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The Emirates Airline

YMoG Young Musicians of the Gulf Competition 2013

DUBAI COLLEGE U.A.E.

Issue No. 28 14th February 2013

Emirates Airline Young Musicians of the Gulf Competition, 2013 This year Dubai College was the proud host of the prestigious Emirates Airline Young Musicians of the Gulf Competition, 2013. Having being held in Bahrain for some 15 years, the College was thrilled to be the first school to take the reins of this event, which is the region’s most high-profile music competition. With 122 competitors from 11 schools in Sharjah, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Kuwait there was a truly electric atmosphere during four days of heats, masterclasses & workshops. Presiding over the competition were their distinguished external adjudicators, all notable professional musicians in their field: Hannah Marcinowicz (clarinettist & saxophonist), James Baillieu (pianist) and Lisa Milne (soprano). We were also honoured to have with us two visiting artists Peter Seivewright (pianist) and Min Yang (violinist) who performed recitals for the competitors. 84 solo entrants battled it out in the first round, with 65 making it to the second round, 15 to the Semi-Final and 6 to the Grand Final, which was held in the beautiful Wasl Ballroon in Le Meridien, Dubai. Also competing were 18 ensemble entrants. We were immensely proud that all four of Dubai College’s ensemble made it through to the 6 for the Semi-Final, and indeed we were delighted to win both ensemble categories. We were also elated to meet with considerable success in many other categories, winning 8 out of the 14 available prizes, with Matthew Laven being hailed the Young Musician of the Gulf, 2013! We would like to thank the participants, adjudicators and visiting artists for making the week so special as well as commend the prize-winners on their outstanding achievements. We would also like to sincerely thank our sponsors for

their truly generous support. Young Musician of the Gulf 2013 Matthew Laven Dubai College Runner-up Award Xiaolin Zhang Centre for Musical Arts Composer Award Ewan French Dubai College Instrumental Ensemble Award Milhaud Trio Dubai College Bianca Pereira, Bethany Wright, Cate Waft

Vocal Ensemble Award Barbershop Quartet Dubai College Ryan Evans, Rory Blincow, Ethan Ebdon, Yasine El- Ashmawi Owerkowicz Bequest Michel TouTougny St. Christopher’s School (best Bahrain based musician) Dubai College Prize Mathew Smeda JESS Arabian Ranches (best Dubai based musician)

Knights Bequest Hai Wei Li British School of Kuwait (best Musician under 15 years)

Piano Award Yasine El-Ashmawi Dubai College Bowed Strings Award Kyarash Aryanpad Centre for Musical Arts Plucked Strings Award Sandip Roy Dubai College Woodwind Award Bethany Wright Dubai College Vocal Award Isabel Snaas Dubai College Brass Award Lewan Yazici British School Al Khubairat

We would like to thank the American School of Dubai for the loan of equipment.

YMoG Dubai Drums Evening

Taking a well-earned break, the students from the Emirates Airline Young Musicians of the Gulf event put all competition aside and spent the evening of Tuesday 5 February drumming together in the courtyard garden at Dubai College. Host families as well as accompanying teachers joined the musicians and shared local food and musically decorated cupcakes. Dubai College would like to thank Dubai Drums for generously sponsoring this event. Learn more about Dubai Drums and their community and desert drumming events at www.dubaidrums.com

The Annual GCSE Certificate Presentation Evening The annual GCSE Certificate Presentation Evening took place on Wednesday 23rd January. It was a great opportunity to congratulate Y12 on their fantastic achievements last year. It was also stressed that the students must now use the skills developed during Y10 and Y11 – and develop them still further - to rise successfully to the increased challenge of ‘A’ Level study. Students and proud parents were entertained by the superb musical talent of Lora D’Costa and Victoria Frost and the insightful speeches delivered by Azmina Gulamhusein, Joe Palubiski and Saima Seer. Our thanks to Professor Gaad and John Merrigan- both Dubai College Board members – for presenting the certificates.

A Happy New Year in the DC Sixth Form It is safe to say that the Dubai College Sixth Form has made a very positive start to 2013. Having deftly avoided the end of the world in late December, we have subsequently hosted a world record breaking explorer, recreated society from scratch with the help of a renowned lecturer in International Politics and the Cyber Dimension (and adviser to NATO), as well as achieving the highest numbers of offers from Oxford and Cambridge in the history of the school. And that was just in the first week of term! Last Sunday Robert Swan OBE, the first man to have walked to both the North and the South Pole, came to share with us his vision for a sustainable 21st century in which countries all over the world accept their responsibility to find renewable energy sources in order to prevent the increasingly aggressive depletion of the world’s natural resources. Sir Robert, a former conqueror of the Antarctic, revealed that in 2041 the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty could potentially be modified or amended. For those of you who did not realise, the Antarctic continent is owned by no one and everyone. All the countries of the world have agreed that until 2041 the Antarctic will remain the world’s last wilderness, with no one country entitled to lay claim to or mine the continent’s as yet untapped resources. However, as our global energy consumption continues to grow and oil reserves continue to dwindle it seems inevitable that, unless we find a low-carbon alternative, we will need to develop new methods to enable us to access the frozen continent’s vast energy reserves. When this happens the Antarctic has the potential to become a battleground for mineral and energy miners, destroying what is currently a haunting desert of ice. Not only was Sir Robert’s talk inspiring and informative, it was also very amusing, delivered as

