Issue No.9
March 2023
Hello everyone and welcome to the Spring Edition of our school pAAAper!
We have a wide array of articles collated by our budding young journalists of Secondary, alongside a new format for you to enjoy!
Thank you for taking the time to read our newspaper.
We hope you enjoy!
Raya Khaled Chief Editor of the pAAAperThe Secondary Celebration Assembly was a highly anticipated event for the staff and students. The assembly was a chance to recognise the hard work and achievements of the school's top performers in various subjects.
The winners of each subject and Year Groups were announced, with many students receiving recognition for their hard work and dedication. It was heartening to see so many students recognised for their achievements, and the assembly provided a great platform to celebrate their successes.
During the assembly, the students were treated to an exciting presentation about the World Scholars Cup, a global academic competition that challenges students to compete in debates, collaborative writing, and subject-specific quizzes. The presentation provided a glimpse into the competition and its benefits for students, including the development of critical thinking, communication, and collaboration skills.
In addition to the World Scholars Cup presentation, the students were also updated about the Model United Nations conference, where they would have the chance to represent different countries and engage in debate and diplomacy. The conference would provide students with the opportunity to hone their research, public speaking, and negotiation skills while discussing and resolving global issues.
Finally, the students were also informed about the school's upcoming photography competition. This competition was an opportunity for students to showcase their creativity and photography skills, with prizes awarded for the top entries.
The assembly concluded with an exciting ticket raffle draw, with lucky winners walking away with some fantastic prizes. Attendance Ted was awarded to Year 12 for outstanding attendance, well done! Looking forward to next month's assembly.
Why is it important?
It is important to ensure the betterment of the future generations of us kids, without straining Earth’s resources. According to the U.N (United Nations) Environmental Programme, environmental sustainability provides better life choices that ensure equality among all the human-beings.
Where does the term come from?
While the concept of sustainability is a relatively new idea, the movement has roots in social justice, and other past movements with rich histories. By the end of the twentieth centuries, many of these ideas had come together in the call for ‘sustainable development.’ The four pillars of sustainability areHuman, Social, Economic, and Environmental. All of them are explained in detail over the following sub-headings.
Human Sustainability:
Human sustainability focuses on the well-being of societies and improving the quality of human life.
Social Sustainability:
Socialsustainabilitycan bedefinedas a method for designing a thriving, sustainable community that provides wellness by considering what inhabitants want and need from their homes and workplaces.
Economic Sustainability:
Economicsustainability can refer to the way an economy operates in a sustainable manner, protecting social and environmental elements.
Environmental Sustainability:
Environmental Sustainability saves natural resources and makes sustainable and renewable energy for example: hydroelectricity. This can be used instead of fossil fuels such as coal, gas etc.
What can WE do to be sustainable citizens?
There is a lot we can do to help Earth. For instance, countries are banning plastics bags and here in the UAE you must pay 50 fils to get one. We can recycle things at home with some DIY ideas and turn them into ornaments, for example.
Recently, in 2023, Pearson Edexcel has rewarded some of the students in Al Ain Academy for receiving outstanding results because of their performances at IGCSE or A-level. Some of the students are: Yusri Rayan Attoub, Kareem El Barbary, Vijval Datta, Omar Anwar and for A-levels Maya Nourse who got first place in the world for History and first in the Middle East for Geography. Down below are the interviews I did asking a couple of those students (whom I could reach), for their opinions.
What’s your name?
Kareem El Barbary
Are you being rewarded for your IGCSE or A level performance?
My IGCSEs
What are you being rewarded for?
My hard work during tough times
How did you get here?
Constantly telling myself to do what’s necessary
What is your number one advice for your juniors?
Do not fall for the trap of leaving things to the last minute, my biggest problem was that I was too confident and didn’t revise things I thought I was good at.
What is something you’d advise people not to do?
Get over confident
Are you happy you received an award? Yes
Was your family proud of you? Yes
Was it hard getting here?
