The Junction

16 September 2021

A Note From Mr Green

It’s been another inspirational week at Jebel Ali School.

The re-introduction of our extra-curricular programme has brought a tremendous amount of energy and excitement in the mornings, during the day and after school. Getting involved, in any of the numerous activities, provides an array of benefits to our students. From strengthening the mind, body and soul to promoting better communication skills: extracurricular activities can help our students succeed in much more than just their academic endeavours.

These activities can also work to build professional skills that a classroom alone cannot always foster. A leadership-oriented club, for example, will help students to learn essential skills in management and delegation, while involvement in World Scholars or Model United Nations will provide additional public speaking practise for students. Sports most often have the effect of fostering strong team-building skills and training students in holding long-term goals. In short, extracurricular activities can arm students with many of the skills future employers will be looking for.

When I was young, TLC was a phrase was used to suggest ´tender loving care´ - something we all need when we´re feeling a little under the weather with coughs and colds. However, today, in education, we use this to encompass three key skills that students will need to demonstrate if they are to continue to be successful in their lives after school. TLC in this context stands for Teamwork, Leadership and Communication. The ECA programme is packed with opportunities for such skills to be both developed and enhanced.

Extra-curricular activities are not solely about imparting stronger professional skills and supplementing education. The overwhelming sense of happiness has been palpable this week and being involved in so many different activities with others of similar interests has allowed for this to shine through. I’ll even be donning my PE kit next week and joining in with the fun.

Moving forward, we will always look for more opportunities to develop and enhance our ECA provision as we will with all aspects of school. Please look out for an email that will be sent individually to you on Sunday 19 September inviting you to complete the ‘JAS Parent Questionnaire for 2021’ that will help inform our school's future outcomes.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

A few reminders

With the introduction of new government guidelines, more activities and opportunities, like those above, are now permissible. However, within all of these guides and protocols, there remains a concurrent theme for vigilance and caution during what remains an uncertain time. These relaxations in restrictions are a privilege for us all but whilst it might look and feel as if society is approaching normality, it is not, and we must be mindful to adhere to the rules that remain very much in place. May I once again take the opportunity to remind parents of our School Infection Control Policy which we ask you to follow for the benefit of our school community in reducing the spread of illnesses:

Please DO NOT send your child to school if they have the following symptoms:

· congestion / runny nose,

· sore throat,

· cough,

· headache,

· fever / chills,

· new loss of taste / smell,

· shortness of breath,

· difficulty breathing,

· muscle or body aches,

· fatigue,

· nausea/vomiting.

Children should not return to school until they are 24 hours symptom-free.

FOR

● Vomiting

● Diarrhoea

Children should not return to school until they are 48 hours symptom-free

Sand Car Park

It has been brought to our attention that some parents are allowing their children to get out of the vehicle in queuing traffic in the sand car park when being dropped off for school. This is extremely dangerous and a health and safety concern for our students. Please park in a suitable zone before allowing your child to leave the vehicle at any time. Be aware of vehicle movement in the area and we ask you to act responsibly and with caution at all times.

Week in Review

Science

Year 12 A-Level Chemistry students have been studying emission spectra of elements. They used a spectroscope to observe the light emitted from various metal salts during flame tests.

Arabic

Year 9 students were doing an active reflection as part of their learning process.

Business A Level

The new Year 12 Business students spent a lesson judging the Year 11 students' projects to launch a new food box in Dubai. They evaluated each project and selected a winning team, well done to Luke, Yanis and Kyan for their winning project ‘Fitness Falafel’ - an Arabic healthy eating box.

Economics

The Year 10 Economics students have been studying scarcity, choices and opportunity cost. This week they have studied how these concepts affect producers by looking at the Production Possibility Curve with the help of Monsters Inc! The students looked at the production possibilities of producing scream energy and sushi using different combinations of producing the two goods using all of the available resources.

Spanish

Year 8 have begun studying the preterite tense - past tense in particular with the topic of holidays. To retrieve what they had learnt so far, 8ES and 8ST played a game of sentence stealers with their partner where they had to correctly guess their partners' answers (modern day battleships). This was a great way to listen to their pronunciation and practise translation skills too.