it was with a pioneer’s pragmatic wit. Perhaps what is most exciting is that Sir Robert has actively encouraged volunteers from the Dubai College Sixth Form to join him on his next international Antarctic expedition. Details can be found at www.2041.com, so watch this space. On Monday, the Sixth Form management team decided that they would listen to the constructively critical feedback from Enrichment Day One and combine their creative and cognitive powers to produce a second Enrichment Day which was educational, enriching but most importantly enjoyable. Without giving the game away entirely to the upcoming Year 11s, suffice it to say that the Year 12s took part in an imaginary disaster scenario that required them to rebuild the world from scratch according to their intended area of specialism at university. During the course of six hours, each student worked in a group as well as independently, contributed ideas to a closed committee and then presented them publicly, and listened to an undergraduate level lecture before taking part in an outstanding and very entertaining debate against an opposing team. All the while we were supported and encouraged by the aforementioned Lecturer in International Politics and the Cyber Dimension, Dr Madeline Carr, an academic at the UK’s number one department for International Politics at the University of Aberystwyth. Those students certain that Enrichment Day did not really have any practical relevance to them came away from the day honestly able to say they ticked every soft skills box that they will be required to evidence on their UCAS form this coming September. Not bad for a day’s work. Finally it was on Wednesday that we discovered the final numbers of successful Oxbridge applicants this year. In total 22 students took the brave and demanding decision to apply for what are statistically two of the most difficult universities to successfully apply for in the world. Of those 22, 20 were called to interview and in the end eight students were made

a conditional offer (twice as many as 2011 and the largest number in the school’s history). Those students are Pauline Bagatelas for Natural Sciences at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, Reuben Abraham for Engineering at Jesus College, Cambridge, Ewan French for Engineering at Lincoln College, Oxford, Aariya Mishra for English at Downing College, Cambridge, Anuj Aggarwal for Mathematics at Hertford College, Oxford, Simran Dhillon for Mechanical Engineering also at Hertford College, Oxford, Lavanya Malhotra for Medicine at Trinity College, Cambridge and Owen Over for Physics at University College, Oxford. It’s difficult to know where to go from here but I suggest onwards and upwards.

Robert Swan OBE

Dr Madeline Carr

to come and support the runners. You all made it an extra special morning.

Challenger Run At dawn on a chilly Saturday morning in January, 8 DC students lined up to take part in a sponsored run in the grounds of The Jumeirah Beach Hotel. The event was organised by World Challenge, an adventure travel company who have provided many students in DC with the opportunity to explore incredible destinations and get a true feel for travelling the world. This year’s 3 week expedition is to Mongolia and the challengers will be spending a week in a school, working hard to improve the learning experience of children in some very rural areas. The runners raised money for their expedition, the cost of which includes a donation to the Mongolian school and this will be used to purchase essential building materials and educational resources. Huge congratulations to Alana Rogers and Hasan Masud who did the full 8km route. Tom Webster and Sandip Roy crossed the line together to win the 4km race in under 18mins! Shan Maru, Jenna Denton, Arjun Dave and Alex Tait also completed the 4km route successfully with some very impressive times. For most of the students this was their first time competing in a long distance run and it was great to hear talk of them completing more runs in the future, some perhaps even longer! Special mention must go to Hasan’s mum, sister and brother who truly got in to the spirit of the event and completed the 4km run together, raising even more money for the teams to take to Mongolia! Thanks also to all those family and friends who got up so early

For more information on World Challenge Expeditions please visit http://www.worldchallengeinternationalschools.com/middle_ east/middle_east.html

