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DUBAI COLLEGE U.A.E.

News Sport House Events Calendar Issue No. 15 25th November 2010

Open Day This year’s Open Day was a great success. Our visitors were able to view a wide range of activities in which many of the younger guests were encouraged to participate. The tours of the school were followed by the traditional Headmaster’s address in the college auditorium. This was followed by refreshments on the lawns in the quadrangle where guests were entertained by a range of musical items superbly performed by musicians from the College.

School Inspection This year’s school inspection took place in October. The DSIB inspection team was headed by Mr. Rob Crompton. In addition to a review of the learning and teaching in the

school the inspection team also focused upon Health and Safety. We shall communicate the full inspection report to parents as soon as it is released by the KHDA.

Dubai College Entrance Assessment Please note the date set for the College entrance test is January 15th. The deadline for applications is January 6th. Please contact The College Registrar, Mrs. Debra Harding for any information. [email protected]

F1 in Schools World Championships in Singapore On Friday 17th September, six excited sixth-formers left for Singapore, to represent the UAE in the F1 in Schools World Championships. They were to compete against 250 students from 25 countries world-wide. The team comprised of Pooja Nair, Laura Shaw, Naomi Leech, Dominic Palubiski, Louisa Henderson and Anas Syed, who had won the National Championships earlier this year in Abu Dhabi. They were accompanied by Mr. Quinlan, who is in charge of the F1 in Schools programme in the College and Mrs. Ashmore. A lot of hard work had gone into preparing the project. The team not only designed their F1 racing car but they also collaborated with local companies to discuss the engineering and the precision needed to produce the fastest car. It was then custom built and they were very proud of the finished product. The team also had to raise sponsorship to enable the trip to go ahead and their presentations for many companies raised the amounts needed. Many thanks to our Sponsors who were extremely generous; without them the trip could not have gone ahead. From the outset, the event was amazing. It was extremely well organized and the welcome party on the second day relaxed us all. The first day had been spent preparing everything for the competition and there were constant trips to Ikea for furniture and lighting for our Stand, so it was a real pleasure to meet the competing teams over lunch. F1 had arranged to

take us all on the ‘Singapore Flier.’ However, after our superb aerial views of Singapore, the hard work really began; setting up the Stand, ensuring the cars were ready for racing, preparing for the interviews to discuss the engineering process and finally, executing a verbal presentation to the judges. Nerve wracking? I should say so! The teams and their teachers were up at six o’clock every morning and it was often twothirty when we fell into bed, exhausted. Evenings were spent preparing for the following days and it was a pleasure to work with such determined, dedicated and enthusiastic pupils. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun along the way and none of us fell asleep during the day, as did many of the other teachers and pupils! The awards ceremony was an extremely prestigious event; the atmosphere was exhilarating and the Dubai College team was thrilled to receive a trophy for “The Best Sportsmanship’ Award. It was the icing on the cake but there was more to come. On the way back from the ceremony, we bumped into Jenson Button by the hotel lift, who generously agreed to have his photograph taken with the team. What a magnificent week and an incredible learning experience. We look forward to the next F1 in Schools competition next year. Anyone who might be interested in supporting next year’s project should contact Mr. Maurice Quinlan. m.quinlan@ dubaicollege.org

Science Department trip to ‘BRAINIAC LIVE ON STAGE’ On Sunday morning 21st November, over 280 students from all year groups plus the Science staff, went to see a live science show at the DUCTAC theatre Mall of the Emirates. Based on the popular T/V show, the students were enthralled to see science, not only in action, but entertaining too. Investigations included which substance in the bathroom was slipperiest by sliding a Brainiac across stage suitably doused in the substance under investigation. How to spin

an office chair or propel a supermarket trolley by fire extinguisher or rockets was also demonstrated. The highlight of the performance for Year 7 had to be an investigation into the viscosity of tomato ketchup where a DC student competed with the BRAINIAC’s on stage to see which method (shaking, hitting or slapping) managed to tip most ketchup onto the top of Mr Woolley’s head. It was a great show, educational and very entertaining.

Welcome visitors return to the College The College recently welcomed back ex-member of staff Dr. David Watson who taught in the Modern Languages department from 1985 until 1988. Dr.Watson is now the Principal of Deira International School. The College also welcomed back Mrs. Kath Thomas And Mrs. Esther Kimmet. Mrs Thomas was secretary to the former Bursar Mr. Tony Foulger and Mrs Kimmet was the school nurse.