Of course
Do you regret anything?
Thinking I was better than I actually was and didn’t revise enough
What’s your name?
Vijval DattaAre you being rewarded for your IGCSE or A level performance?
My IGCSE performance during the June '22 series
What are you being rewarded for?
My Achievements in IGCSE and achieving outstanding results
How did you get to here?
By hard work and determination and blessings of my elders
What is your number 1 advise for your juniors?
Never underestimate yourself. The difference between A and B can be so fine that you’ll be surprised
What is something you’d advise people not to do?
Don’t stay up late during weeks of EXAMS and NEVER do past papers or questions before the day of the exam it can be severely demotivating
Are you happy you received an award?
It definitely was a moment I will never forget and it will constantly remind me of the hard work I put in and encourage me to do better.
Was your family proud of you? Yes.
Was it hard getting here?
It was definitely not a piece of cake or as easy as pie! But hard work never lets you down.
Do you regret anything?
Not getting all 9s!
By:RayaKhaled(Year10)
The Abu Dhabi regionals of the Lego League Competition took place on the 11th of February, with teams from across the region competing in a range of challenges designed to test their skills in robotics, engineering, and programming. The event, which has become a popular fixture on the local STEM calendar, attracted a large number of teams, who battled it out for a chance to compete in the national round in Dubai.
Our Secondary Al Ain Academy team, known as the "Technical Difficulties," also showed exceptional teamwork and perseverance throughout the competition. Despite facing a few challenges along the way, the team managed to have loads of fun while showcasing their talent and creativity in the Robotic Design category during the Innovation Project presentation.
Their hard work and dedication paid off when they were announced as the victors in the category, and they secured their place in the National Round in Dubai. The team was thrilled with their success and continued to work towards the Dubai round.
The team scored an impressive amount points during the Robot run round and represented our school well among a whopping 31 others.
The Lego League Competition continues to inspire and challenge young minds across the UAE, and this year's event was no exception.
Hello, everyone! How are you? I’m going to just briefly mention the UKMT Math challenge that happened on the 1st of February.
So, what exactly does UKMT mean?
U: United
K: Kingdom
M: Mathematics
T: Trust
The challenge was online, so we had to bring our devices, and do the test online. The challenge had about 24 or so questions, each of which had 5 multiple choice questions and you had to choose an answer. The challenge was a no calculator challenge and it made me miss my calculator to a great extent and made me appreciate its value even more than I already had. It made me learn that we should not take things for granted. However, you were allowed a blank piece of paper to do your working out on.
The questions in the challenge certainly made you think outside of the box, they were mathematical questions, obviously, yet they were also very mentally challenging. The hard part was not the mathematical aspect yet more so the extremely unique questions which you had to decipher first. However, it wasn’t all bad, it was quite an enriching and educational experience which could perhaps help when we write our university applications in a few years time.
What year groups took part?
The challenge consisted of only Year 7 to 11. As far as I am aware, the sixth form was not a part of it.
It is a challenge that occurs in the UK as well as the British schools around the world. The challenge has a few steps, if you pass the first round, which was what we did; answering a few questions, then you could move on to the next round and so on and so forth until you win the challenge.
The amount of time we had was akin to that of a double lesson; as in 1 hour. Yes, we had a whole hour to complete it and we did miss some lessons but, in my case, I did not miss any hard lessons because I missed my math lesson just to do some more challenging math!
I did not sign up for it or ask anyone to add me to the team, instead Mrs. Anthony added a select few students into the UKMT math challenge team and gave us some information about what the challenge was and gave us some exemplar questions with solutions, so we knew what to expect. However, I believe you could also have asked to join the team, as my friend did so and was successfully added to the team. Nevertheless, she was the only one doing the challenge after asking to be added, whereas everyone else was just added by miss Anthony.
As I have mentioned above, Mrs. Anthony was the one who added us to the team, however I believe she was told by the math teachers on who to add to the team.
