, such as the Netherlands, Germany, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Korea and Spain, technology has been used to really enable the visitor to interact with the theme of Expo. Light shows, card readers, touch screens, vertical cinema and thermal imaging are just some of the ways we have seen technology being used.

The Expo site is bigger than the Principality of Monaco and if you are taking small children with little legs or grumpy teenagers, it may be best to plan ahead to avoid being expohausted; on one of our visits we did over 20,000 steps! You can of course just turn up to Expo and wander around as you want, but hopefully these tips will help you navigate your visit if you do decide to go.

Top Tips for visiting Expo2020

Expo tickets can be bought from the Expo Website. All children under the age of 18 go for free but you still need to get a ticket for them from the Expo website.

If you drive, ensure you know which car park you want to park at depending on which sector you want to visit. All car parks are well sign-posted and there are many car park attendants to guide you to your parking spot. Find the picture of the QR code near to where you have parked and take a photo - it tells you where your car is parked and the shuttle bus you need to take to get to and from Expo and the bus stop you need to get on and off at. (We would have been lost without this)!
Shuttle buses are readily available and bus stops are right next to the car parks - it's between a 5 minutes and 15 minutes walk from the car park to the Gates so it is well worth getting on a bus.
You can also valet park or metro in.
Entry can be slow - have your vaccine certificate or 72 hours negative PCR ready, watches and bracelets need to be removed for the bag scanners, and tickets are scanned before entry.
Plan the pavilions you want to see and use the Expo Site Map to locate them before you go. To reduce the amount of walking, you may wish to stay in one sector or do one street of pavilions. Don’t forget that however far you walk away from your gate you need to walk the same distance back to get the shuttle bus or metro back home. Pushchairs or strollers are advisable for toddlers. Some pavilions only allow a certain number of visitors in at one time which may increase the waiting time to enter.
Be sure to visit some of the smaller pavilions; these tend to showcase their crafts, habitats and geography and can be a welcome relief for tired legs! More importantly, these pavilions offer the opportunity to speak to the locals from the country you are visiting who have all been keen to tell us all about their homes. Our favourite smaller ones have been the Maldives, Madagascar and Cuba, where we tried to follow the footsteps to teach us how to Salsa!

You can purchase an Expo Passport for 20dhs from either Amazon.ae or at the Expo shops on site and get a stamp from every pavilion you visit. Don’t forget to ask for the stamp before you leave the pavilion!
There are bikes for hire, tuk tuks, a train and free 8 seater golf carts to get you around although we chose to walk everywhere.
Besides the pavilions there are lots of other things to see and do at Expo. There are parks and stages all over the site, with music and entertainment on regularly in the evenings. You can see traditional musicians playing outside many of the country pavilions and street performances are a regular occurrence; the robots dancing and the walking white tiger are definitely worth a watch. The Water Feature and Al Wasl Dome are unmissable sights to see and although The Garden in the Sky does charge 30dhs per ticket (available at the yellow kiosks nearby), the views of Expo are well worth the price.

The Expo App has a virtual map which is useful. You can also link your tickets on the app and will receive a 100dhs food voucher after your 3rd Expo visit.
We found finding food outlets a bit of a challenge and they range hugely in price. All the larger pavilions have their own cafes or restaurants and every Visitor Centre has a Zoom convenience store. Follow the signs for Expo Eats to find food trucks and outlets such as Dominos pizza and Talabat Delivery.

You are allowed to take your own refillable water bottle into Expo and there are some free water refilling stations around the site; these, however, are not chilled and the water can be quite hot in the afternoon heat. You can buy water all over the Expo site and it does vary in price; the cheapest we have found is in the Zoom Stores at 6dhs a can (yes a can).

I hope these top tips ensure you have an expociting (and not too expohausting) visit to Expo2020!

Fiona Cameron

Primary Deputy Headteacher

Secondary Library

Calling all avid readers and aspiring authors

The library will be open and accessible to students during lunchtime commencing on Sunday 24 October 2021.

I would like to welcome you to visit the library during lunchtime to read, peruse the shelves and perhaps take a book home.

Please see below for details:

Sunday – Year 7

Monday – Year 8

Tuesday – Year 9

Wednesday – Year 10

Thursday – Year 11

Mrs Vicky Free

Secondary Librarian

Pink Day at JAS

Thank you to everyone, staff and students who took part in another fabulous pink day today to raise money for Brest Friends in partnership with the Al Jalila Foundation. Thank you all for your very kind donations, we will let you know how much money we have been able to raise after the half-term break.