New Arrivals The DC community recently increased by three, in the shape of two bouncing boys and a beautiful little girl. Congratulations go to Mr. Lee and Ms. Patterson on the birth of their twin sons Conal Ewart Paterson and Moray John Lee and to Mr. and Mrs. Bailey on the arrival of Anna Rose. Both the mothers and children are doing well although the dads’ are looking a little weary.

Conal Ewart Paterson and Moray John Lee

Anna Rose Bailey

Charitytalk - Wonderful response to Pakistan Aid Appeal There was a wonderful response to last week’s non-uniform day which raised AED10,540.00. The money will be sent to MSF to support victims of the flooding in Pakistan.

Year 11 French Students raise money for children in Kenya A group of Year 11 French students recently organised a ‘bake off’ sale to raise money for children in need in Kenya. The money raised was sent to RAEY a child and family protection association. The letter below was received from Dr. Carolyn Roesler. Dear Miss John and Year 11 French students To follow the bake off money I am delighted to report that we purchased milk powder, calcium enriched for bones and medicines for children in large quantities that were desperately needed and we really thank you for enabling us to supply milk to children and attend to urgent health needs. Best regards Carolyn Dr Carolyn Lee Roesler BMBS,FRACGP,DRANZCOG +9713167272 +971559688386 [email protected]

Rescue Dada The college will be sponsoring a 17 year old Kenyan girl, Susan Muthon, who along with her mother was found destitute in the slums of Nairobi. The money the college provides through the organisation Rescue Dada will provide for Susan’s further education.

DC students plant a tree In recognition of the College’s re-cycling practices in the last year, the College was invited to participate in an environmental tree planting ceremony in Mushrif Park. Organised by the Government’s environmental agency, two Sixth Formers,

Matthew Melone and Natasha Bradstock, accompanied by Mrs.Romans, attended the celebration where they planted a Ghaf tree (indigenous to the UAE) on behalf of the College.

BSME Music Camp The British Schools of the Middle East Music Camp is an annual event which brings together young musicians from schools around the region. On November 5th and 6th Jumeirah College hosted the event and seven of our Dubai College musicians joined a number of other schools from around the Gulf, taking part in master classes and ensembles and culminating in a public concert. Our students took part in the Wind Band, Orchestra, Saxophone ensemble and Brass Group as well as joining in the massed choir which formed the finale of the concert.

Our congratulations go to our students who proudly represented Dubai College, working hard to hone their musical talents and sharing in this important community event. List of students: Alex Geeson Yasine El Ashmawi Dorottya Nagy Vansh Dassani Lara Fowler Biddy Fogg Joe Shams

11BA 11TJ 10NB 11CT 9RA 9RA 9RA

Children Of the Mountain One of the many Charities that we support at Dubai College is called "Children of The Mountain". This was set up in 2009 to try to improve the educational standards in a remote village in Nepal. On Thursday, 9th December, 7-9pm, the founder of this charity, John Matthews, will be making a public presentation on the role of schools in alleviating extreme poverty, entitled "Educating Angita". The presentation will also include an update on what his charity has accomplished so far, and what he hopes to achieve over the next few years. Parents and students are cordially invited to this presentation, and this will be held at Dubai College from 7pm until approx 9pm. More information about the charity can be found at their website: http://www. childrenofthemountain.com

Dorottya Nagy

FDC The Annual Spring Fayre will take place on Friday 11th Feb 2011 from 12.30 pm to 4pm. Please offer your support in any way by contacting Mrs. Mona Irfan. at [email protected]

FDC The FDC will be organizing the annual Year 7 Fun Day on Friday 10th December. All members of Year 7 families are welcome.

Lara Fowler

If you are interested in attending, please contact the charity via their email: events@ childrenofthemountain.com

