ACTIVITIES

Wednesday September 29th 2021 was an important date for the Music Department. After eighteen long months of online and pre-recorded performances, it was with delight that the first concert in front of a real, live audience took place in the Auditorium with wonderful, eclectic and varied performances from members of staff from the Music Department.

From Bossa Nova to Bach, Pirates of the Caribbean to Scriabin there was something to suit all manner of tastes.

We are absolutely thrilled to welcome three new members of staff to the Music Team: Jackie Hayter, Ron Vint and Amelia Brown who wowed us all with their talent and showmanship.

A huge thank you to all the Music Department for taking the time and effort to prepare such a wonderful evening of entertainment.

Ms Jennie Lee-Foster Director of Music

The Spring Concert was pure delight! How do the Music Department and students manage to do it? Even with only five weeks rehearsal time due to the Covid-19 spike at that start of term, the concert displayed some incredible talent.

The largest ever Beginner Band sounded more like Training Band – what amazing students and a dedicated leader they have in the fantastic Mr Lane! We look forward to seeing many of these dedicated and aspiring Year 7 and 8 musicians work their way through the Intermediate Band, Concert Band and into the Jazz Band over the next few years!

Miss Hayter – our new Head of Woodwind – has made a huge impact on our wind players and Chamber Music this year. The Wind Quintet played a funky ‘Ghostbusters’ for us while the Flute Ensemble cheered us all up with their rendition of ‘Park Life’ with Jude Sinha confidently narrating from the front; Miss Hayter's enthusiasm is unstoppable. The Intermediate Band closed the first half, literally with a ‘Bang!’ What a showstoppingly good performance!

The Senior Strings sounded incredible with their assured and generous conductor, Mr Bowler. Huge congratulations go to them with their gorgeous, full sound in the ‘Jig’ from the St Paul's Suite and their accomplished leader Jimin Park who played a beautiful solo in the dazzling ‘Palladio’.

The Concert Band were on tremendous form with a ‘Mission Impossible and Pirates of the Caribbean Medley’. Such exciting and contrasting playing from these senior players!

The Intermediate Saxophone Quartet performed a sumptuous sounding 'Emily Kate' by Lennie Niehaus.

The Choirs did not disappoint either. There were a super, diverse selection of songs chosen ranging from Whitacre's ‘Seal Lullaby’ sung beautifully by Nothing But Treble under their dynamic director, Mr Ste Jeffery, to two amazing rock/ pop numbers from Chamber Choir ('Rise Up') and big Choir ('Somebody to Love') accompanied by the Sixth Form rock band, featuring awesome solos from Rayan Ali and Dhimira Advani.

Three other top-level singers entertained us with a fabulous version of ‘Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend’: Kate Lewis, Mariam Siali and Amara Habib wowed us with their flair and talent for musical theatre singing, thanks to their charismatic vocal coach Miss Amelia Brown.

We were also delighted to be performing Mr Julian Smyth's (Development Director at DC) very own composition for flute, guitar, bassoon, string bass and percussion, commissioned specifically for Jazz Band closed the evening, as always, with three foot-tappingly good jazz numbers: ‘In the Mood’, ‘Besame Mucho’ and ‘The Chicken’. What incredible talent we have at DC.

My congratulations and heartfelt thanks go to all the hard working and talented Music Department staff and students and all their hard work both on and off the stage that made this such a fabulous event.

Ms Jennie Lee-Foster Director of Music

For the last two years many of our weekly activities had to be conducted online, or modified to maintain social distancing, but it is remarkable how the Dubai College students and staff rose to these challenges, rolling up their sleeves and finding solutions, to provide as much continuity as possible.

Total numbers of ECAs per term:

Some notable developments this year:

We now explicitly offer around 40 different Academic Enrichment ECAs each week. These range from astronomy to psychology, via creative writing and debating societies. Many of our ECAs are connected to what students learn in lessons, and it’s interesting to see just how popular these are becoming – with dozens of students every day choosing

TERM 1 154 145 185 TERM 2 164 160 168

TERM 3 130 83 0 to attend clubs that enable them to learn more about their academic interests.

We also are expanding our menu of activities that help to support the wellbeing of students: Creative Philanthropy Club (where students design and make items to sell for charity), Mindfulness Club, to promote a sense of calm and wellbeing, Gardening Club and Raising Awareness Through Art Club, all provide opportunities for students to find a calm, harmonious environment where they can wind down after the daily stresses of school work.

