17 minute read
HOUSE PAGES
from SHAMAL 2021
by dubaicollege
YAHVI SHAH
MEGAN SIGALOS
A LEVEL ART
NATASHA WHITTALL
A LEVEL ART
RANIA ZIMMERMANN
HOUSE REPORT
Undeterred by lockdowns and social distancing, the House Competition continued to forge ahead this year, and actually broke new ground with the introduction of brand new competitions to make sure everyone, wherever they were, could get involved and support their House.
One of the main reasons for having a house programme is to foster teamwork and encourage students to take on new challenges. With many students working from home this certainly did present a challenge in itself. Nevertheless, solutions were quickly found and students in all year groups have been able to take part in the house competition throughout the year.
Online puzzles, speed-typing activities, fitness and dexterity challenges, mask and computer screen designing are just some of the new events that were held this year. Well established events such as House Music, Public Speaking and General Knowledge quizzes also took place, featuring literally hundreds of students. Overall over 55 separate competitions took place, focusing on the Academic, Creative, Sporting and Teamwork skills.
By mid-June, with just a few competitions left, the overall competition is still very close – with Barbarossa narrowly ahead of Heyerdahl, and Chichester closely behind.
At the end of another extraordinary year, we must again recognise the leadership, planning skills and creativity of our dedicated Heads of House: Ms Dibble (Barbarossa), Mr Ashby (Heyerdahl), Mr Thomas (Chichester) and Mr Jackson (Cousteau).
On their behalf, I would also like to sincerely thank our hard-working House Captains, for all the sterling work that they have devoted to recruiting, inspriing and leading their teams.
Mr Richard Dennis Director of Extra Curricular Activities
HOUSE COUSTEAU
BARBAROSSA
CHICHESTER
HEYERDAHL CAPTAINS
Lorcan Fallon Maya Makhoul Kian Kazranian Lauren Agent
Jafar Jafar Emily Davidson
Mariam Siali Vardsinh Turongpun
DEPUTY CAPTAINS
William Farrow Farasha Alimohamed Zander Visser Aurelien Carretta Madilyn Allen-Paver Chiara Federico
Auxane Faye Shrish Janarthanan Lia Zaman Zeenat Javaid Mark Bezzina Jamie Annand
And finally – well done to the hundreds of students who rose to the challenge and participated whole-heartedly in the House Competition this year!
BARBAROSSA COUSTEAU
CHICHESTER
HEYERDAHL
Barbarossa
BARBAROSSA
The house programme of the 2020-21 academic year has adapted extremely well to the changing conditions of school resulting from the pandemic, offering a wide range of new creative, sportive, and philanthropic activities. Because of this, the Barbarossa community was able to continue its competitive spirit in a COVID-safe manner.
The first term started a little slowly for us, however, we almost instantaneously returned to our previous levels of grit and resilience, earning us plenty of points in House Music, the MFL competition, and other newly designed skill-based challenges including background design, collaborative jigsaw puzzlesolving, and a typing test. What’s also noteworthy was our success with house points: the sheer number of merits we’ve collectively attained has put us far ahead of the other houses in terms of e-praise points. Moreover, the Captains were put to the test in the House Captain Olympics, where we fiercely competed in running, archery, and throwing, which was a wonderful addition to the house programme.
It is without a shadow of a doubt that the three house virtues of constantia, virtute, and dignitas have been fulfilled on numerous occasions this year. Our constantia was executed through our steadfastness in the face of hardship, whether it be the impediments that COVID has brought on our ability to socially interact, or technical difficulties arising from having to use one’s laptop all day. Our dignitas was evident in our commitment to self-achievement through consistently earning house points and winning competitions. Finally, our virtute was expressed by the support we’ve given to each other in the house events.
We would firstly like to thank our dedicated Year Group Leaders, responsible for liaising with their respective years and assembling teams. Your everlasting enthusiasm towards Barbarossa is a huge reason for our collective success in the challenging competitions. We are thoroughly impressed by your reliability and organisation, therefore we strongly believe the future of Barbarossa is in good hands. A massive thanks also go to Mr Dennis as the director of these activities, and of course Ms Dibble as our Head of House, who is emblematic of the Barbarossa house virtues. She continually shows genuine passion for our community and remains heavily involved in the day-to-day running of the programme, always present to provide support and advice.
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to host the ultimate events like Sports Day and the Inter-House Swimming Gala. Nevertheless, in this year of change, the House Captains have observed a community of students and teachers devoted to the programme. We have seen drastic changes in norms and how school life is conducted, yet we have still found a way to incorporate these enjoyable activities into the academic year, and what’s more is that we’ve immensely succeeded in them. Therefore, if anyone ever doubts the Barbarossa House ethos, you can comfortably use this year’s success as a testimony to its vastness.
Thank you all for your participation in the numerous activities. It has been a pleasure serving in the Barbarossa leadership team and taking a step back to observe how much effort goes into the smooth running of the house programme. We wish our House Captain successors the best of luck, and we
strongly hope that our positive attitude and endless accomplishments will continue in the years to come.