Year 11 have been looking at the pros and cons of living in Dubai and have been using a range of different tenses, in particular the conditional tense to describe what they would improve if they were in charge. This task involved the students working together on a ‘Bad Translation’ where they had to work together as a group to see where the mistakes had been made in Spanish translation - perfect translation skills practice!

History

Year 7LM have been doing some investigative work on The Tollund Man in history. They collated questions and ideas to work out when and how he died.

Psychology

The Year 10 Psychology students learned about the difference between qualitative and quantitative data in psychological research this week. In order to demonstrate this difference in a concrete and memorable way, they were split into teams. Team A was given concepts such as 2 apples, 3 degrees, 100 years to draw and then Team B had to guess what was drawn in the style of Pictionary. Team B was given more abstract concepts such as confusion, reality and justice to draw. They found that it was much more difficult to draw and guess these abstract concepts. This was then linked to quantitative and qualitative data and the differences between them in terms of subjectivity, interpretation, consistency etc. This should hopefully stick with them as a tangible way of remembering the difference.

International Award

JAS is pleased to be offering the Duke of Edinburgh International Award at three levels for the first time this year: Bronze, Silver and Gold. While we could not complete the expedition sections last year, we are hoping all of the participants can venture out on their treks and camps in October and February. Training is taking place at lunchtimes and afterschool so that the students are all ready to start their adventures. Year 10 have been busy coming up with ideas for their Physical Recreation, Skills and Voluntary Service sections at the first training sessions this week.

Our Year 10 students have been tackling chords and inversions this week and looked at practical ways you can represent the rearranging of notes in a chord. They finally settled on using coloured trays to help visualise the process.

Year 8 students are starting a theme and variation composition using the online tool Flat.io. This online software helps students get to grips with composing using notation software and allows students to immediately hear what they have created, allowing for a better understanding of key musical ideas.

Music Lessons at JAS

We are pleased to announce that our peripatetic music provision is once again up and running and accepting applications. There is a wide variety of instruments to choose from and some amazing new tutors who have joined the JAS family.

If you are interested in receiving music lessons during the school day, please head to https://sites.google.com/jebelalischool.org/musiclessons where you can find information about pricing, availability and the application process.

Music Mondays

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Isaac Howard 9JS

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ECA Updates

This week we saw the first rehearsals of the many musical ECA’s and Mr Laird was pleased to see such a great turnout!

The week started with the first meeting of the band for the school production, which is significantly larger than the last production band and is made entirely of students. JAS Singers had a fun and lively rehearsal on Monday lunchtime, singing an old Ghanian song “Oleo”. On Tuesday, we had the first meeting of JAS Strings, and next week the group is looking to start their concert repertoire ready for performance. On Wednesday, Jebel Gents choose “Freestyler” by Boomfunk Mcs as a performance piece. We really look forward to sharing this with you. And on Thursday the first-ever J-Band rehearsal took place, encompassing a wide variety of instruments (and sounds!).

There is still time to join these ensembles so please do see Mr Laird if you would like to take part.

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Book Review

Ready Player One

By Ernest Cline

The story of Ready Player One is set in a dystopian 2045, where chrome, neon and glass skyscrapers soar into the heavens towering over glum, gray and miserable dwellings called stacks, literally formed from the stacks of old cars and caravans. Here we find eighteen-year-old Wade Watts (a great name that would be worthy of any Marvel Superhero), who like most of humanity escapes these grim surroundings by spending his waking hours ‘jacked’ into a vast sprawling virtual world called the Oasis. Like millions of others, Wade dreams of discovering a virtual Easter Egg that lies concealed within one of thousands of virtual worlds left by the OASIS's creator, the late James Halliday. The adventure revolves around discovering the clues to the ‘Egg’s’ location which when solved will lead to the prize – the entire estate of Halliday, including management and control of the OASIS itself; a prize worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

As a child of the 1980s, this was a book that immediately took hold and I simply couldn’t put it down. It’s an evocative homage to all things 80s pop culture: the movies, the music and especially the classic arcade and role playing games so beloved of my youth. However, don’t feel that you need to be an 80s geek like me to enjoy this book. Indeed, many students I have recommended this book to have enjoyed the dizzying spectacle it conjures up and it’s easy to see why it was adapted into a highly successful film by Steven Spielberg. But like many ‘book to film’ adaptations, it is not a patch on the book by Ernest Cline which is deliciously addictive, funny and heart-warming. Read it with joyful abandon!

