Secondary - Spring Term Newsletter 22/23

RATED OUTSTANDING BY ADEK AND BRITISH SCHOOLS OVERSEAS NEWSLETTER THE BRITISH SCHOOL AL KHUBAIRAT

britishschool.sch.ae SPRING 2022/2023 RATED OUTSTANDING BY ADEK AND BRITISH SCHOOLS OVERSEAS

SECONDARY

SECONDARY

CONTENTS P03 A Message From The Head Of Secondary, Mr Davis P04 A Message From The Assistant Head, Ms Cooper P06 Year 7 P08 Year 8 P10 Year 9 P12 Year 10 P14 Year 11 P16 A Message From The Assistant Head, Sixth Form, Mr Oakes P17 Sixth Form P21 Term 2 Dates For Your Diary

NEWSLETTER

MR NIGEL DAVIS HEAD

OF SECONDARY

This term has ﬂown by - term two is always the shortest term of the year, and one that is totally ﬁlled with vital activities within class, as well as amazing opportunities outside of class.

It is amazing to see so many of these reﬂected within this Newsletter. I would appeal to all of our parents to follow as many of our social media areas as possibleInstagram, Facebook, Twitter - we try to push out as many stories as possible about the wonderful things happening at BSAK - if you aren’t following, you can’t see it!

So much takes place in term two, and in the classroom it is mostly in preparation of what is coming in term three - Years 11 and 13 (and some Year 12 students) have external exams they are preparing hard for; for these students, the spring break holiday will mark the start of their in depth revision period. For the other students, I hope you take the time to switch off, relax and recharge, ready for a long and challenging term three which culminates in our internal exams.

Of course, as we have said many times, BSAK is about far more than exams. We are a community and act as a family to one another. Nowhere was this more clearly on show than in our International Festival at the end of term. Planned and hosted by our parent group ‘Friends of BSAK’, this was an incredible celebration of diversity and togetherness - and it was so appreciated by our students, teachers and parents. It was the ﬁrst major event like this since we came back from Covid, and I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of the parents and students who took part in the running of one of the stalls.

Finally, I would like to add a thank you and show my appreciation to our Head Boy and Head Girl. Vinuth and Alreem have been incredible ambassadors for all BSAK students this year. They have been your voice, and your link with the senior team.

They are two incredible young people, both destined for great things. They have only a short amount of time left after the Spring Break, so I wanted to get a thank you in early!

Lastly, Ramadan Kareem to all those celebrating the holy month

MS NICHOLA COOPER ASSISTANT HEAD

Within MELS students focus on six core principles that combine content from the ADEK Moral Education Scheme of Work and UK PSHE Resources.

Those six topics include; Relationships, Careers, Mental and Physical Health, Mindfulness, Study Skills and Financial Literacy. These lessons are an opportunity for students to develop life skills and are often discussion based building oracy skills.

As MELS doesn’t follow a prescribed curriculum like academic subjects we have the exciting opportunity to reﬂect and adapt our lessons to best suit our children's needs.

We are also able to bring in aspects of what is going on in the world around them. This year is the ﬁrst full year after nearly 2 years of being taught online. Throughout this year we have noticed that many of our students are ﬁnding it harder to navigate friendships and social interactions and for that reason we have looked to adapt our current Relationships topic by embedding more opportunities to discuss these areas.

On the next page you can ﬁnd a summary of the 2023/24 objectives for the Relationships topic, for each year group. These objectives get covered within a series of lessons and whilst each year discusses bullying and types of discrimination generally the content builds and the speciﬁc focus area changes.

The lessons centre around core values such as empathy and kindness and aims to promote an inclusive environment that celebrates the differences we all have.

Next year all the updated MELs learning objectives will be accessible in the Curriculum Handbooks and in the latter stages of Term 3 (date still to be conﬁrmed) I will be hosting an information session, open to all parents, to come and learn more about our 2023/24 Programme of Study for Years 7-11.

