Secondary Newsletter
A look back at what has happened in November 2019
Dear all,
Another packed month of AJAC activity draws to a close and November has seen numerous events taking place in the school at all levels. As always, this Newsletter seeks to share just some of these happenings with you.
As I write, all of our students are preparing for Assessment Week. Parents should be reassured that these are not ‘examinations’ but ongoing ‘assessment checks’ of the work covered in the previous six weeks only. Students working steadily during that period are suitably prepared for the tasks at hand and the fact that there may be 2 or 3 such assessments in the same day is decidedly less demanding than students and parents tend to feel. Moreover, it is essential for us, as a school, to prepare our students for the longer periods of examination time pressure that comes with their IGCSE studies. All concerned should also note that the subsequent end-of-term reports consider these assessments as one element only of the whole term’s progress made by our students.
A notable highlight of November was the news from the Oxford-AQA examination board that Grade 12 student Ramzi Al Sharawi achieved the highest mark for international AS level Physics across the whole of the UAE. This was a truly outstanding achievement by Ramzi and was an affirmation to all connected with AJAC that hard-working and conscientious students can realise their fullest potential here. A special word of congratulations to Miss Sulene who guided Ramzi thought his Physics studies and pushed him on to this elite level of attainment.
Of additional note this month, in the school’s ongoing development as an internationally recognised establishment of global repute, was the visit by the team from the Council of International Schools. While we await still the full report, we are all delighted that the feedback given verbally by the Lead Evaluator recognised the enormous progress made by the school over the past year.
November also saw a week of activities organised by the Arabic Department designed to help us recognise and celebrate the Prophet’s birthday, and Mr Jamal and his Arabic team oversaw two successful trips to the hugely impressive Sharjah book fair. We continue to urge all students to read as often as possible (both in Arabic and English) and seek your support in urging your sons and daughters to put their iPads and other devices to one side in preference to some reading time every day.
Further up the school, we hosted our latest University Fair, which saw representatives of 20+ universities represented locally. Over 200 students (including some from neighbouring schools) were able to benefit from the specialist guidance available. Specific information was provided for Grade 10-11-12 students on higher education courses that might be of interest after leaving school.
For plenty more of an insight into events throughout November, I invite you to enjoy the rest of this Newsletter.
Thank you for your ongoing interest and support in all that we do here at Ajman Academy.
Mr Colin,
Secondary Principal.
A message from our Head of English, Ms. Sophia
The English Department was thrilled to welcome Poetry in Action (PIA) this month all the way from Australia! They are an innovative touring Theatre Company who are dedicated to unlocking the power of words. Their show directly contributed to our curriculum study of Poetry this term in the Middle Years' Programme, Grades 6, 7 & 8. In addition, Year 9, who are required to write one of their two coursework assignments on poetry, benefitted from revising some essential foundation knowledge.
PIA delivered two excellent shows, one to the girls and one to the boys, as per our school’s ethos. All the students presented themselves as excellent ambassadors for Ajman Academy, and our hearty congratulations go out to them.
The students thoroughly enjoyed the show and were engaged and participated throughout. Layal in grade 6 said, “I really liked the time travel scene; it was so silly yet very funny.” Omar, in year 9, commented, “I definitely learnt something but in a fun way.” Whereas, Abdulrahman astounded the actors and audience alike with his knowledgeable explanation of the word ‘cliche.’ Well done to him!
Why not encourage your child to extend their enjoyment and showcase their skills by writing a poem to enter into PIA's Poetry Competition? Students can write about whatever they want, and the poem should be no more than 30 lines long. Poems must be all the students' own work, so do remind them to adhere to the whole school guidance on academic honesty. Any entries should be sent to their English teacher via Showbie or Airdrop.
We eagerly await the students’ poems and wish them the best of luck.
Sophia Amanda Wilson
Head of English
A message from our Head of Maths, Ms. Farah
.Another four weeks of productive and exciting learning of mathematics has passed and now as our units are coming to an end, all learners are actively preparing for the upcoming assessments.