Dubai College Charity Committee A significant amount of fundraising has been done throughout the school to raise money for Pakistan and to support ex-DC student Alana O’Kirwan in building a school in South Africa. Thank you to 8MB who organized a bake sale, of which the 680 Dhs proceeds will go towards Alana’s trip. 9DF and 10PF also organized bake sales, where they raised an impressive 1013 Dhs and 825 Dhs respectively for MSF in aid of the Pakistan floods. Imogen Lemon, Ellen Burley, Lauren Beattie and Dasha Agarwal of 9CG organized a collection of old clothes this term. They have collected over 400 items, including towels, blankets and toys, as well as just clothes. These will be sent to the flooded areas of Pakistan, via the charity RSPN. This year Sophie Clark, ViceChair of the Charity Committee has taken part in the ‘MakeA- Wish Foundation UK’ to raise money and grant wishes to children and young lives

threatened by life-threatening illnesses. Sophie has cut ten inches off her hair to make wigs for chemotherapy patients who suffer from hair loss. Currently, Sophie has exceeded her target amount of raising £ 1,000, to raising £1,776.63! Go to http:// www.justgiving.com/sophiemcadam-clark - Sophie is still accepting donations for this worthwhile cause. So far this term, we have been able to raise money for Pakistan through the aid of a non-uniform day. We successfully managed to raise 9527Dhs, a new record for the school when it comes to nonuniform day! In order to show our support during ‘National Breast Cancer Awareness Month’, another non-uniform day was organized, at which students were asked to wear pink or orange. This day of fundraising was also shared by another cause which explains the orange clothing; Lea Joven is a six year old girl suffering with leukemia who was desperately in need of a bone

DC student gets cropped for charity

Year 13 student Yekta Gerami collecting donations for Lea

Congratulations go to Vice -chairperson of the College's Charities' Committee Sophie McAdam Clark, who decided to get her hair cropped to raise money for charity. The result is that Sophie now has a very trendy hairstyle and her chosen charity, 'The Make a Wish Foundation' is over 10, 000dhs better off. Another grateful recipient was Purely Wigs to whom Sophie donated her hair

marrow transplant and half of the money raised on this day went towards helping her. A total of 9775.25dhs was raised on Pink and orange day and this was split equally between each of these causes! Thanks go to Year 11 students Sahas Singh and Gayatri Mehra for raisng awareness of Leah’s plight. Furthermore, Maddie Freeman, Biddy Fogg, Jenna Denton and Jess Evans of 9RA raised 800 Dirhams by selling breast cancer (pink) ribbons. At the Year 12 Consultation evening, Yekta Gerami (Year 13) helped raise 1740 Dhs for Lea. We have managed to raise over 11000 Dhs for Lea’s cause, over 5000 Dhs for Breast Cancer research and over 12000 Dhs for MSF Pakistan. Congratulations to all concerned and what a great effort. A big thank you to everyone for your kind donations! Madi, Raeleen and Anika (PR for the DC Charities Committee)

Fantastic success at Doha College sports weekend Last weekend saw junior and senior teams flying off to Doha for the 28th anniversary of the Doha College Exchange. The trip got off to a disappointing start when several students were refused entry visas. However, despite their absence DC teams produced a sterling effort to win the overall competition 17-9. The weekend’s competitions cover a range of sports from rugby, football and netball to rounders, water polo, culminating in the traditional swimming gala. Some fantastic performances from the junior girls meant they won all of their competitions except the gala. The junior

boys won their rugby and their section of the gala with only five swimmers. At senior level the girls gained a comfortable victory in both the netball and rounders, whilst the senior boys won the rugby, water polo they also snatched an amazing draw from the jaws of defeat in the softball. Going into the final innings 9-0 down the boys managed an amazing 9-9 draw! However, Mr. Jones did not see it having walked off in disgust at what he thought was a whitewash. He still does not believe it! Despite the wins and the losses the weekend once again proved to be a reminder of the strong

links that have been forged between the two Colleges. Long may it continue! Notable highlights Junior girls - netball 34-4 football 9-1, water polo 7-0. Won all sports except gala with only 10 Senior girls netball - 42-3 - won rounders by scoring 7 rounders off 20 balls in the final innings Junior boys - rugby 29-5 - won the gala with only 5 swimmers. Only had a team of 9 throughout Senior boys - rugby 35-0, water polo 17-0 (Andy Chetcuti scored 12!!) And of course the softball!