I hope that this will enable us to work in partnership on these important issues.

RELATIONSHIPS

Includes Moral Ed Topics as follows;

● Intercultural Relationships

● Character and morality

● The individual and community

● Resolving Conﬂict (Just War)

● Universal Culture

● Diversity and Inclusion

YEAR 7

Theory:

● LO: To recognise the qualities of a good friend

● LO: To recognise bullying, and its impact, in all its forms

● LO: Develop the skills and strategies to respond to being targeted or witnessing others being bullied. Including school systems for reporting

: The impact of stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination on individuals and Learn about the unacceptability of prejudice-based language and behaviour

YEAR 9

Theory:

Consider how social media can impact self esteem and how to be safe

Understand the need to promote inclusion and challenge discrimination

Create a Top Tips Empathy Poster

Learn about the unacceptability of prejudice-based language and behaviour with a focus on racism, sexism and ageism

● LO: To recognise bullying, and its impact, in all its forms

● LO: Develop the skills and strategies to respond to being targeted or witnessing others being bullied. Including school systems for reporting.

● LO: Learn about the unacceptability of prejudice-based language and behaviour, ofﬂine and online with a speciﬁc focus on ableism

● LO: Strategies for safely challenging stereotyping, prejudice, bullying and discrimination

YEAR 10

Consider how understanding different cultures can help with our relationships

What are the challenges with intercultural communication and how can we

Understand what equality and equity means and why they are important

Understand that some human rights are absolute

Understand that human rights need to be balanced to protect individuals and

YEAR 11

Theory:

LO: to recognise unwanted attention such as harassment whether it is face to face or online. Including ways to respond and how to seek help

LO: What is conﬂict and how can it be resolved?

LO: What are the key concepts of Universal Culture?

LO: What is Just War Theory

STUDENT AUTHOR

MISS EMMA HAND

HEAD OF YEAR 7

What a fantastic term 2 we’ve had in Year 7, with lots of house competitions and sporting opportunities it has been an eventful term.

I’m so proud of how Year 7 have submerged themselves in all of the opportunities available to them, from World Book Day, Sports day, BSAK Bulls to University Challenge.

The atmosphere around school has been buzzing and I’m sure we’ll have an action packed term 3 too.

I wish you all a blessed Ramadan Kareem and a wonderful Spring Term break.

A massive congratulations to Shazia Shaﬁ from Chimera who has recently had her own ﬁction book published

Shazia began working on the book during lockdown and after years of hard work the book has ﬁnally been published. The book is called ‘Reborn’ and you can expect to see it in our school library soon.

YEAR

REP

7

Term 2 has seen a new Year Rep being recruited.

Congratulations

to Jovie Tapper from Grifﬁn who is representing the Year 7 student voice

SPORTING SUCCESS

Term 2 has provided our students with plenty of sporting U13 BSME Champions!

Two Secondary swim gala wins

U13 BSME girls netball runners up U12 Boys rugby plate winners at DESC 10s & ﬁnalists at DC 10s U13 Girls football ADISSA League & Cup winners

After a 3 year hiatus, we were thrilled to see the return of Sports Day this term.

SPORTS DAY WORLD BOOK

It was amazing to see so many students sporting their house colours and competing as one team. Congratulations to this year's winners Pegasus!

DAY

On 2nd March we celebrated World Book Day in school. It was amazing to see so many Year 7s get involved dressing up as characters from their favourite books. Congratulations to Mia Diab, Aya Hassan, Chloe Dauman & Lamar Malak who won the KS3 best dressed group competition with their Alice in Wonderland themed costumes.

Congratulations to Zafar Masud who won the KS3 best dressed individual costume as William Shakespeare.

ADYM COMPETITION

Well Done to Advay, Trishna, Yasmin, Frank, Johnny, Surya and Joe for representing BSAK at the ADYM competition. they were all outstanding in their individual instrument and musical performances.