In preparation for assessments, we encourage students to read through these tips thoroughly:
- Get a good night’s sleep and eat healthily. Healthy living habits have a significant effect on your concentration levels in school.
- Make a list of important concepts/ formulae that you may need.
- Rework homework problems. Read through teacher’s feedback carefully and reflect on it.
A variety of revision resources have been shared via Showbie and on the D6. Make sure you go through the revision list and approach your teacher for any questions beforehand. Best of luck.
A message from our Head of Individuals and Societies, Ms Debbie
Term 1 has flown by in the Individuals and Societies Department and as we come to the end of term, we reflect on the progress the students have made.
Behind the scenes, our grade 6 students have settled nicely into the changes they have faced with being in the Secondary School. They are well on their way to being organised with their daily routine and are becoming familiar with the academic requirements expected of them. Their progress in Unit 2 - Mayan Civilizations has developed their critical thinking skills as well as their historical knowledge.
Grade 7 have enjoyed learning about the Renaissance and in particular, the Medici family and their influence on society.
Grade 8 students have enjoyed studying the importance of Cultural Heritage on society and finding out about other cultures around the world as well as their own.
As MYP students complete their end of unit assessments this week, they will be allowed to identify what went well and reflect on where they can improve for the start of term 2.
As we move ever closer to the mock exams for Grades 10, 11 and 12 in Geography, Economics and Business Studies, we encourage the students to spend time setting up a realistic home revision timetable. Their teachers are available to help them with this. All students should remember that it is important to achieve a balance between work and exercise and that healthy eating and getting enough sleep all help towards successful examination results.
Extra lessons are available for all students at lunchtime and after school. End of term assessments are a good indication of any gaps they might have in their understanding. Students should also take the time during the winter break to work through the past paper booklets given to them.
I wish everyone a relaxing and enjoyable winter holiday.
A message from our Head of Science, Ms Remi
Across two days during this month, students from Grade 9, 10 and 11 and their parents were invited to a Revision Workshop. Science teachers led parents and students in a circus of helpful tips and guides to fun and effective revision techniques. We had a great turnout from students and parents, who received a glimpse into how to support their children with revision in not just Science, but any topic.
Additional Science revision resources can be found online on sites such as; GCSE BBC bitesize, Doc Brown or youtube channels such as Cognito or 'free science lessons’ - or better yet - students can now use what they learned at the workshop to create their own!
Would you like to save yourselves some Dirhams?
Capitalise on all the rain and turn it into drinking water for your weekend of camping, but you don’t trust the purity? Well, the Grade 6’s could help you there! They have been exploring effective filtration techniques. They considered the environmental impacts of material they used, the clarity of water they were able to collect, and how the amount of residue affected the speed at which they were able to produce filtrate.
Time is money, after all!
A message from our Head of PE, Mr Willem
The PE department has had a very hectic month along with the EISSA Swim Gala that we hosted this week.
Thank you to Mr Burak, Mr Irakli & Ms Vivian for their hard work coordinating the successful event. It is our pleasure to welcome superb talent from neighbouring schools in Ras Al Khaimah and Sharjah.
PYP:
Our primary school children focused on team games. We worked on different team skills such as communication, teamwork and sportsmanship. We also focused on team sports like football, basketball and introduced netball.
MYP Boys:
Our students in secondary school have been practising throwing, catching and batting skills. We have been focusing on Cricket & Rounders.
MYP Girls:
The girls were swimming in block 2. We taught the girls the health and safety part of swimming as well as improving their swimming.
Fixtures & Results
Our AJAC sports teams took part in EISSA Fixtures in Sharjah. Our boys played fantastically and showed excellent sportsmanship.
Basketball:
U10 – 6th, U12 – 8th, U14 – 7th, U16 – 5th
Netball:
U10 – 4th, U12 – 5th, U14 – 5th
EISSA Swim Gala
On November 24 & 25, Ajman Academy hosted EISSA Girls & Boys Swimming Galas at its premises.
On the first day, AJAC girls team obtained 11 medals, which consist of 7 silver and four bronze.