Students continue to be very keen to propose, plan and lead their own clubs, and these include: Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Current Affairs, Medical and Environmental Societies. Next year we look forward to new clubs focused on Rubiks Cubes, Biology, Stock Market Investing and Innovation.

The Charity Committee this year has kept up the momentum of fundraising for schools in Nepal. The Music Charity Love concert returned to the school grounds, after a two year absence, and this student-led endeavour represents an ever-popular demonstration of just how capable DC students are at organising and managing quite challenging projects. Early in 2022 we also gained approval to start fundraising for our second school-build project in Nepal, and look forward to the official launch very soon.

Currently over 250 students are enrolled on the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. As an international qualification that is widely recognised to promote key skills including resilience, resourcefulness, independence and self-management, this perhaps to support the wider aims of Dubai College; to engender multitalented, rounded and responsible young adults.

Finally, the House Competition continues to grow in breadth and depth. Offering over 80 separate competitions throughout the year, encompassing sports, creativity, academic and team challenges, EVERY student now plays a part in supporting their House. We were able to run swimming galas and Sports Day again this year and have managed to bring the whole school back together in these annual celebrations of team spirit and collective endeavour.

Mr Richard Dennis Director of Extra Curricular Activities

Did you know that you can talk to delegates from all over the world, try and resolve world conflicts, or maybe even start a war (!) all in the space of a weekend? Well, Dubai College have done just that!

Over the course of a weekend in March, 104 students went to the prestigious AUDMUN conference, discussing pressing issues that plague our world today and coming up with resolutions to solve them in real-time.

Our delegates – fuelled by passion, research and copious amounts of Starbucks coffee – were able to have 12.5 hours of successful debate time in 22 different committees at the American University in Dubai, where there were 350 students from a range of schools across Dubai. Topics ranged from economic issues to labour rights to the Armenian genocide or, if you were one of the lucky few, you could discuss the blip and multiverse in the AUD conference’s very own marvel-themed United Nations Council on Superhuman Activities.

Given that most people going from our school were first-timers at MUN, it was absolutely incredible to see everyone flourishing as the weekend went on, representing their countries with respect and dedication to the topic at hand. MUN can certainly be viewed as challenging and intellectual, but as our AUDMUN delegates have learnt, the discussions are also fascinating and extremely engaging – it was absolutely wonderful to see our delegates shine!

After all those conferences, many of us were very tired. When I’m tired, there’s one thing I love to do…dance! And that’s exactly what our students did at the Social Night on Friday, letting off steam from the debates with music, food and photo booths – providing the perfect opportunity not only for relaxing after a hard day, but also for socialising with MUN delegates from other schools. It was truly a blast!

Our hard work paid off. Students at Dubai College should be extremely proud of their efforts: not only did our school win ‘Best Medium Delegation’ but also 21 of our delegates won individual awards! This is truly reflective of the hard work and dedication that these students put in and we are absolutely thrilled at their achievements.

BEST DELEGATE AWARDS Maya, Year 12 – Security Council Haizea, Year 12 – International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Alexander, Year 10 – World Bank Zaara, Year 12 – Historical Crisis Committee BEST ORATOR AWARDS Ishayu, Year 11 – Security Council Ayaan, Year 9 – Recent Crisis Committee Archisha, Year 10 – Historical Crisis Committee

BEST RESEARCHER AWARDS Yusif, Year 8 – European Union Karma, Year 10 – International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Parth, Year 10 – United National Human Rights Council Maryam, Year 8 – Association of Southeast Asia Nations Zainab, Year 11 – Group of 77 Kushaan, Year 11 – World Bank Abhinav, Year 8 – United Nations Council on Superhuman Activities

HONOURABLE MENTION AWARDS Zayed, Year 8 – Press Corps Yasseen, Year 8 – Historical Crisis Committee Zainab, Year 8 – Press Corps Omar, Year 12 – NATO Aria, Year 12 – Historical Crisis Committee Vivaan, Year 8 – European Union Giulia, Year 10 – World Bank

I am so grateful to all our students who participated in this wonderful event, and to the staff who accompanied us, and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for Model United Nations at DC!

Myra Shahbazi 12EMO Secretary General of MUN