FRIENDS OF DUBAI COLLEGE

The Mathematics Department has had many successes in all the challenges and competitions that have taken place this year, and we would like to celebrate and congratulate all the students who have taken part in something extra-curricular this year in Mathematics.

The year started with the appointment of our new Senior Mathematicians of the Mathematics Society: Pranav, Aman, Viha and Foteini (since left).

They have led the Society in organising and running many of the extra-curricular activities and initiatives this year. Along with the Puzzle Committee (Raghav, Advay Ananya, Arjun), they have implemented worked solutions for the first time with the Puzzle of the Week. This is something that students had requested for a long time, so we are pleased that these explanations are now there to help students further improve their problem-solving skills.

Thank you to Paridhi and Sanaa, our Social Media Representatives for keeping our news outlets up to date throughout the year, and for the much needed update to the Mathematics display board in C Block. Thanks also to Sara and Inaaya for taking over the Mathematical newsletter, which we look forward to before the end of the year.

Dubai College has seen an unprecedented level of success this year with regards to competition results. For this year’s UKMT competitions, not only have we seen an increase in the number of participants, thanks to the drive and encouragement from all our Mathematics Society members, but we have also seen an increase in the proportion and number of top end achievers across all three challenges.

In the Senior Challenge, we received 28 Gold, 43 Silver and 20 Bronze certificates. Congratulations to Aman, Pranav, Salinaa, Aryan and Fawaz for top scoring in their respective year groups! Five of our students also progressed to the highly challenging British Mathematical Olympiad: Pranav (Distinction), Aman (Merit), Advay (Merit), Jeongyeon and Aman.

In the Intermediate Challenge, our

students attained a staggering 80 Gold, 51 Silver and 33 Bronze certificates, smashing our previous records. A huge well done especially to Aryaman, Parth and Aritro for achieving their Best in Year certificates. We still eagerly await the results from the subsequent Olympiads, with Rushabh, Aleksandar, Alp, Kartik and Atharva also involved.

In the most recent Junior Challenge, we received 61 Gold, 32 Silver and 23 Bronze certificates, another huge DC best. Harihar and Edward top scored in their respective year groups, and these two, along with Kevin and Shizhen sat the Junior Olympiad.

This year, we also hosted a special 25th Anniversary Challenge for Year 7 and 8 students, celebrating 25 years of the UKMT. Congratulations to Kevin and Zhiyuan for both achieving full marks in this event!

Dubai College received its best ever results in the ISMTF Senior Competition

with a clean sweep of all three awards. Against top competition from across Europe, Pranav brought home the Individual Winner award for the second year in a row. His team, along with Aman and Advay, emerged victorious in both of the team competitions. There were also excellent results for Aman, Arjun and Susannah, with their team finishing 13th overall out of a total of 75 teams. Fantastic results and a good experience for all twelve students involved.

22 students took part in the Emirate Level of the KIC 2021 this year with 17 of them progressing to the National Level. Of these, four students achieved a result in the Top 20 of their respective categories, each earning a Gold medal and Championship mementos. In addition, Aritro and Aadiv achieved the best score in the whole of the UAE in their respective year groups, an incredible achievement. Aritro then went on to win the whole KenKen International Championship in the Sigma category, an incredible achievement!

Three students from Year 12 were selected to represent Dubai College

at the Mathalon 2021, hosted online by the University of Wollongong in Dubai. Against students from 17 other schools in Dubai, their excellent results merited an invitation to the final round. Congratulations to Pranav, Raghav and Viha for their efforts on the day! The final round moved online this year due to the ongoing pandemic. Our students spent most of their Sunday weekend attending online lectures, conferences and the eventual online challenge. Well done to Pranav for 2nd place overall and Raghav for placing inside the Top 10.

Many of our students have independently entered other challenges and competitions beyond those actively promoted by Dubai College.

The DC Mathematics Olympiad is ongoing and we wish all remaining students the best of luck for the final round!

Shizhen (Year 7) and Kashish (Year 9) entered the Mathematics Olympiad Qualifier, a UAE level competition conducted by the International Olympiad

Foundation and one of several qualifiers which feed into the International Mathematics Olympiad. Both attained the UAE National Rank 5 in their respective age groups. Well done!

Two of our students entered the International Maths Olympiad Challenge over the past couple of months. Vansh scored in the 96th percentile of the Grade 9 challenge; Aritro scored in the 97th percentile of the Grade 8 challenge. Two incredible results so a huge well done to both boys. Parth and Fawaz both entered the AMC 10, finishing 3rd in the whole of the UAE for the AMC 10, known to be a particularly difficult challenge. A brilliant achievement for both – well done!