On the second day, AJAC boys won the Championship Trophy with 36 medals, which consist of 21 gold, seven silver & 8 bronze.
U10 & U16 teams were declared the winner of their respective age categories, and following swimmers broke four championship records.
Andrew Laghoutis: U10 - 50m Freestyle
Muhammed Yaman-Hamza Ismail-Andrew Laghoutis-Saleem Wael: 100m Medley Relay & 100m Freestyle Relay
Emre Bilgutay-Muhammed Fadi-Joshua Pollitt-Thomas Stanbury: 100m Freestyle Relay
AJAC Swim Squad 2019-20
A message from our Moral Education Teacher, Ms. Mabrouka
In moral education, pupils participated actively in interactive online quizzes to explore ethics and relationships between people and how this affects the way they behave. They learnt the difference between equality and inequality and have applied this new knowledge to their community settings. They now understand the fundamental social needs required to achieve a high level of empathy that allows us to understand others and, quite often, compels us to take action to relieve another person's suffering.
Students showed a high sense of social responsibility when they worked collaboratively in groups to look into addressing challenging global issues. They planned their cleaning campaign project to emphasis the fact that it’s everybody’s responsibility to keep the school and surroundings clean and hygienic.
They suggested different ways in which we can take the initiative to achieve a bigger goal to support the community to live in a clean, healthy, happy society.
Upper grades main focus were on having an appreciation of personal tolerance, and an understanding of the causes and issues related to conflicts, globalisation and corruption.
They critically examined the benefits and the challenges of diversity within their community and across the UAE. They also understood how variety might lead to attitudes of intolerance and discrimination and explore how some individuals have fought such opinions.
AJAC students are encouraged to become role models and leaders, who contribute individually to the UAE's long-term health and well-being goals.
A message from our Secondary Art Teacher, Ms. Luzaan
This month in Art, the students were still exploring with their unit of inquiries. Grade 6 students have made their very own fortune-tellers to test their knowledge and understanding of the colour wheel.
They enjoyed testing each other’s knowledge.
Let’s see if you know your colour wheel theory with some of the questions that were on the fortune-tellers:
- What two Primary colours make orange
- What colour does blue and yellow make?
- What are the three Secondary colours?
- Why is it important for an artist to know how to mix colours?
Grade 6 is currently busy learning what Complementary Colours are.
Grade 7 students were making their collages for the 48th UAE National Day. They thought of what they are proud of in their country to inspire them. It was very inspiring to see the lovely collages the students made and how proud they are of their beautiful country.
Grade 8 students are exploring some lovely mark-making techniques on Scratch Art. They enjoy the scratch art, because of the endless possibilities it has. The students are using techniques such as cross-hatching, stippling, scribbling etc. to give a three-dimensional look to their scratch art. Students are also exploring how to work with positive and negative space.
Art quote of the month:
“There’s a reason we don’t see the world in black and white.”
Celerie Kemble
A message from our Head of ICT & Artificial Intelligence, Ms. Asma
AS Level students are working on how to use Audacity program to edit and record digital audio. Students are learning how to use Audacity for post-processing of all types of audio. They are editing podcasts by adding effects such as normalisation, trimming, and fading in and out.
IGCSE students are completing their web site using Adobe Dream weaver 2019. Students learn how to create and design a website of their own; students have come up with a business idea to base their website around. Then they used all of the skills required (HTML and CSS) to have a website that performs well.
Grade 9 students have visited the server rooms and learnt about networks and how to connect them.
MYP (DD) students are working on their projects: how to create short films using 'stop motion' and how to develop and design a game using the Kudo programme.
MYP (A.I) students are working on their projects. Grade 6 is using SAM LAB Kit to design a smart home for people of determination.
Grade 7 students are using the colour sensor to programme their robots to follow black lines. This is a technology that in the future, could be used on self-driven cars!
Grade 8 students are working on Tello Drones to make the drones finish the rescue mission and deliver the medicine to unreachable sick people.
Mrs Asma Sobhi
A message from our Head of Arabic, Mr. Jamal
السادة الأفاضل أولياء الأمور
سلام الله عليكم ورحمته وبركاته …..