Reviewed by Stephen Green, Secondary Headteacher

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!

Looking Ahead

Cognitive Ability Test (CAT4)

As per KHDA requirements, during the week beginning Sunday 19 September 2021 students in Years 7, 8, 9 & 10 will complete a Cognitive Ability Test (CAT4) in school. The test is a diagnostic assessment that is designed to help us understand how your child learns best and identify academic potential. The test assesses how your child thinks in areas that are known to make a difference to learning. For example, tasks that involve:

thinking about shapes and patterns (Non-verbal Reasoning);
words (Verbal Reasoning);
numbers (Quantitative Reasoning);
shape and space (Spatial Ability).

The test is completed online and marked externally through the CAT4 provider, GL Assessment. The tests measure a student's academic potential, not their current attainment, and can not be revised or prepared for. The assessments are broken into three parts, which will be taken on separate days.

The assessment will be completed in exam conditions and we ask all students to bring a silent reading book in case they should finish early. These sessions will take place during Period 1 Mentor slots, with no further impact to the school day. All students will need a fully charged device and headphones.

Students that are currently Distance Learners will complete the assessments once they have returned to school. If you are intending to continue Distance Learning beyond the 3rd of October, please contact the Exams Officer, Alison McCaffrey, to make alternative arrangements. examsofficer@jebelalischool.org

Further information can be found on this link:

https://www.gl-assessment.co.uk/support/cat4-product-support/cat4-information-for-parents/

Upon completion, students will have a conference with form tutors to discuss any indicative trends that may be present and how they could reflect a preferred learning style. Parents will also receive a summary report that will be uploaded onto the Parent Portal once we have received them from the test provider.

Accelerated Reader

We are pleased to inform you that we are using Accelerated Reader and Star Testing with our year 7, 8 and 9 students this year. Accelerated Reader is an excellent tool for assessing students' reading levels and for promoting independent reading. Over the next fortnight, we will be Star Testing the students in their English lessons to give them their ZPD. Please take a few minutes to have a look through the material about Accelerated Reader and the benefits of using it.

A Parent's Guide to Accelerated Reader

JAS Sixth Form Virtual Open Evening

We are delighted to invite you to our Sixth Form Virtual Open Evening on Wednesday 13 October at 6:00 pm. To express your interest please sign up here and we will share the meeting link with you in due course.

Belong

The Virtual Open Evening will introduce the rich history of JAS and the bright future of our Sixth Form. As we explain our A-level provision and ETHOS programme, you will hear first-hand from our Sixth Form students about their experiences and opportunities.

Believe

Alongside A-level provision, students take part in our Options & Aspirations Programme which supports our students to find weekly work experience, participate in industry workshops, and write successful applications to universities and apprenticeships across the world.

Become

Upon graduation from JAS, students are more than just their grades. Not only do our students benefit from smaller-than-average class sizes, but they can also take advantage of our passionate staff and pastoral support. Our holistic vision and ETHOS programme develop study skills and life skills in our young adults. Encouraging and enhancing responsibility and independence allows students to thrive when at university or in employment.

We hope you can join us on Wednesday 13 October and look forward to welcoming you.

If you have any questions or to enquire about a tour please call +971 4 884 6485, email admissions@jebelalischool.org, or visit www.jebelalischool.org/sixth-form.

Gulf Youth Sport Expo - Junior Athlete Tickets

As you may already be aware there is a Youth Gulf Sport Expo taking place on Friday 17 September 2021. The Expo will be host to a variety of sessions run by experts in the Sport and Physical Education field. We are fortunate enough to have some of our own PE department presenting at this conference and as a result, we have been given the opportunity to invite student-athletes from the JAS community. This is going to be a fantastic event that offers students and sporting professionals from around the Middle East the chance to collaborate and work towards improving sporting provision across the area.