Finally, Satvik entered both the CEMC Cayley and Galois Mathematics Contests, achieving strong scores in both. Once again, well done to all our students who

have gone above and beyond what is expected of them in class to further their problem-solving skills independently.

Mr Simon Chow Mathematics Extension Coordinator

Well – what can we say? After the problems of (whisper it) the Pandemic, and with a new team at the helm, the FDC year started off with lots of new energy. Our first new initiative – coffee mornings outside school – received a great turn out by parents in Years 7, 8 and 9 and gave attendees a chance to get to know parents in their own classes, as well as to meet Mr Lambert and school representatives for their respective year groups. This also gave the FDC the opportunity to make parents aware of the FDC, its role at DC and its plans for the year. This resulted in lots of new parent volunteers signing up for the various committees and initiatives! Some other new ideas included reviving and using FDC social media channels more (we are on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in case you’d like to follow us, but we don’t TikTok – yet!). We also started a recycling committee and a new charity committee to work with the school and relevant student groups, and expanded our committees dealing with catering for DC events, running internal events and external events.

Rushing headlong towards the winter break – November and December were busy months, with parent volunteers decorating the school beautifully for Diwali & Christmas and the FDC organising the annual Year 7 and Year 8 Christmas Disco with the help of lots more volunteers. This was an exciting evening for the students – with great music (by our Year 13 DJs) and food from Freedom Pizza – a fabulous way to end the first term. The FDC also distributed chocolates to all teaching and administrative staff and a special lunch was held for all the ancillary staff during which some special cash gifts were given out, thanks to very generous donations from parents (thank you!). In this way, FDC was able to say “thank you” to every single staff member of Dubai College on behalf of students and parents.

In Term 2, another new initiative was rolled out by the FDC with the Lower School Parents’ Social. On a lovely balmy evening around the swimming pool at Emirates Golf Club, parents mingled, chatted, and ate some lovely canapes with accompanying drinks. Many Lower School staff members also attended, and everyone seemed to enjoy the evening. These sorts of events help FDC create deeper engagement between the school and the parent community. We understand that due to popular demand, this event will be on the FDC calendar for 2022/23!

Internally, the FDC ran several other events which proved to be a lot of fun and also brought a number of students and parents together, resulting in a great deal of camaraderie. These included the Years 7, 8 and 13 Fun Days – which the children and parents thoroughly enjoyed – including thrilling (dangerous?) games, exciting races and a very well

attended food stall run by the FDC. Another event which had similar FDC Catering Committee support was the DC 7s, enabling students to enjoy drinks and snacks during a very warm day. Towards the end of the school year, a farewell breakfast was organized by Year 13 parents for Year 13 students. The large spread was greatly appreciated by the students and (keep this quiet) will be followed by some special farewell gifts for them to remember their time at Dubai College.

And then the grand finale! This year, the FDC brought back the Annual Ball to the DC calendar – a very glamorous event entitled the “Platinum Jubilee Ball” – celebrating the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II (as well as Dubai College being 44!) with music, dancing and a sumptuous dinner and seemingly copious amounts of drink! There was a special auction, a piano recital by DC student Advay, a fantastic band, celebrity DJ hosts and a photo booth for the guests. We were delighted with how well the Ball went – the jewel in the crown of 2021/22 FDC events. We also managed to raise a substantial amount of funds for the FDC – which will be used in 2022/23 for some special projects. Watch out for news of our 45th Birthday Ball soon…

Rather than single anyone out (as there were so many people who helped this year) we would just like to sincerely thank every single committee member, parent and school volunteer who stepped forward to participate this year. The FDC constitution declares every parent, alumni and staff member is a member of the FDC – and you have all helped make this a very successful year, as we emerged from the clutches of COVID and lockdown. We are so pleased and proud to be giving back to the school, to the staff and to our children. In line with the DC ethos, we have tried hard to build diversity and inclusion within the FDC with across the board representation of ethnicity, religion and parents of students in all years. Hopefully this is moving us in the right direction. We now look forward to lots of new events and initiatives. The next two include FDC sponsorship of the costumes of the school drama production – Emil and the Detectives – at the end of June and a little icy surprise for all students and staff at the end of the Summer Term. We also have movie evenings being planned right after the summer holidays as well as…. (watch this space!). So get ready to be surprised!

Have a great Summer – and see you in September.

Rob Duce and Mahvash Kidwai Chair & Vice-Chair FDC

P.S. We are always looking for new volunteers – so don’t be shy, step up and get involved – it’s fun, it helps your school, and you feel a warm glow inside when you know you’ve made a difference!