Looking Ahead

ECA Update

Please note that due to camps taking place the week commencing Sunday 24 October, the majority of secondary school extracurricular activities will be cancelled for that week.

However, the following school-led ECAs will continue to go ahead:

Sixth Form Update

It was great to see so many parents attend the Sixth Form virtual open evening. We really enjoyed the evening, particularly your questions and your interaction.

If you weren’t able to join us on this occasion or would like to see/hear the evening again, please find a link to the recording of the event: LINK

You might also be interested in reading the following two handbooks which provide information and insight into JAS Sixth Form.

Admissions Process:

Visit our website and complete the relevant application form;
Internal Applicants (Current Year 11 JAS students)
External Applicants (External students)
Our Admissions team and Head of Sixth Form will then be in contact to conduct a Guidance Interview.

Find out how to apply via our website www.jebelalischool.org/sixth-form

School Tours:

If you have any further questions or enquiries, or if you would like to book a Sixth Form tour, please contact us via email; admissions@jebelalischool.org and our team will be happy to assist you.

Upcoming Events:

On Tuesday 2 November, Mr Green and Mr Batten will be available throughout our JAS Year 11 Parents Consultation Evening. They are able to offer A-level options advice, guidance on our Sixth Form pathways, or answer any general questions that you may have.

Bayut Your Home Your Choice Awards 2021

Thank you so much to all of our wonderful parents and students who have already voted, shared and reposted our awards nomination. We are overwhelmed with the support from our amazing community!

If you have not already heard, we are delighted to announce that @Jebel Ali School has been shortlisted to be one of five Dubai Schools in the category of Best Primary School in Dubai for the prestigious Bayut - Your Home Your Choice Awards 2021.

We believe this is definitely an award befitting of our amazing school and thank @bayutuae for hosting these awards.

Please help us win by casting your vote on https://events.bayut.com/awards/education and feel free to share far and wide to get as many votes as possible! Voting closes on 23 October, there is still time if you have not already voted.

The Bayut Your Home, Your Choice Awards honours the spirit of the city by awarding the best schools, communities, entertainment, hospitality, retail, dining, and more. These awards are a tribute to the vision of HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, towards making Dubai the happiest city in the world.

Flu Awareness

Seasonal influenza is a highly contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses that circulate in all parts of the world affecting all age groups. It is characterized by a sudden onset of fever, cough (usually dry), headache, muscle and joint pain, sore throat and a runny or blocked nose.

The DHA has provided a Seasonal Influenza: Guide for parents and a Seasonal Influenza Information Brochure which gives an overview of the symptoms and the effects of the influenza vaccine.

Although not a mandatory requirement, we would encourage all students, parents and staff to get the Influenza vaccine in order to protect our community against the seasonal influenza virus infection.

Maths anxiety free webinars and online courses

This week we want to tell you about two free webinars and a free online course relating to maths anxiety created by Rachel Kidson (Maths Author and Educational Psychology Lead at Eedi):

1. Free webinar for parents on helping your Maths-anxious child

Perhaps you have said similar phrases before: "I'm afraid she gets her maths brain from me", "I'm not a maths person", "I'm useless at maths", "What they learn in school is so hard these days"... etc etc. As maths teachers this is heart-breaking, but what you might be really saying is that you are maths-anxious, under-confident and unsure how to help your child with maths.

Using both the latest research and her vast experience in this area, Rachel will give practical advice on ways you can help your child with their maths, whether they are struggling with maths anxiety or stuck on their homework. And you'll learn tips for keeping your own maths anxieties at bay too!

The webinar takes place on Wednesday 3 November at 7:30 pm.

If you are interested, please use the below link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_RaZtoO11RlGk7HzuDRVYMA

2. Free course for Maths-anxious Parents

In addition to the live webinar, Eedi also have a short online course called "Helping with Homework: For Maths-Anxious Parents" that is ready to access now. It guides you through a few of the ways you can help your child without having to know too much about the maths.

3. Free course for Students with Maths anxiety

Eedi's free maths anxiety course for students is available here.

Helpful Hints

Quick Tips for Successful Exam Preparation

As we have now completed a full half term of work, it is likely that you will have some assessments coming up and with Year 11 mock exams also taking place in January, here are my top tips to help with exam success and hopefully reduce stress levels.

Get organised

Start with a study timetable. A revision timetable helps you focus on what needs to be done and when it needs to be done by, which is very useful as exam time approaches. Essentially, it will make you study more efficiently and wisely.