Due to the extremely high demand, there are a limited number of spaces and they are being offered on a first come first serve basis. We would recommend any students looking to pursue sport beyond the recreational level to attend. If you are interested, please see the extract below from Gulf Youth Sport, where you can find more information and links to purchase tickets to the event.

Notes on Junior Athlete Tickets

Admission is free of charge for students. All students (and accompanying adults) must have a ticket to access the event
There are a total of 200 student tickets available. Tickets are allocated on a first come first served basis
Each student can be accompanied by (a maximum of) one parent/supervisor
Parent/supervisor tickets are AED100/- (all over-18s must display proof of vaccination / negative PCR test)
Register here

Opening Times and Event Schedule for Students

The full event schedule can be found here. Please filter the schedule by clicking 'Junior Athletes' on the left-hand side of the screen.

11:30 - 12:00 - Doors open (Browse Exhibition Area)
12:00 - 13:50 - Challenge Zone & Taster Sessions (Sports Hall)
14:00 - 16:00 - Panels & Presentations for Junior Athletes / Practical Workshops for Teachers (students are welcome to participate in these practical workshops)
16:00 - 16:30 - Closing Speeches & Closing Ceremony

Students interested in pursuing the following paths would benefit from attending the Expo:

Professional/elite athlete
Sports Scholarship
Sports-related degree / college course
Sports Coaching / Personal Trainer
PE Teacher
Referee/Official

We look forward to seeing some of you at the Expo on Friday!

PTA News

COVID-19 Useful Addresses and Links

ReportingCovid@JebelAliSchool.org

Use this email address for:

The submission of medical reports and PCR results (if required).

COVID-19Documents@JebelAliSchool.org

Use this email address for:

After traveling, a negative PCR test certificate stating child’s name, class, DoB and arrival date in the UAE.

Distance Learning Intent Form

Use this link if:

You intend for your child to distance learn.
Available only until 3rd October as per KHDA protocols.

Please click this link for the updated procedures when reporting COVID-19 positive or close contact cases.

Helpful Hints

Top Tips for a Successful Year in English

It’s a new school year. You’re older, wiser and – since returning from the summer break – unsurprisingly taller! For most of you, it’s a new English classroom and a new English teacher. For others, the adjustments are only minor. However big or small of a change this year, it’s time to consider the small changes you want to make to be well on your way to becoming an English scholar. But don’t despair, the English department is here to guide you. Just follow our three ‘Top Tips’ and you’ll be certain to achieve success in English.

Top Tip Number 1: Read Regularly

Without sounding like an incessant alarm clock being repeatedly put on snooze, reading must be a part of your daily routine. Regular reading is crucial, and its benefits stretch far beyond improving your literacy skills. From reducing stress and creating better sleeping habits, to improving concentration and brain connectivity in lessons, reading does it all. So:

Make the most of the dedicated reading sessions in school this year to develop a love of reading, to stimulate your mind, to expand your vocabulary and to advance your analytical thinking skills.
Develop a good reading routine. Always carry a reading book with you and block out a time in your day to read, whether that’s before school, at lunch time or in the evening. Find a time that works for you.
Keep track of the authors, series and genres you enjoy and take advice from your English teacher about recommended reads.
Be positive about reading and view it as a basic tool for learning.

“The student who reads is better than the one who doesn’t. The same goes for the employee, doctor or engineer. A society of readers is an advanced society, open-minded to the surrounding world.” Sheikh Mohammed

Top Tip Number 2: Go the Extra Mile

No, we don’t want you to go for a long walk or run a marathon - not literally - but we do want you to make the extra effort and be noticed. Try to:

Be independent through reading and researching around a topic. Whether it’s expanding your knowledge of the Elizabethan era, learning more about real world problems that exist in literature, or reading additional non-fiction to enhance your understanding of different writing styles and formats, it’s certain to benefit your reading and writing skills.
Tackle some of the challenge and extension tasks provided by your English teacher in lessons. These will range from wider reading, critical thinking, an additional writing task, a piece of research or even something of your choosing.
Take a risk! When your teacher offers you a challenge, accept it, tackle it with confidence and persevere with it. If you don’t get there the first time, remember ‘better is always possible,’

