The Junction

9 September 2022

A Note From Mr Brown

The dulcet tones of Hugh Grant introduce the lines from the 2003 Richard Curtis film, Love Actually:

"It seems to me that love is everywhere…"

Grant portrays the character of a British Prime Minister describing the scene at Heathrow Airport, as relatives and various other loved ones are reunited at the arrivals terminal, one of the few places where genuine raw emotion is displayed at a personal level.

In stark contrast to this, back in August on A-Level results day, I read the bland, expected headlines on various news outlets.

“A-Level results fall perfectly in the middle between the highs of 2021 and last exam series of 2019.”

How grey, how clinical, how impersonal! Students were reduced to numbers, with exam boards congratulating themselves on adjusting grade boundaries, via precise calculations, to arrive at a destination that in reality had been predetermined. I knew that the same was likely to be true the following week for GCSE results, and prepared myself for statements from schools on how the 2022 results would not match the highs of the 2021 teacher-assessed grades, following the pandemic.

Results days have changed dramatically in the last decade. When I began teaching, results day would see a nervous crowd of students descend onto the school during the holidays, to clutch an envelope that would, in many cases, determine the next stage of their academic or career journeys. Much like the airport scene in Love Actually, it was one of those rare occasions where raw human emotion could be seen on a vast scale.

In the old days of GCSE results, nervous parents would wait outside the gates or patiently in cars, trying desperately to read the emotions of their teenage children as they returned from the reception area. Joy, despair, relief and disbelief could all be seen simultaneously over the course of the morning.

In recent years, the online results service has meant that many students obtain their results remotely from various destinations, without the need to physically collect anything from campus. Undoubtedly, an improvement in terms of efficiency and convenience - but a rite of passage that has moved into obscurity.

Fast forward to 2022, and results day arrives. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that several students had requested to come into school to open their results, and of course, I would not miss the opportunity to see this event. It was an incredible experience, and as different as you could imagine from reading headline figures on a website or social media post. One student and his mother embrace and simultaneously burst into tears of joy, leaving no dry eyes in the room as he celebrated 9 grade 9s that he had worked so hard for over the year. Another student and her mother in the same embrace, celebrating the endeavour she had shown and the work she had put in at JAS over the last 13 years. One student trying not to beam as he called his parents to relay the results. It is the stories, not the numbers that make this day so special. This is the place where you can celebrate personal excellence - one person’s Everest is another person’s Pass in GCSE Maths.

The final celebration was sent to us digitally, by the parent of a student who had recorded her opening the results online. This was not just any student, this girl was our top achiever in relation to her target grades. This young lady was on average 3.8 grades above her externally validated targets. The celebrations would not have looked out of place at Wembley, as she was rightly thrilled with her achievements. Afterwards, she sent this message to the school.

“At the beginning of Year 9, I decided to change my attitude towards my learning, I didn't want to settle for the minimum of what I was capable of accomplishing. Since then my hard work never went unnoticed at Jebel Ali School, which motivated me to keep going and is something I think would be hard to find anywhere else.

I've always believed that natural intelligence can only go so far, but anything is attainable with hard work and dedication. I feel my GCSE results support this statement and that better is always possible."

This for me is everything education should be. Personal excellence, resilience and growth-mindedness. So to any of our students reading this, I set you this challenge. When the time comes, join us when the time comes for your results day and, regardless of the outcome, let me have the pleasure of congratulating you that you gave it every single thing you could and left nothing out there.

Postscript

I am reminded of another young person who many years ago dedicated themselves to fulfilling a momentous challenge. On her twenty-first birthday, 21 April 1947, Princess Elizabeth was with her own parents and younger sister on a tour of South Africa. In a speech broadcast on the radio from Cape Town, the Princess dedicated her life to the service of the Commonwealth:

‘I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong’

The passing of Queen Elizabeth II of England after 70 years of unflinching service was announced yesterday. She was a woman of great integrity, kindness and intelligence and the entire community of Jebel Ali School is deeply saddened by a country's loss.

Important Notices

ECA Buses

With the ECA activities starting from Monday, can we please remind parents that it is their responsibility to inform the bus company directly if your child will not be using school transport services in the morning or afternoons.

Week in Review

Our GCSE Photography class spent this week learning about how light affects a photograph. First we explored the mechanics of a camera by building a camera obscura in our lighting studio. We sealed the whole room against light and then poked a hole in the black paper to create a pinhole effect. This was projected onto a backdrop, revealing an image of the JAS sports field upside down.

Next we experimented with light-sensitive cyanotype paper, using objects to mask shapes onto the paper, then rinsing to reveal the silhouettes. This replicates the effect of exposing film inside a camera. Who said all photography is digital these days?!