The Barbarossa House Captains
What a year it has been! It seems appropriate to finally be able to launch our ‘new look’ to you all. The Barbarossa Phoenix, as voted for by Barbarossa students to reflect our house and its values, has been ably designed and features in our new logo by non-other than Barbarossa teacher Mr Case! We thank him for his work on all the house logos and look forward to seeing them in all their glory next year…
Why a Phoenix though? Well firstly, Barbarossa students time and time again have shown they have a little bit of magic about them; be that rising to the challenge of online house competitions, backwards races, basketball shoot outs or miracle merits in lessons we know a Barbarossa student will always be there for their fellow house members to work a little bit of magic, just
like our Phoenix. Secondly, our house virtues. The Phoenix, a mythical Arabian desert bird, continually shows constantia, virtute and dignitas by sacrificing itself on the altar showing a strong strength of character. Finally, Barbarossa students once again suffered a slow start to the house competitions and things did not look so good, but once this Phoenix catches fire it will rise from the ashes to be bigger and better than ever before! With Barbarossa in the lead after two terms of competitions, things have absolutely picked up, and, are looking rather good again.
My final comment has to go to the amazing House Captain team this year. It has been a delight to work with all of you and to see you come together as a team complimenting each other’s strengths to put forward a united front and lead Barbarossa so admirably.
The House Captains have also brilliantly lead the Year Captains and I extend my thanks to these valuable members of our Barbarossa community as well, it has been a challenging year.
I personally have also enjoyed the new roles of Media representatives and has certainly increased our social media presence in a good way! Thank you all for your creative ideas and commitment; from all of us in Barbarossa we hope you will have a successful Year 13 (academically as well as in House events!).
Let’s keep our phoenix in mind and continue to rise up!
Ms Rebecca Dibble Head of Barbarossa House
Constantia - Virtute - Dignitas
HOUSE PAGES CHICHESTER
Mike Singletary (NFL player and coach)
We continue with our inspirational quotations from Mike Singletary and motivational videos from Ben Lionel Scott as we did last year. However, this year’s quote is not about our combined ethos of teamwork and support but a reflection on our experiences of masks, social distancing, remote learning, teams, X and Y cohorts, and so on…
In a difficult year we are grateful for the opportunities of competition at DC and I am grateful for the support of my house captains, Emily, Jafar, Auxane, Lia and Shrish, who have all been outstanding. They have helped organise a variety of events whilst adopting a blended approach to their commitments and their leadership of the house team. I have been impressed with the way they work together and they have demonstrated that no matter what the pandemic has thrown at us we will adapt and overcome the hurdles ahead.
So much work has gone on behind the scenes with the launch of our new crest which is embedded with the dragon and was designed by Shrish. We held a competition to name the dragon and the name ‘CHICH the dragon’ won. Being Welsh I was delighted with this choice of mythical creature, but hopefully our dragon does not represent the dictionary definition of ‘a monster like a giant reptile… typically fire-breathing and tends to symbolise chaos or evil”. I am led to believe that Chich is a friendly, respectful and committed dragon who represents his team with pride and honour.
Over the year we have also seen the introduction of new house challenges and events and I would like to thank all those who have contributed and been part of the team. Whether we won lost or drew, it was the spirit of taking part and the knowing that you have done your best, not only for you but to help support your friends and your house, that matters most. From basketball and netball to junior quizzes and online challenges it has been a privilege to see the friendship and competitiveness shine through. So in the words of Alun Wyn Jones (British and Irish Lions Captain),
Onwards and upwards! Thank you, Chichester.