Congratulations

To Sehansa for making it to the ﬁnals in the intermediate Woodwind category.

MISS LEAH HUNKIN HEAD OF YEAR 8

A Term of Trophies!

From Sports Day at the start of January to World Book Day in March, it’s hard to believe how much we have achieved in in just two months.

Well done to all of Year 8 for a fantastic Term 2!

Your energy and enthusiasm has not gone unnoticed and we look forward to seeing what else you can achieve in Term 3.

MELS AND ASSEMBLIES

In MELS this term, students have focused on broadening their horizons and considered what unique careers they could pursue beyond the

traditional jobs they may all be aware of. This culminated in them creating some entertaining and informative ‘Day in the Life Of…’ videos on different careers which they shared in the penultimate week of term.

YEAR 8

MUSICIANS

This term, our talented musicians competed in both the Young Musicians of the Gulf competition and Abu Dhabi Young Musician. YMOG celebrated some incredibly talented students with a range of skills, from guitarists to cellists to singers to pianists. Well done to Kenodh, Rice, Raphael, Keera, Kathleen, Jiyu and Omar for their participation and particularly to Kenodh who won the "Knight's Bequest award for the most promising student under the age of 15"!

We have also continued to develop student leadership and presentation skills through tutor group assemblies; this term we were privileged to have assemblies from both 8PH who talked about the dangers of spreading rumours, and 8PE who gave us a musical masterpiece on courage and a positive mindset. We look forward to seeing the ﬁnal two tutor groups present in Term 3.

Keera and Kenodh's accolades did not end there and in March they competed in ADYM. Keera was awarded Intermediate Winner in Classical Guitar and Kenodh was winner of the Advanced Abu Dhabi Young Musician 2023. This is an incredible achievement!

SPORTING SUCCESS

It was fantastic to see students outside of the classroom, showing off their sporting skills this January. This is the ﬁrst Sports Day for Year 8 since being in Secondary School and the excitement was tangible. Well done to all students who got involved and particularly to Pegasus who won the day!

Sports Day was just one of the many things to celebrate this term for Year 8 sport. We are also so proud to say that Year 8 boys and girls have brought home many trophies this term, including:

● Year 8 Boys Adissa League and Cup champions

● Year 8 Girls Adissa League and Cup champions

● Year 8 Under 13 BSME Champions

● ADEK Cup Under 13 Plate winners

● U13 BSME Netball 2nd place

WORLD BOOK DAY

On March 2nd, BSAK students from across Primary and Secondary celebrated the joy of reading and dressed up as their favourite book characters.

UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE

From treasure hunts to Drop Everything and Read, it was fantastic to see such a range of Literature being represented across Year 8. Well done to Veronica, 8CH, who was one of this year’s 'Oh DEAR, You've Been Framed!' competition winners, in her The Great Gatsby costume.

Our annual University Challenge competition took place two weeks ago,

leading to a tense head to head ﬁnal on 9th March between Chimera and Pegasus. Well done to Yaqub, 8PH, Ahmed, 8CH, Amelia, 8PE, Zayed, 8PH, Hessa, 8HY, Tomi, 8CE, and Saif, 8GR, who all volunteered to take part.

A particular well done to our winners Pegasus who just pipped the trophy.

MR JULIAN BRAMMER HEAD OF YEAR 9

It is a huge pleasure to put pen to paper for this Year 9 section of the BSAK Newsletter.

I always think that the Spring Term is the toughest in so many ways, we always seem to have to complete the same amount of work but in less time.

The way that the year group been fantastic and my respect for them grows daily.

I know I am talking to the converted, but they really are a cracking year group and I am thoroughly enjoying getting to know them better.

YMOG & ADYM

I love listening to our musicians performing and I am in awe of their talent….. here I will check myself and certainly practise what I talk about in my assemblies……….