Business and Economics

The Year 11 GCSE Business students have been busy creating their own food box delivery service. Tasked with designing a food delivery business suitable for the Dubai market they researched and created a concept. The Year 13 A Level Business students then spent a lesson critically evaluating each concept and giving written feedback on the strengths and areas for development. A useful project for all students involved - the quality of work was superb and the overall winners will receive their prizes this week!

Computer Science

Computer Science is the study of computers and computational systems. Unlike electrical and computer engineers, computer scientists deal mostly with software and software systems; this includes their theory, design, development, and application.

In Computer Science this week, our new and enthusiastic GCSE Year 10 students have been thinking about what Computer Science actually means to them. They have produced some creative presentations and videos and they are all very excited to start learning more about the subject.

Library

The Year 7 completing the scavenger hunt and picking a reading book in their first library lesson.

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 about each opportunity will follow.

Ski Trip & PTA

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

Helpful Hints

Effective communication with your pre-teenagers, teenagers and young adults

Communication with our children, as they get older, can sometimes feel like a fruitless battle, or the proverbial “getting blood out of a stone”. In the early years, it seems that our children have a huge curiosity about the world, with endless questions (which are sometimes tricky for us to answer) such as: “Where does the tooth fairy live?”, “Why is the sky blue?” and “How do you do fractions?” We are our younger children’s adult heroes, with answers to (almost) everything and communication is frequent, open and sometimes exhausting…

As our children gain maturity and self awareness and are influenced more by their peers, they develop a desire for more privacy in their lives and, sometimes, a disdain for all things representing adulthood, authority and wisdom. It can become more challenging to keep lines of effective communication open. Maintaining an open, honest and supportive dialogue with our children is essential for healthy relationships. Therefore, to support you with your journey to opening up communication, here are some helpful hints:

The Car Conversation

Sometimes young people can feel threatened by a face to face conversation, they may feel embarrassed or ashamed about the topic or their own feelings of anger and guilt. The side by side dialogue opportunities opened up by car journeys are opportunities for you to try and engage with our children in a non combative way.

The Persuasive Conversation

Be aware of the ways in which you frame your statements or questions. There’s a difference between “Please use your knife and fork while eating” and “Stop using your fingers to eat your food.” We need to give our children clear direction as to what we want them to do, in order that they can achieve the positives, rather than focussing on the negatives. Always affirm the positives and give them praise when you can, especially concrete positives such as, “Thank you for emptying the dishwasher this morning, that was helpful.”

The Open Question

Ask your teenagers open ended but clarifying questions, which are challenging them to think about and express their feelings, such as ““Could you explain what you mean by…”, “Why do you feel you got upset when…”, or “How do you think you would have felt if…” These sorts of questions help build empathy between us.

The Other Side Question

These questions encourage critical thinking. Teenagers' brains are developing, with hormonal changes and aspects of their cognitive development leading to a single minded focus around their own wants, needs and desires. The “Other Side” questions can help them remember that they are important but not solitary in the universe. Questions as simple as; “How do you think your friend feels about missing lunch today.” or even “And what’s the other side of that story?” Can help teenagers to build empathy for others.

The Silly Question

Preteens, teenagers and young adults often think that adults and adulthood are the most boring things in the world. It’s brilliant to shock them out of this by asking them the occasional silly question. Be ready to be surprised by their willingness to answer. Questions could include: “Did anyone pick their nose today at school?” “Did anyone fall asleep in assembly?.” “Do you think your English teacher would wear a purple hat?” “What was the silliest thing you saw in school today?”

Try these questions next time you want to engage with your child & communicate effectively.

Better is always possible…

Ms Sian Davies

Assistant Headteacher Sixth Form

Article of Interest

Helping your Child with Homework:

5 Tips for Maths-Anxious Parents

Tired of dealing with homework tantrums alone? Rachel Kidson is a maths author and former maths teacher from Eedi – an online maths platform for kids to help them build confidence in maths. Today she shares some expert tips to help single parents push through those maths homework blues.

Helping with homework can be difficult at the best of times, but if you have struggled with maths in the past then you may feel apprehensive about helping your child.

It is important to remember that you can support them in so many ways without actually needing to know a thing about what they are doing!

Let’s look at 5 tips that will help make maths homework a positive experience (and less stressful!) for you and your child:

Manipulatives

Sound obvious? Using objects from around the house, also known as manipulatives, can help create a real in-depth understanding, instead of just learning a procedure.

Manipulatives are small physical items that can be used to represent a maths problem. For instance if you are trying to solve 14 – ? = 9 you could have 14 pennies and work out how many you need to take away to be left with 9. It might sound simple, but it really can help.

When children (and adults!) are feeling anxious about maths they cannot hold numbers in their head in the same way as normal – panic sets in, and you just mind-blank – so having something concrete to move around can really make a huge difference.