“It isn’t the mountains ahead that wear you down. It’s the pebble in your shoe.” Mohammed Ali

Top Tip Number 3: Embrace the D.I.R.T

Now, we’re not suggesting that you should come into school looking like you’ve just competed in the UAE ‘Tough Mudder’, but we do want you to be positive about, and engaged with, your bi-weekly D.I.R.T (Directed Improvement and Reflection Time) lesson in English. You should:

Understand the success criteria for the particular unit of work and engage with it whenever you reflect on your written work.
Reflect on the areas of your work that have been highlighted in pink and feel proud of those achievements.
Know what you CAN do in reading or writing and keep doing it.
Engage with the areas of your work that have been highlighted in green and give yourself specific, helpful advice about how to make improvements.
Put your reading and writing targets into practice whenever you complete a piece of writing.
Above all, use this time to turn your mistakes into positive learning experiences!

‘Instead of letting your hardships and failures discourage or exhaust you, let them inspire you.’ Michelle Obama

Article of Interest

Why is Spanish so important in 2021?

Since graduating from university in 2010 and completing my PGCE in 2011 it has always fascinated me how many people I have come across that have zero to very little knowledge or thirst for learning another language, sadly my husband being one of them. When I started secondary school in 1998 I myself had zero knowledge of any other language than English, yet when I began to learn French and then Spanish (two years later) I realised what I had been missing out on for so many years. Spanish is one of the most spoken languages in the world, with over twenty countries recognising it as their official or national language, meaning it is an extremely important and powerful language to know.

Here are the JAS MFL department's top reasons why learning Spanish is so important in 2021.

The number of speakers

As I have already mentioned in the introduction to this article, there are over 475 million native speakers of Spanish worldwide. Then if you add the number of people who use Spanish as a second language or are in fact studying it, the total number of speakers reaches around 572 million, making Spanish the second most-spoken language in the world after Mandarin Chinese. Imagine learning the second most-spoken language in the world, being able to communicate with people from every continent (yes, Spanish is an official language in at least one country in each populated continent, not just Spain and Europe).

Job prospects

Learning Spanish will add that final touch to your CV that will make you stand out among the rest of the candidates who are applying for that job you so want to get. There are hundreds of different jobs and routes you can take in the future by studying and learning Spanish and here are a few:

Aviation
Translation & interpretation
Teaching
Business
Journalism
Finance
Marketing
Lawyer
Solicitor
Investor

Growth Mindset

With English being the world’s lingua franca (a language that is adopted as a common language between speakers whose native languages are different), there are hundreds of thousands of English native speakers who do not even try learning a second language, as I mentioned in my introduction my husband is one of these. Many believe that they do not need to, because “everybody speaks English.” However, this is just an excuse not to learn. If you decide to start tackling that Spanish grammar and learning that dreaded vocabulary, you will acquire a skill that sets you apart from monolinguals. Learning a second (or third) language will not only make people around you look at you in awe and admiration, but it will also allow you to grow as a person and make you proud of yourself! I wholeheartedly mean that by learning Spanish you will see yourself “growing as a person” as people who study another language acquire some personality traits related to that language and its native speakers.

It will open the door to other languages

If you are a language lover like Mrs Sims and the rest of the MFL department at JAS, you can never have enough and are always looking for the next language to immerse yourself in. If you choose Spanish, the most widely spoken romance language in the world, you will be learning valuable information that can help you study other romance languages like Italian, Portuguese and even French! Romance languages come from Latin and they share a whole lot of characteristics like core vocabulary that is written either identically or very similarly. In addition to this, their grammar are structurally similar and the different tenses and verb moods have a tendency to stay more or less the same across all of them. For example, I remember after learning French for two years and I began to study Spanish, how easy it was to form the near future tense as you use exactly the same verb ‘aller in French or ir in Spanish’ which both mean ‘to go’.