Year 9 were very well represented at both YMOG and ADYM

talent can only get you so far; but their level of performance is also down to the shear hard work they put in.

Well done to every one of you who performed but in particular at YMOG I have to mention Murray Wang 9PE, who was part of the BSAK Guitar Duo winning Small Ensemble Award, we also had numerous Year 9 students in the Jazz Band, winning the Large Ensemble Award and also in the Elite Singers who were victorious in the Small Vocal Ensemble Award. We also had further success at ADYM with Murray Wang winning Advanced Piano&AdvancedRunnerUpADYM2023 and Emma Clews, who won the AdvancedBrass Award

BALANCE I talk about balance many times to Year 9 and what I mean is to make sure that each pupil has downtime to go hand in hand with their work. Millie Looker however has taken this to mean she excelsineverything. simply outstanding: Academically she achieved a grade 9 in her IGCSE; coupled with excelling at both YMOG and ADYM and throw into the mixer; she was part of the BSME U15 team.

FantasticMillie,youhaveearnedyourrestoverSpringBreak.

WORLD BOOK DAY

Another huge success was World Book Day, and whilst no prizes were won by Year 9; we certainly entered the spirit of the day.

YEAR 9 OPTIONS

SPORT TERM 2

The Options process has been completed this term, we began with the Straw Poll, Taster Day in Term 1 and the Options Evening and Final choices in Term 2. We have appreciated your support with this process.

A great term for sport with the U15s taking part in both the U19 and U15 competitions and again I was so taken by the tenacity and sportsmanship

Finally I would like to wish every Ramadan Kareem and I hope you have a restful Spring Break

MRS SARAH NORAY HEAD OF YEAR 10

Another jam packed term for our Year 10’s as they get into the swing of the GCSE pathway and the challenges and commitment this brings with it.

I am once again, blown away by the way the year group have stepped up to these challenges. The transition from Year 9 to 10 can be quite overwhelming and students using their independent time effectively is more important than ever.

It is also really important that students balance a really strong work ethic with activities they enjoy and will aid their mental and physical well being. This balance is something we also strive for at school and is evident in the activities the year group have been involved in this term.

STUDENT SUCCESS

So much to report on. we have seen representatives from Year 10 win countless awards!

Francesco Galluzzi secured First place in the Middle East Open & Junior Championship; 100m freestyle event and our U15 girls football team featuring Hana Hegazy, Eva Adams, Laila Zeidan, Mariam Helal, Zain Tashamneh and Erin Gibbons not only came 3rd in the Adissa League Cup but also made the ﬁnal of the ADEK cup at Al Jazira Stadium. I know there is much more success to come! So much talent in this year group, please continue to pass on their brilliant achievements. It is always wonderful to be able to celebrate student success!

Our Elite Singers, featuring Sara Sheikh, Georgina Ramanayake and Zain Tashamneh took home ﬁrst prize in the TheYoungMusicianof theGulfcompetition.

Congratulations to Georgina Ramanayake, Zain Tashamneh, Heidi Cheah and Jiaming Lu for their success in the AbuDhabiYoungMusician recently. A special mention to Cameron Kerr who was awarded the RnPdrumkitaward for the Intermediatecategory and to Sara Sheikh who wontheIntermediatecategoryoverall incredible operatic vocals!!

YEAR 10 WORK EXPERIENCE

A big focus this term has been on finding placements each student feels passionate about for their work experience week straight after Eid. Year 10 have had their first experience of writing CV’s which we hope they will find useful when it comes to revising these for UCAS etc in forthcoming years. Nearly everyone in the Year group has now secured themselves a placement and these range from Medical centres, Sporting academies and even the National Aquarium.

It is an excitingweek for the students to look forward to and will give them a good insight into the world of work and the skills needed in various industries. Our aim is that students will be visited by a member of BSAK staff during the week to see how they are getting on and talk to their supervisors about the positive contributions they have made during the week.