What did we do in the challenge?
The challenge was online, so we had to bring our devices, and do the test online. The challenge had about 24 or so questions, each of which had 5 multiple choice questions and you had to choose an answer. The challenge was a no calculator challenge and it made me miss my calculator to a great extent and made me appreciate its value even more than I already had. It made me learn that we should not take things for granted. However, you were allowed a blank piece of paper to do your working out on.
What kind of questions came in the challenge?
The questions in the challenge certainly made you think outside of the box, they were mathematical questions, obviously, yet they were also very mentally challenging. The hard part was not the mathematical aspect yet more so the extremely unique questions which you had to decipher first. However, it wasn’t all bad, it was quite an enriching and educational experience which could perhaps help when we write our university applications in a few years’ time.
For the past 5 months, the Social Studies department have organised a project for Year 10 to participate in. In the following projects, there are teams of 3 or 4s and in each team they chose a topic to work. The wining team also gets to compete against the other Aldar schools. These topics must have something to do with the UAE (as this is originally about the UAE). Some of the topics chosen were: Women in the UAE, People with disabilities in the UAE the UAE’s journey over the years, which my group chose. In the following project each team must create a title for their work plus a logo, an instagram page, a forms page, interviews and finally the ending, where they must talk about the work in general and summarise each point. This project truly brings out the creative side of students alongside, teamwork and hard work. The final date is 13th April and I can certainly say everyone is excited and hoping for the best. Continue read with the pAAAper as I will be keeping you up to date about happens next and who the winner is.
This year in January, the very first Geography trip in this school happened. The Geography department (Mrs. Ralph and Mr. Peterson) had arranged a coursework related trip. The following trip consisted of two days in a row. A day in Al Ain Jahili Park and the second day in Dubai Kite Beach. During our trip, we learned several different skills:
• Systematic Transects to measure abiotic variables
• Using the float method to record longshore drift
• Break-in-slope method to record beach profile changes
• Environmental Quality Index
• Stakeholder Conflict Matrix.
• Pedestrian counts
• Environmental Quality Index
• Field Sketches
• Bipolar Analysis
• Annotated Photographs
It was a fun, interesting and educational trip to all of the geography students. Furthermore, it should help significantly during our IGCSE written examination. If you read along you should see some reviews from both students and teachers about the trip, along with some pictures.
What’s your name?
Mrs. Mairead Ralph
Was the geography trip a good idea?
Yes for sure, doing a field trip and applying the skills to real life is the best way to learn to prepare students for the paper 1 and paper 2 section B questions on the Exam.
Were the student well behaved?
I was so lucky to go on a trip with a bunch of students who were fun, interactive, willing to get on involved and had an outstanding behavior…..even if we didn’t agree on the standard of song choice on the way home.
Did you think that the students were benefiting and having fun?
I believe that the students enjoyed the field trips overall and I have seen first hand from doing section B questions that they have benefited from the trip as their grades have improved across the board.
Will the geography department be having another trip?
We would like to do another one in Al Ain before the end of the year to give the KS3 students an opportunity to experience geography in action
Did you enjoy the first or second day better?
I enjoyed the first day better as I had planned the whole trip myself, whereas the second day we used and external company, and while they provided us with the coastal fieldwork experience, In think that if the geography department invests some money into proper coastal equipment for next year we could do a much better job ourselves .watch this space
Review of trip from 1 to 10: 7/10 for me because of the coastal investigation we should have done so much more!
Students:
What’s your name? Anonymous
What year are you in? 10
Do you think this will benefit you for geography? Yes
What was your most favorite moment during the trip? Exploring the different locations
Was the first or second day more fun for you? First
What’s one thing you would change? The groups
Will you go again? Probably
Review from 1 to 10: 7
What’s your name?
Raya Khaled
What year are you in? 10
Do you think this will benefit you for geography? Yes
What was your most favorite moment to during the trip? The beach-when we went to the water
Was the first or second day more fun for you? Second
What’s one thing you would change? The organisation
Will you go again? Yes
Review from 1 to 10: 9/10
What’s your name?