It is a language accessible to all

Over my teaching career, I have heard many students say that tenses and especially, the subjunctive mood in Spanish make it a very difficult language to learn however Spanish doesn’t have to be. To start, Spanish shares thousands of cognates (words that sound and mean the same) with English. Secondly, Spanish grammar is nice and easy, yes Year 11 if you are reading this I mean it! The Spanish language loves grammar rules (just like Mrs Sims) and tends to stick to them. If you learn a grammar topic well then you will be able to apply it right away and it will help you to learn other topics. Yes, there are a lot of tenses and Spanish speakers love using the subjunctive mood every day of their lives, but isn’t a small challenge appealing, aren’t we wanting to push and challenge ourselves to believe that better is always possible? Last, but not least, Spanish when written is spelt exactly as it is pronounced (with the exception of the magical letter h, which has no sound whatsoever). English, for historical reasons, has not changed its spelling too much, Spanish, on the other hand, has evolved not only with its pronunciation but also its spelling. Every letter is pronounced the same way, no matter what the context is. What you see is what you get!

It will improve your English

Learning Spanish will indeed make you better at English, too. As an MFL teacher, I have daily contact with numerous students. Each of them might excel at one thing or have a unique interest/hobby no one has ever heard about but at the end of the day, they all have one thing in common: unless they have studied it or another language, they have no idea how their own language works. This is completely normal. We learn our native language with the trial and error method. For example as babies, if we made a mistake while trying to say something, we got corrected by our parents or teachers and slowly but surely our brains created the whole template in our mind, allowing us to become fluent in our mother tongue. Even as a mother I find myself doing this with my four-year-old son. However, we did not have anyone explaining to us at the age of two why in Spanish the adjective follows the noun, or why English needs the auxiliary “do” in order to make questions in the present tense. We just learnt it, locked it into our brains and repeated the pattern without fully understanding.

Your brain becomes more powerful

The brain is a muscle, and as such, the more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes. Learning a new language involves memorising grammar rules, tenses, vocabulary words, idioms and much much more. If you start learning Spanish and spend around twenty minutes a day practising and studying it, you will be exercising your brain every day! By learning a new language will not only boost your brain: it can also slow down its aging process. There are several studies that demonstrate that learning a new language can delay the appearance of dementia. This is mainly caused by the fact that when you speak more than one language, you need to switch between them, making your brain work harder and thus making it more powerful.

Learning another language opens a world of opportunities that has virtually no end.

Mrs Sims

Head of MFL

Staff Profile

Richard Malpass - Deputy Head of Academics

Mr Malpass joined the JAS team in August 2016, and is one of the founding teachers in the secondary school. He began life at JAS as the Head of English and has since moved into roles as Senior Teacher, Assistant Head, and into his current role as Deputy Head of Academics.

Although he was born in Luton and is a Luton Town FC fan (UP THE HATTERS!), Mr Malpass grew up just outside of Portsmouth on the English South Coast. After completing his teacher training in Bristol in 2003, Mr Malpass has spent the last eighteen years teaching in schools in England, Austria and the United Arab Emirates (with a one year hiatus wedged in the middle when he travelled around Europe, South America and Asia with his wife). He is an education obsessive, and has always been fascinated by the science of learning and what motivates and underpins student and teacher success. He has taught a wide range of subjects including: P.E., English, Literature, Theory of Knowledge, Media Studies, Critical Thinking, Citizenship and Drama.

When Mr Malpass is not busy being a dad to his three and five-year-olds; reading, travelling, long-distance running, music, cinema, Lego Star Wars, stand-up-paddling and photography are his passions. He lists the favourite place he has visited as Socotra (Yemen), his favourite book as The Count of Monte Cristo; his favourite race as The Dubai Creek Half Marathon; his favourite films as The Shawshank Redemption and the original Star Wars trilogy; his favourite bands as The Smiths, Nirvana, Arcade Fire, Radiohead and The Beatles; his favourite place to paddleboard as the mangroves in Umm Al Quwain; and his favourite place he has taken photographs as The Simien Mountains in Ethiopia, The Galapagos Islands or The Salar De Uyuni in Bolivia.

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