To help prepare students for their placements we were fortunate enough to have Guest speakers Sawsan Hamzeh and Samira Hammadi in school last week to help students think about the etiquette and expectations of their forthcoming employers. It was a really valuableworkshop for students and was great to see them engaging with the material provided.

PRIMARY SPORTS DAY STUDENT LEADERS

Our Year 10 GCSE PE students were given the opportunity to help lead the Primary Sports Days recently and the feedback from staff has been incredible. The students handled the role responsibly and with great care for the younger students, demonstrating themselves to be wonderful role models for the younger students of our school. Well done to all of them!

ONLY AT BSAK

The Duke of Edinburgh Bronze expedition went smoothly albeit a number of blisters! The 50 students who signed up to the were challenged with 10km treks.

World Book Day once again, offered students a break from wearing normal school uniform and celebrate their favourite characters from literature. We saw characters from The Midnight Gang, Crazy, Rich Asians and even an appearance from the BFG!

The House Pictionary and University Challenge competitions brought out our most competitive Year 10’s who battled it out for the title for another year! Lots of much needed fun during a busy academic term.

Lastly, I would like to say Ramadan Kareem to all of you observing the Holy Month. It is one of my favourite times of the year and something as a family, we always look forward to. For me, this is a time to reﬂect, to be thankful for the blessings in our life and a month to spend more quality time with the ones we love. I wish you all a wonderful month Inshallah and I hope to see you all very soon.

TASTER DAY

MR MICHAEL EDGAR HEAD OF YEAR 11

In the past, I have used a sporting analogy with regards to the GCSE exams.

Well, the Cup Final is just around the corner and everyone should be in training to make sure they are in the best shape to participate. This means regular, planned revision.

We have worked on this during MELs lessons over the last 4 weeks so now it is time to put the planning into practice. Whilst it is important to relax and enjoy the holiday, I would hope that some revision sessions may work their way into your plans.

Have a lovely holiday.

On 3 March, Year 11 got to experience a day as a Sixth Former, they attended at least 3 lessons in their preferred subject choices for A Levels. This invaluable opportunity has helped students decide on their future subject choices for Year 12.

YEAR 11 MOCKS & REVISION

I was truly impressed with the maturity and behaviour of the Year 11’s during their MOCK exams in December. There will only be a few weeks till GCSE exams begin when we return to school next term and therefore the focus in MELS lessons has been on revision.

The revision sessions are in full swing this term, Please CLICK HERE to view the revision timetable, all students should be taking advantage of these additional lessons.

STUDENT SUCCESS

Congratulations

Well done to Rashed for winning the 2023 UAE Presidents Cup Golf Tournament for Juniors Rashed will represent the UAE at the GCC Championship in Oct 2023.

Paul has won The Club Men's Championship 2023 in ADCGC in March 23. He is the youngest person to win this title. Congrats Paul.

Adam received a Distinction for his Grade 7 Trinity Rock n Pop Exam with a mark of 100%. Well done Adam.

ADYM SUCCESS

SPORTS DAY

The ADYM ﬁnals took place at New York University Abu Dhabi on 17 March.

Maya and Mia are incredibly talented musicians and reached the ﬁnals in the Advanced (Grade 7+) category in the ADYM competition.

A highlight for all staff and students this term was a return to Sports Day which was held off site at 321 Al Hudiyarat.

MR STEVE OAKES ASSISTANT HEAD

This term has been a fantastic start to 2023. There is so much happening for our students and it’s been wonderful to see so many clubs and societies in full flow. You will have seen in the Headmaster's newsletter that this term has seen a huge number of sports fixtures with our students having huge success. In addition, I’ve been very privileged to watch our brilliant Young Musicians in the Abu Dhabi competition. Our Drama students have also been working hard on their final performance for A Level. I don’t think that I have ever been so scared and inspired at the same time.