Mr Noel Thomas Head of Chichester House
CHICHESTER
competitive we are as a house, but also HOUSE CAPTAINS WRITE UP An incredibly challenging and unique year has flown by for Chichester, bringing many highs and lows for the House. With the massive impact of the pandemic, change was made and Chichester House had to adapt and so, how great our teamwork is. We cheered louder, ran faster, and cycled harder than any other house. And maybe our online puzzle skills were not exactly the best, but we always had fun… and that’s what counts. with great effort and determination, we managed to sail through the turbulent seas of the academic year and during the journey, we learned and grew as a House. Mr Thomas, our Head of House, and our team of house captains, were eager to bring even more motivation and wisdom to Chichester and so we set off playing catch-up from last year’s standings, in pursuit of the long sought out for 1st place. However, although in previous years we have sought to win or to follow our values of participation, determination, positive attitude and having fun, this year we chose to expand our goals and learn and live by our founder/ namesake, Sir Francis Chichester’s famous mantra “If anything terrifies me, I must try to conquer it”. With all this in mind, this academic year, although in many ways terrifying compared to previous years, brought many victories to Chichester in which without a doubt we conquered! From shooting to the Year 7 puzzle competition – we could not have been nearly as successful if it were not for Despite spending this year traversing through unknown territory, the students of Chichester have achieved the outstanding, and there are definitely special recognitions due! Primarily, we would like to congratulate every single one of you. You have all kept your head up high and competed in numerous house events so that, year-round, a true sense of community spirit was felt buzzing through the air. A special well done to those who competed in House Music and our House Shootout; our successes would not have been made possible without your hard work and commitment. Displaying talents from all four of DC’s core pillars - academia, philanthropy, creativity and sport - the Chichester family has excelled over and above all expectations. As house captains, we feel beyond blessed to have worked with such incredible people. Once again, a massive congratulation to everyone for rising to the challenge and representing Chichester house this academic year. every member of the house working hard, conquering challenges and being proud to wear the green top! Unfortunately, this year we did not have the opportunity to compete in our usual busy and bustling Sports Day, which of course Chichester tends to dominate in. Instead, the house captains had the opportunity to compete in a mini sports day with the house captains of the other houses. A series of events taking place over two days quickly became one of our favourite memories from this year. A few notable moments would have to be when Jafar tumbled over Shrish during the tug of war (spoiler alert, we lost) and when Auxane nearly threw a frisbee into the garden of one of the houses next to the field. However, in true Chichester spirit, we look for the positives in everything: we still managed to win the backwards running portion of the competition (arguably the most brutal of all the tasks), and most importantly, we had fun. We hope that we can return to our usual full-school sports days as soon as possible!
We would like to say a massive thank you to all the students who participated in the house program this year; it has been a pleasure to work with all of you. We are very grateful to all the staff that helped organise and make this house program possible, especially Mr Dennis! We would also like to appreciate Mr Thomas and his continual support this year; we really could not have asked for a better head of house! It is disappointing that we were not able to win the trophy this year, but we have no doubt that next year’s captains can take us back to the top. Thank you all and best of luck for next year! The Chichester House Captains
With the gaping hole that the lack of sports day left in our school lives, perhaps the biggest part of this year was the House Weeks. With mandatory mask-wearing and social distancing, we had to get creative! Possibly the most unusual activity of the year, mask decorating proved to be an opportunity for our incredible Chichester artists to showcase their talent – all while being COVID-friendly. We received so many beautiful Chichester dragons (and the occasional Shrek – also beautiful) that it was nearly impossible to pick our favourites. The same can be said for the Teams virtual backgrounds: something we never imagined judging but loved doing, nonetheless. The fitness challenges in the new gym revealed how
Cousteau Cousteau
Coming into this year as House Captains, we had no idea what to expect. It had been a tough year for everyone; Coronavirus restrictions not only meant face masks and social distancing but also missing out on the beloved Sports Day, although the idea of no Inter-House Swim Gala softened
the blow. We knew that our House Captain experience was going to be different than any other before us, but along with the rest of the House we accepted these new changes and began plotting on how we could bring home that glorious 1st place in the House Standings.
Thank Yous and Goodbyes
To start off we would like to thank the entire Cousteau House, from Year 7 to Year 13 for their great display of grit, determination and hard work throughout the House Competitions this year. We may not have excelled in the House Standings but as our mascot Sonic the Hedgehog once said, “An adventure is no fun if it’s too easy.” We would also like to thank Mr Dennis, the other Heads of House and last but not least, our very own Mr Jackson for their tireless work in organising the House competitions for all of us. Unfortunately, Mr Jackson will be leaving DC and will no longer be our Head of House. On behalf of Cousteau, we want to say a massive thank you for the time, effort and passion Mr Jackson has put into making Cousteau what it is over the past few years and to wish him luck in his future endevours. As he once said: “I’m going to love you and leave you,” and sadly that is the case this time. On a happier note, we would love to introduce Miss Quigley as our new Head of House and wish her the best of success in her new role.
The Cousteau House Captains
Surrender ME for the WE
COUSTEAU
After a year to remember for a variety of reasons, not least the COVID-19 pandemic, it is a credit to the DC community, how well it maintained its energy and positivity throughout the year.
Despite the rigorous regulations and obvious limitations, it was fantastic to see so many students participating in such a wide variety of activities during House Weeks and the continually phenomenal music competition. It is always fantastic to see the talents of our students in so many areas come to the fore but also the team unity and collaboration that goes with it. This year once again I have been lucky enough to work alongside some fantastic student leaders, from the male and female heads of year to the brilliant House leadership team of: Maya, Lorcan, Farasha and Will. They have led the house superbly with empathy, organisational skills and passion and have been enormously valuable this year. There is no doubt this will set the bar for those that step up to the plate in the future and I am sure they will be there to support the new crop.
So my final term at DC and as Head of Cousteau has arrived. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to be part of this important aspect of school life. The house system has gone through many changes already in my time here and there are further exciting additions to come. I would like to wish Miss Quigley and Cousteau the best of luck in all that they do in the future and the motto of “#surrendermeforwe” will stand them in good stead.
Mr David Jackson Head of Cousteau House
