Secondary Newsletter
Giving you a snapshot of our monthly news
Dear parents and AJAC community,
A warm welcome to our February Newsletter.
As Secondary Principal, I value greatly all feedback received from parents. In direct response to comments made over this past month, we will be adopting a revised system of parental communication which informs you of the weekly classroom topics being taught in all subjects and the homework tasks set by each teacher. This will be uploaded onto our D6 Communicator every Sunday, beginning on Sunday 3rd March (week 9).
Grade 8 parents will shortly be receiving information on the important Options Choices that our students make at this stage of their school life. These choices lead on to the International GCSE examinations at the end of Grade 10 and prepare the ground for A level studies in Grades 11 and 12. Confirmation that we believe this to be the best route for our students at this time in response to changes made by the Ministry regarding core expectations of Emirati students graduating from schools. We will provide Grade 8 students and parents with comprehensive advice and guidance at each stage of the options process to ensure that the most appropriate subject choices are made. More information to follow imminently.
Internally, I continue to visit lessons regularly to see your sons and daughters in their learning environment and to feedback to teachers on any areas where they can improve still further the teaching quality taking place daily in school. I remain enormously impressed with the willingness, flexibility and dedication of the staff at AJAC and I am committed to working with them on an ongoing school improvement and development journey over the short, medium and long term.
As part of this development, we have an important visit upcoming by a representative of the International Baccalaureate Organisation as we seek final accreditation for the IB’s Middle Years Programme (MYP). A huge amount of work has been done in school to prepare for this assessment visit, and I am confident that the school will meet its accreditation expectations. This is another important step forward in the development of the school.
We have also continued to sharpen up on the uniform, attendance and lowering the number of early exits of students from the school. Please do all that you can to help us in these areas as we try to embed an ever-greater AJAC pride amongst our students and maximise the learning time that your sons and daughters enjoy every day.
Alongside the weekly diet of timetabled lessons, there have been some fantastic opportunities for our students over this past month. These have included the Middle Eastern Unity Cup international swimming gala (Dubai’s Hamdan Sports Complex); the Model United Nations conference (Sharjah); camping weekends for the International Award of the globally recognized Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme (Ras Al Khaimah); EISSA athletics competitions (Sharjah); and student visits to the Dubai Duty Free international tennis championships (with a certain Roger Federer, amongst others). Complementing these events was our own AJAC Athletics Day which was a superb event in which huge numbers of our students represented their school house and competed with a sporting camaraderie that was a joy to witness.
These are all such opportunities which help to underpin the broader holistic aim of the school, whereby we aim to develop students into more confident, appreciative and fully rounded young people through a breadth of experiences, both curricular and extra-curricular.
My ongoing thanks to you, as parents, for your support and interest in all that we do here at Ajman Academy. Do enjoy the rest of this Newsletter.
Colin Bibby
Secondary School Principal
English - Featured Student's Work
Ibrahim Al Awadi researched an area of Canada that had not yet been developed for tourism: Comorant Lake and began investigating what services and amenities were available to support his dream resort. He soon discovered that this part of Canada is quite remote and would not be a suitable location for a luxury resort.
Not one to be easily dissuaded, Ibrahim spotted an opportunity to provide a unique experience for today’s technology-obsessed generation: Getting Back to Nature.
Individuals & Societies
Grades 6, 7 and 8 MYP students have all started their new Unit of Inquiry this week, under the Global Context: Scientific and Technical Innovation.
Grades 6 - What can we learn from different civilisations?
Grade 7 - How can energy be produced sustainably?
Grade 8 - What are natural hazards and how do societies respond to them?
IGCSE Geography students are currently working on the unit 'Urban Environments'. They have realised the importance of keywords in their understanding and are discovering important connections and similarities between global cities and their own. The unit also involves emerging megacities as well as the problems created by rapid urbanisation in developing and emerging cities.
Grade 10 Business Studies students are currently working on the Marketing Mix project (product, price, place and promotion). This project involves working in pairs to create a report and presentation on a product that they would like like to introduce to the market. The project will involve identifying the appropriate pricing strategies, types of promotion to be used and where and how to place the product.
Grade 11 students who will sit their final Geography and Business Studies examinations in June are attending extra lessons with Ms Debbie and Ms Samina to prepare for these examinations.
Grade 11 Economics students have now studied all four units of the IGCSE syllabus, which include: The Market System; Business Economics; The Government and the Economy and The Global Economy.
All IGCSE students will now begin a structured revision program of study by reviewing the main topics and practising past exam questions. Their focus will be on correctly interpreting command terms, analysing data and source material as well as developing their analytical skills.
The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award
As many of you will have followed on the school’s social media sites, secondary students spent two weekends in February in the Haqeel Valley, Ras Al Khaimah completing the Practice Adventurous Journey section of their Award. The students were self-sufficient for three days, having carried in all their meals, tents, sleeping bags and clothes in heavy, bulging rucksacks. They cooked each evening on Biolite stoves, an eco-friendly heat source in which students burned dry twigs, and slept in tents under the stars. During the day, the students navigated across and around the valley studying how water is used, where it comes from and the effect of rainwater on the environment – and discovered how essential it is to our health and comfort every time they had to top up their drinking water bottles!
All the students from both the girls’ and boys’ groups successfully completed this practice journey (albeit with sore muscles and aching feet) and are now looking forward to completing their final, assessed Adventurous Journey as soon as we have Ministry of Education approval for the dates.
We want to extend our sincere thanks to all the parents who allowed their sons and daughters to participate and who ensured they had the right equipment. Thanks also go to Mr Mark, Ms Lisa, Mr Darren, Ms Liz, Mr Greg, Ms Remi, Ms Mabrouka, Mr Eqbal, Ms Sulene, Mr Johan, and Mr Hayden for all your help and support.
Ms Elise Marlow
School Production
It’s now just three weeks to the secondary school production! Going on stage in the last week of term, the cast of 19 students (from grades 6 to 12) are busily brushing up their lines and honing their stage-craft for your enjoyment!
The production, is made up of five one-act short plays. It will be presented three times in the week. Matinees will be on Tuesday 26 March and Wednesday 27 March for school audiences (primary and secondary students). The AJAC community of family and friends are invited to attend an evening performance on Wednesday 27 March at 7:00 pm. All performances will be in the auditorium.
The cast and crew are looking forward to showcasing their hard work. We look forward to your support!
Mr Andrew van Nooten
Mathematics
Many of our students go above and beyond their normal work load and are aiming to achieve the highest grades possible. The Leaderboard has the students who have practiced the most for Maths so far.
Robotics & A.I.
As a part of UAE 2021, vision The UAE launched Green Economy Initiative in 2012 under the slogan 'A green economy for sustainable development' aiming to make the UAE one of the global pioneers in a green economy, products and technologies.
This month, students started a new unit called Renewable Energy. In this unit, students will take on the concept of Renewable energy sources. Due to a worldwide awareness to have greener sources for energy, this course focuses on various such technologies which include solar, wind, thermoelectric cells, hydrogen fuel-cells, saltwater cells etc.
By the end of the course, students would fully appreciate the various technologies used for renewable energy.
Ms Asma Sobhi
ICT & A.I Leader