The university applications have been incredibly successful. We’ve had a number of offers already made and we expect many more in the next month. As I write this newsletter, I am in the UK visiting some of the best universities including Manchester, UCL, Oxford and Cambridge to try and learn more about how we can support our students further throughout the application process.

This final term is challenging for all Sixth Form students. Year 13 will be working towards their final exams and our Year 12 students will complete their ‘University Grade Prediction Exams’ (UGPE) at the end of May. I cannot stress the significance of the UGPE exams for the future aspirations of our Year 12 students. The results of these assessments are our strongest indicator when awarding UCAS predictions after the summer holidays. It’s important that Year 12 students approach these exams as if they were preparing for external exams. I will discuss these in more detail on our preparation for UCAS/US applications evening on 24 April.

I’ve spent considerable time this term talking with students about ‘balance’. During this ﬁnal term, keeping a balance between academic work and activities that help students to recuperate is vital to maintaining well-being through the exams. Please encourage your son/daughter to keep a healthy balance between the two.

I hope that you have a pleasant Spring break and I look forward to seeing you in term 3.

YEAR 13 MEDICS SUPPORTING ASPIRING MEDICS LOWER DOWN THE SCHOOL

One of the most popular courses for applications this year is medicine and many of our students have received offers or are currently in the midst of the interview process for this highly competitive and demanding course.

Our Year 13 medics have also been working with the Year 11 students aspiring to follow in their footsteps passing on their considerable knowledge about the medical application process.

As usual, the fast pace of our BSAK community has offered many opportunitiesforour6thFormstudents (too many for us to comment on each one) and we are proud to see so many of our students enjoying these activities.

With A Level and University Grade Prediction Exams fast approaching it has been pleasing that so many have settled into an extensive revision routine, and we are seeing many students utilising the silent space of the library. As subject teachers we have seen more and more of our students being proactive with asking questions outside of lessons, something that we actively encourage.

We understand that this period can be overwhelming for some and we want to remind students, (and parents) to talk to us, their tutors, teachers and peers about any concerns they have.

MRS ROUGHLEY HEAD OF YEAR 13

MELS LESSONS

To support our students to prepare for university life we also continue to run MELS lessons to develop their skills for living independently.

The cooking classes have been particularly popular and the students are now well equipped to make a healthy breakfast whilst at university.

UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS

As we approach study leave and the public examinations our year 13 students are in the process of ﬁnalising their university choices. The majority of applications were completed by the end of November and the quality of applications has been outstanding this year. The students have chosen their universities and courses carefully and we are thrilled that so many offers have been ﬂooding in. Most of the students have applied to the UK with some students also choosing to apply to the US, Canada and Europe.

Wishing you all a restful spring break and Ramadan Kareem to those who will be observing.

GOLD DUKE OF EDINBURGH AWARD PRACTICE EXPEDITION

Earlier this term, a number of our Year 12 students embarked on their practice journey for the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award. Having not been able to complete the trek for Bronze or Silver Awards previously it was a tough task to undertake, one where valuable lessons about bag packing and food preparation were learned.

SUPPORTING PRIMARY SCIENCE: HEART DISSECTION

Some of our Year 12 biology students visited the primary school this term to help the Year 6 students with a heart dissection.

Both the Year 12 and Year 6 students thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

YEAR 12 TEAMBUILDING

Our Year 12 students enjoyed some team building activities this term. Students had to work together to manoeuvre a golf ball around a sheet without having it fall through one of the slits, whilst navigating a course. This required a lot of communication (nottomentionpatiencewhenitfellandthey hadtostartalloveragain!). Building cup towers without touching the cups and using only an elastic band and string. In addition to this they were tasked with a 'Shark Tank' activity.

Students had to develop a product, logo, brand name and marketing strategy that will beneﬁt 6th Form students in the future, something to 'plug a gap' that they thought currently exists. Some fantastic ideas were shared with our 'Sharks', Mr Foster and Mr Jones, from sleeping pods to vending machines with toiletries to a 'study buddy' rota