Great start to the season for DC teams So far this term DC teams have made quite an impact on the sporting front. In addition to the excellent weekend in Doha teams at all age groups have produced some excellent results across a range of sports. Notable performances have come in rugby with DC teams making a clean sweep at all age groups at the BSAK Tens. The DC swim squad has made the best possible start in their defence of the Dubai Schools’ Championships, winning their first league meet comfortably. This followed their excellent performance against ASD earlier in the term. On the football field both boys and girls’ teams have enjoyed success in the Onion Bag tournaments and have made good starts in their respective Dubai Schools’ league

campaigns. The junior and senior girls’ teams have won through to the semi-final stage of the Dubai Schools League. The senior boys have gone through the season unbeaten thus far. On the netball courts our junior teams are yet to start their league matches but they have been working very hard in practice to prepare. The Desert Cats squads have however begun their games in the very competitive Dubai Ladies’ League with the 1st team winning both of their games. Our cricket teams at both junior and senior level have gained notable victories at local school level. Recently the seniors had a comfortable victory against a strong touring team from Purley in the UK.

basketball teams have made the semi-finals of the Dubai Schools’ League with the girls’ team going unbeaten so far. Following there tremendous success in Doha the senior boys’ water polo team go from strength to strength. In a recent contest against their closest rivals Jumeirah College they produced an outstanding display to win 16 goals to 4.

Both the senior girls and boys’

Dubai College 7s This year’s Dubai College 7s will take place on Saturday 27th November commencing at 8.00am. Over 500 players from Under 11 through to Under 16 will be taking part. We are grateful for the support of Crown Plaza Dubai, Oasis Water and FDC.

U13 Girls Onion Bag Tournament, October 2010 The first BSME Onion Bag tournament of the season took place on 29th/30th October at Rashid School. In the U13 girls’ competition most of the Dubai College players were making their match debuts, either as newly signed up Year 8s or up and coming Year 7s. The newly formed team played 8 matches over the 2 days against teams from as nearby as JESS to more distant rivals from Al Ain, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain. The Dubai College team played in very good spirits and worked extremely hard throughout the

tournament. They finished with 3 wins and 5 losses which placed them in 6th out of the 9 teams. 3 of the games that were lost were very closely fought battles that looked like going either way right up until the final whistle. The DC girls were particularly unlucky to lose 1-0 to DBS. They had the majority of the possession and had a number of very good shots including a couple which hit the woodwork. It is not possible to mention everyone by name, but I would like to congratulate every one of the players for their efforts

during the 2 days. In particular, well done to Iona Stewart for being an excellent captain, Bea Turner and Corryn Foote for being such determined defenders, Claudia Papke for her energy and strength in mid field, and Jo Jagtiani for pulling off some fantastic saves in goal. For photos and results of the girls and boys tournaments take a look at http://new.theonionbag.net/ bsme-dubai---oct-10.html

Head Boy sets four national records Head Boy Andrew Chetcuti is clearly building up to the World Swimming Championships later this term. During the holiday

Andrew competed for Malta in the Irish National Short Course Championships and by the end of the event he had set four new

individual national records. Congratulations!

DUBAICOLLEGEHouse Update The House programme has continued at a hectic pace with several competitions being completed just before the holiday. The results were as follows: Year 7 Boys Quiz won by COUSTEAU Year 7 Girls Quiz won by HEYERDAHL

Senior Girls Soccer won by BARBAROSSA Junior Girls Soccer was a three way tie between BARBAROSSA, CHICHESTER and HEYERDAHL Year 8 Soccer won by HEYERDAHL, Year 8 Netball won by BARBAROSSA.

Current Standings: COUSTEAU

37½ points

HEYERDAHL

35½

CHICHESTER

34½

BARBAROSSA

32½

College shortlisted for award Dubai College has been shortlisted in the ‘Best School in Dubai’ category by Ahlan! magazine.

VOTE FOR US NOW! Dubai College is proud to announce we have been shortlisted for the Best School/ College Category in the Best in Dubai Awards. Vote for us now on www.bestindubai.ae Voting closes soon.

An ITP Consumer Event

Dubai College Alumni London Reunion Dubai College Alumni London Reunion, on Saturday 27th November 2010, from 1pm till late at the: Slug And Lettuce, LEICESTER SQUARE (in the UPSTAIRS area) 5 Lisle Street, Leicester Square, London, WC2H 7BG

LAST YEAR’S. (For a map & other details of the venue see: http://www.slugandlettuce. co.uk/leicester_square Nearest Tube stations: Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square).

If you’ve not yet made plans to be at the reunion, get making them now. See you on Saturday 27th!

PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A DIFFERENT LOCATION TO

Journeys The Journeys Programme continued this week where Alumni. Pasangi Weerasinghe who left the College in 2007 gave the Sixth Form an insight into her life since leaving DC. Pasangi has returned to Dubai to take up an analyst’s position with CitiBank and has immediately re-established her connection with DC by joining the new FDC committee and alumni association.