Zoya Ali
What year are you in? 10
Do you think this will benefit you for geography? Yes
What was your most favorite moment to during the trip? Going in the water to conduct a test Was the first or second day more fun for you? Second
What’s one thing you would change? The organisation and price Will you go again? Yes
Review from 1 to 10: 9.
Hello there! It’s me again. For this segment of the pAAAper, I would like to talk about how mock exams are like for a Year 10. Although it is not compulsory for a Year 10 to do mock exams, some people can have early entries to see if they can take the iGCSE paper this year. Although I only did one mock exam this year, I would like to share my experience with you, so if your child does the same you will know what to expect.
What subject’s mock did I take?
I took a math mock exam this year, sometime in January alongside the Year 11s
Where did it take place?
The mock exam happened in the sports hall. We did not take up the whole of the sports hall, it was more so just half as it was separated so children could still do P.E if necessary.
How do you study for it?
Although my habits of studying may not be everyone’s cup of tea, I will still explain it to you However, before reading this, please understand that different children will have different things that will work for them, so my method may not help you/your child
The first and foremost thing I did was plan Planning is crucial for me as I need to know what to do and when to do it If I don’t plan, I become overwhelmed with stress and flooded with worry and anxiety
Since the mock happened after the winter break, I did not have lots of time to revise as I had to go to my home country for a week and a half Therefore, that made me a bit vexed since I wanted as much time as possible to revise However, my Maths teacher, Mr Kilding, did allow our whole class to do revision during class, even before the winter break so we did have lots of time to revise in class
My plan included dates, and what topics to do and when to do them Every day I revised 5 or so topics from my Maths textbook, with the help of multiple videos and online past paper questions. Although I had a tightly packed schedule, the plan did help me quite a lot. For a week I studied just topics that were not my strong suit. Then, I went on to do past paper questions for the remainder of the time left.
If you were wondering what app I used for revising; I used an app called “Notion” which allows you to not only make lists, but it also allows you to embed links of countless videos so you don’t lose which video you used for what topic.
School libraries are an invaluable resource for students and faculty alike, providing access to a wealth of information and resources that can enhance the learning experience. Despite the proliferation of digital resources, school libraries remain an important physical space where students can engage with books, media, and technology in a supportive and collaborative environment.
At the heart of the school library is the collection of books, which can inspire and educate students, spark their imagination, and expand their knowledge. The library is home to a vast array of literature, including classic and contemporary fiction, biographies, and non-fiction works on a wide range of topics. The library also stocks an impressive range of textbooks and reference materials, which students can use to complement their studies and research.
The school library is a valuable resource that is essential for academic success and personal development. Students who take advantage of the resources and programs offered by the library are better equipped to succeed in their academic pursuits and are better prepared for lifelong learning. As such, we urge all students and faculty to take full advantage of this incredible treasure trove of learning and discovery.
We sat down with some avid primary readers and how they feel about reading. We received a plethora of answers, however at the heart of it all, all these amazing kids love reading because they feel it gives them a way to enjoy themselves and dive into different worlds.
Ms. Senadheera and I sat down with some primary students and asked them a few questions about their love for books. It was amazing to see such an array of responses, showcasing the adoration students have for reading.
All in all, majority of the students believe that reading is a better alternative to playing too many video games, watching copious amount of TV and being on social media Many of the students said they preferred to read actual books compared to reading books online Those who like to read online enjoyed the myON reading app available through our school, students particularly like the fiction, graphic novels and non-fiction collection They would like to encourage students to pick up a book and start reading, as they never know what they might find and how much they may enjoy it!
Have a look at the pictures of the process and see the answers from the students
Thank you for reading our newsletter! We hope you have enjoyed the wonderful articles our students have collated.
See you in the next edition. We can't wait to share more with you about our busy Term 3!