Break topics down into bite-size chunks

Tackling a whole subject or a certain topic you've struggled with can be scary. Break these down into more manageable chunks to make them less overwhelming.

Set manageable goals

Set goals you want to achieve every time you sit down to study (and test yourself on these). Manageable goals will help keep you motivated – so instead of expecting yourself to absorb everything about rivers in half an hour, maybe focus on committing to learning the erosional processes of rivers in that session.

Shrink your notes

Writing down everything you need to remember can really help things stick! Gradually refine pages and pages down to brief notes and acronyms. Try to avoid reading the same set of notes over and over again – you'll probably get bored and will stop taking things in.

Make sure you get adequate sleep

Sleep is important! Exams can be emotionally exhausting. Try to get at least eight hours a night. Good sleep can help you remember things more easily, which is very important when it comes to revising and taking exams.

A good friend doesn't always make a good study buddy

Pick your study buddies carefully! Which ones let you study peacefully or make a positive difference, and which ones just distract you? If you think you'll get more done on your own, do it! Simply put, you have to be a little selfish when it comes to studying and revising. This doesn't mean you can't make any time for your friends or that you need to be alone all the time – but it does mean that you have to prioritise yourself and what kind of study works best for you.

Try to avoid burning out

You can't work non-stop. Take breaks and treat yourself to stay motivated to get the work done, e.g. a sweet treat, an extra episode of your fave show, an afternoon off. Take time out to relax your brain, as otherwise you may find it tricky to concentrate and really absorb things. Go for a walk, watch an episode of a TV show you like, catch up with your friends, or anything else that will help you wind down.

Practise, practise, practise...

Past papers will get you accustomed to the questions you'll face - this way you won't be thrown off by the wording or format. Also, practise picking out the key parts of the question quickly – known as deconstructing the question It's also worth doing some past papers under exam conditions, to give you a better sense of how quickly you need to work through them when the day comes.

Matthew Rice

Head of Humanities

Article of Interest

Get your Language Qualifications at JAS

French and Spanish are taught across Years 7, 8 and 9 with the aim of preparing JAS students for the GCSE qualification which is part of the Year 9 options. Like the other departments in JAS, the Modern Foreign Languages staff and our students have had to adapt to the demands of the Covid school closure, distance learning and the hybrid model and we are still here as enthusiastic as ever as we guide our students to academic success and, arguably more importantly, a respect and appreciation for the importance of languages not only to enhance future career prospects but also in shaping the well rounded and confident members of our school community who will go on to flourish in whatever pathway they choose.

As a British curriculum school we are already ahead of the UK government’s target of 75% of pupils opting for a modern language at GCSE. The advantages of being able to speak another language are many and well known and it is undeniable that one’s employment prospects are enhanced by foreign language skills. Many of us relied on TV and films during lockdown for entertainment and the shows and films that we watch these days are from all four corners of the world. 2020 saw us streaming such entertainment into our homes and all made possible by an army of translators who make this material accessible to audiences across the world. Dublin City University’s School of Computing have referred to the essential role of languages in the tech field where data produced by human translators becomes available for engineers to use in their work to develop better technology for our ever changing world.

We offer both French and Spanish GCSEs and the course content is arranged around five key themes which are relevant to all our learners. These themes are:

Identity and Culture
Local area, holiday and travel
School
Future Aspirations, Study and Work
International and Global Dimension

Within each theme there are subtopics such as tourism and industry, everyday life, traditions and communities, power of the media and environmental issues.

Our students devote equal amounts of time to Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing skills in order to become well rounded linguists.

Ultimately, our students will need to identify their preferred academic pathway and will pursue only three or four subjects at ‘A’ level. If they are not able to pursue a language at ‘A’ level because other subjects are their priority they will always have their GCSE language skills upon which to build on wherever life leads them.

Staff Profile

Emma Collery- Teacher of Science

Emma comes from the north-west coast of Ireland and knew from an early age that she would be involved in education. Science has always been her passion so this has steered her towards her current path. After finishing her Educational Science degree at the University of Limerick, she taught in London for a number of years before moving to Dubai nearly six years ago. Emma has taught across many curriculum including IB and A-levels and she is currently completing a master’s degree in Education.

In her spare time, Emma plays Gaelic football and camogie with Dubai Celts. She is looking forward to travelling again and is grateful for the travel opportunities she has had during her time in Dubai, some of her favourite experiences include trekking to Everest Base Camp and Trolltunga in Norway.

Emma started teaching at JAS in September of this year. She feels privileged and excited to join the wonderful JAS science team and is looking forward getting to know the wider JAS community.

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