إن اللغة العربية مستودع شعوري هائل يحمل خصائص الأمة وتصوراتها وعقيدتها وتاريخها ، ويبقى تعلم اللغات الأخرى حاسة إضافية ضرورية للإنسان المعاصر ، مع الحذر أن تلغي حواسه الأصلية أو تكون بديلا عنها.
ومن هذا المنطلق كان حرصنا على الحفاظ على اللغة العربية تعليمًا وتعلُّمًا ، ومن هذا المبدأ أيضاً تنطلق جهود الأقسام الناطقة باللغة العربية في مسيرتها نحو بناء متعلم دائم يتسلح بشتى أنواع العلوم ولا ينسلخ عن هويته العربية.
لقد كان شهر نوفمبر حافلاً بشتى أنواع الفعاليات والأحداث التي تم تسخيرها واستغلالها تربويًّا بشكل يهدف العملية التعليمية.
فقد تمكن طلاب الصفين الثامن والتاسع -بنين وبنات - من زيارة معرض الشارقة الدولي للكتاب والتعرف على الفعاليات الثقافية بأروقة المعرض ثم التزود ببعض الكتب لقراءتها والتزود بمعارفها.
كما وقد احتفلت المدرسة في هذا الشهر بذكرى ميلاد خير البرية سيدنا محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم حيث قام الطلاب ضمن هذه الفعاليات بتوقيع وثيقة الصلاة على النبي محمد معبرين عن حبهم وانتمائهم له، بذكر صفاته أوصيغة من صيغ الصلاة عليه
واستمراراً لهذه الفعاليات أقامت المدرسة حفلين منفصلين أحدهما بالقسم الثانوي والآخر بالقسم الابتدائي، تخلل الاحتفالين إنشادات ومسابقات دينية وفيديوهات للتعريف بأخلاقياته وربط ذلك بقيم البكالوريا الدولية وعام التسامح.
وتماشياً مع العقلية العالمية والحفاظ على الأخلاق والمثل الإسلامية وقع الطلاب وثيقة (معاً ضد التنمر) وذلك ضمن فعاليات التوعية بالتنمر وأساليب مواجهته.
إن كثرة الفعاليات وتنوعها لم تمنع طلابنا أبداً من الاستعداد لأداء التقييمات الختامية للفصل الدراسي الأول خلال الأسبوع الثالث عشر؛ فها هم يؤدون التقييمات بروح عالية وحب ملحوظ.
ونحن على مشارف استقبال احتفالات دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة بالعيد الوطني ونود تهنئة الجميع قيادةً وشعباً وندعو الجميع من الطلاب وأولياء الأمور إلى المثابرة والاستمرار في العمل المثمر .
تستمر الدراسة خلال الأسبوعين الأخيرين من الفصل الدراسي الأول -الرابع عشر والخامس عشر - دون تغيير، حتى نهاية الفصل الدراسي الأول.
نشكر لأولياء الأمور تواصلهم الدائم وندعوهم لمزيد من التواصل، ونحيي أبناءنا الطلاب على مجهوداتهم ويسرنا تلقي ملاحظاتكم وإسهاماتكم في أي وقت على البريد الالكتروني التالي : j.younis@ajmanacademy.com
والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته
جمال يونس
رئيس الأقسام الناطقة بالعربية
A message from our Design and Technology Teacher, Mr Thomas
Grade 7 Design and Technology - Pencil Holder
Students all over the world have difficulties with organising their desk space. The Design Technology Department has asked the Ajman Academy students to get organised by designing a pencil holder for their fellow students.
Students have been learning about different design movements and designers. They have researched on facemasks and various designs. They are currently working on Prototypes
G7 students demonstrated outstanding skills in pencil holders model making activities.
Grade 9 D&T course work
“Everyday life revolves around the use of time” is the Grade 9 theme.
Students are in the process of designing and producing a clock. The design is based upon a design movement of their own choice.
The process covers the following: context analysis, research and experimenting, generation and development of the idea, making and evaluation of final artefact.