Ideas for manipulatives you can find around the home are coins, dried pasta, sweets, rice, torn-up paper, counters and game pieces. Manipulatives can be used for much more complicated areas of maths too such as negative numbers, fractions and even algebra!

Self-distancing

This technique is really helpful for children who clam-up and become nervous when asked to talk about their reasoning.

Take a small doll / character and have them “do the maths”. Why? It takes the pressure off of the child as they are not being directly asked what they would do so there is less accountability if they make a mistake.

You can use prompts such as:

“Let’s get [character] to help us with this maths problem”

“Which numbers would [character] divide first?”

“Would [character] add a zero?”

“What would [character] do next?”

Try it.

Use ‘Question Prompts’

Is your child struggling with their homework, but you just can’t work out how to help them? Maybe they’re using a method that’s unfamiliar to you or you cannot work out what is being asked of them?

In these instances try using these question prompts instead. Question prompts allow you to support your child without having to know anything about what they are learning. The idea is to help your child see the question from a different perspective and this can be enough for it to magically click!

Here are some ideas:

How did your teacher go about solving these problems?
Can you explain to me what the question is asking?
Can we draw the problem in a different way?
Can we use these counters to represent the problem?
Can we just work out one part of the problem first?
What can you work out?

You don’t have to know the answer

It is OKAY not to know the answer to everything! This just shows our children that we are human and can be really empowering for them. The important thing to remember is to try to keep negative language and emotions at bay.

Try framing it in a positive light. Keep it light-humoured. For example “Oh, I have forgotten how to do that as well, shall we learn together?” or “Ooh this looks a bit tricky, shall we look for a hint on the internet?”.

It’s best to avoid comments like “I was never good at maths” or “maths is difficult” or “I hate maths” as these negative associations can easily be passed on to your child now and in the future so they take it with them through the rest of their lives.

Know where to look for support

Finally make sure you have a list of places you trust and can go to for support when you are stuck with a problem at home. Does your child’s school recommend a certain website that has help videos on? Can you find a maths teacher on youtube who explains topics in a way that your child likes?

A product like Eedi Family – the club where kids have fun learning maths – could be just what you’re looking for. Your child will get access to hundreds of unlimited, personalised maths Topic Reviews and Lessons to build maths confidence and ace their schoolwork. Even better? It’s aligned to the national curriculum and there are experienced tutors monitoring every session, so it’s just like real-life one-to-one tuition, at the click of a button.

You can even use the Topic Search function to speak to a tutor who will recommend the perfect lesson to help your child with their homework.

Available online course

In this short course for parents, Rachel Kidson, our Educational Psychology Lead, gives practical advice on ways parents can help their children with their maths, whether they are struggling with maths anxiety or stuck on their homework.

And they'll learn tips for keeping their own maths anxieties at bay too!

Student Focus/Highlight

Over the summer holidays, one of our Year 11 students, Bethany Jones, and her father completed the UK Three Peaks Challenge. This trekking challenge involves climbing the highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales (Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon), one after another – with an aim to complete the challenge within three days. Bethany and her father achieved this feat despite the mental and physical challenges of getting to each hike and climbing each mountain in three consecutive days. Well done Bethany on this amazing achievement!

Staff Profile

Eman Hasan - Director of Arabic

Eman has been teaching in the UAE since 2007, and joined Jebel Ali School in 2016. Eman has over 15 years of experience teaching and has a bachelor degree in Translation.

Prior to joining Jebel Ali School, Eman worked in Raffles World Academy School and Al Kamal School in Sharjah. Eman has two children with us here at the school. She has worked with and led the primary Arabic Departments at Jebel Ali school, developing innovative literature festivals, improving students’ debate and speaking abilities and reading skills.

Eman is a reader of Arabic and forign literature and studied for her NPQSL through the memorable early Covid years, completing her studies in 2020. She is currently researching her Masters in Education.

JAS values:

“The JAS values are all significant to our lives. Values motivate us, give us direction and are essential to our mental health. Values help us create the future we want – because knowing what you want out of life is the first step to getting it. For me, a growth mindset is the most important because you will enjoy learning new things. you will, therefore, accept challenges, persist and be driven to achieve your goals. This can help to be more creative because you are more likely to persistently pursue solutions and work on excellence in your resilience, in your integrity, in your kindness and inclusivity.

Eman is very excited to be the Director of Arabic across primary and secondary. Eman’s intention is to develop the Arabic department at Jebel Ali School, creating an environment where All students are entitled to a high standard of Arabic education and belong to the Arabic speaking community at JAS, all students are motivated and resilient to the Arabic language learners and believe in its value beyond school and All students are confident and proficient Arabic learners and inspire others to become better they believed they could be.

“Integrity, resilience and growth mindedness. For me, being an educator is to insure that every child is provided with an inspirational, challenging, yet supportive learning environment where they can drive and achieve in many different levels, developing the confidence to become our future leaders”

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