Year 8 Kalba Trip

Take one Desert, one stretch of water 80+ students, five members of staff and a whole host of outdoor pursuit instructors. Mix them all together over two days and what have you got? A whole heap of fun that’s what!!!!! Yes, a hoard of DC Y8 students once again descended upon the sleepy town of Kalba and the desert lands of Dhaid in order to get physical and take part in a range of exciting and stimulating outdoor activities. Whether it was archery, climbing, canoeing or kayaking, all involved had a whale

of a time and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Special thanks go to Mr. Hann for setting up the school telescope and finding Jupiter and its moons for us all to gaze at in the evening. What did I learn from the trip? Well, firstly tents have a strange effect on Y8 students and seem to bring on some sort of mass excitement and a degree of insomnia which is consequently shared by the accompanying teachers. Also I learned that girls are so so much better than boys at making rafts but boys still have the

edge when it comes to football! My thanks to Mr. Hann, Mrs. Adamson, Mr Bernaz (who didn’t scare us all to death by finding scorpions this year!!!) and last but not least Mrs Casey who kindly accompanied us at short notice. Oh, I also learned that I can’t do now what I could do when I was a teenager and I have the aches and pains and the bruises to prove it…… no more Kayaking for me I’m afraid! Mr K Evans, Head of Lower School

Message from Examinations’ Officer Mr R.Miles

Entry Assessment

All students should check their statement of entry for: New units being taken, units being taken again and if they are finishing the course then they should look for a ‘cash in’ entry code and description.

Saturday morning 12th January saw hundreds of Y6 students sitting our Entry Assessment the numbers attending beat all previous records. As always the assessment consisted of both English and Maths papers. All of the primary pupils were working very hard throughout the long morning from 8 .30 to noon and they were a credit to their families and schools. Families will be informed of the outcome on 28th February.

‘Cash ins’ convert the examination UMS scores into a certificate and a grade.

Literature Festival Success

If students have any queries they can email Mr Miles on:

As part of the Literature Festival, Nermeen Islam was recently awarded third place in the Oxford University Press story competition. The prize giving will take place on Saturday 9th March at 17:00 at the InterContinental Hotel, Festival City, during the Festival. Very well done to Nermeen for this fantastic achievement.

Summer examinations

[email protected] In this email, please include the candidate’s full name and number and the examination code and title that they are querying.

University College London Forum Many of you will remember the success of last year’s forum involving the alumni, current students and academic staff from UCL and DC. Topics such as ‘The Fat Cats Last Meow - Is this the end of capitalism? were discussed and explored in some detail during

the course of the evening. We are delighted to say that this event will be repeated this year towards the end of April on Tuesday 23rd. Further details will be announced shortly including this year’s key topics for discussion. This is a true ‘community’ event bringing together past and present members of both colleges from across the UAE.

Alumni Careers Convention On Wednesday 16th January we held our annual Alumni Careers Convention for Year 11. After an initial briefing from the Headmaster, over 100 students descended on B block to hear about career opportunities ranging from Aviation to Public Relations. Some of the career titles were fascinating - Off-Shore Seismic Exploration and Forensic Science to take just two examples. The students could choose to attend any three sessions. The feedback from all was very positive with the students finding the sessions informative and helpful. As always, our sincere thanks to our Alumni and other members of the broader DC community for donating their valuable time to this important event.

Leading Practitioners Teachers from both The British School Al Khubairat Abu Dhabi and DC are currently collaborating on a range of action research projects which will hopefully lead to the Leading Practitioners Award at the end of the year. We wish all those involved the very best of luck. All being well we plan to build on and extend the professional development between the two schools over the coming year.

Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award A hundred and fifteen Year 10 students participated in Duke of Edinburgh’s Bronze Award this year. They had to attend 8 weeks of training on navigation, first aid, cooking and other camp craft skills. They also undertook two training and qualifying expeditions where they tried to apply what they have learnt during training sessions. During training

and expeditions, students were very successful in reflecting an exemplary image of the Award in terms of co-operation, team work, citizenship and the progress they made was very pleasing. They now need to finish the sport, service and physical aspects of the Bronze scheme in order to qualify for the Silver phase of the Award. I sincerely would like to thank the

DC Staff who have been involved in D of E this year and would also like to thank the fabulous students who have led training sessions for their valuable assistance and significant contribution to the success of the Bronze phase of the award this year. Mr H El-Taher D of E Bronze Coordinator

D of E Hordes of Students Escape to the Hills! On Thursday 31st January, 80 Dubai College students absented themselves from school and escaped to the mountains of Fujeirah. It was obvious that many of these individuals had been planning their escape for many weeks. They were equipped with detailed maps of where they were going, written guidelines on where they would set up camp, and judging by the size of their bags, it seemed all too clear that they intended to stay in the wilderness for many days! Fortunately what initially appeared to be a mass breakout, turned out to be no more than the school’s annual Duke of Edinburgh’s Silver and Gold Award expedition to Masafi. For the students this was the culmination of many weeks of training and route planning, as well as a mass-experiment to see how long they could survive on a diet of nothing more than potnoodles! Over the next 3 days (or 4 days for the sixth-formers who were completing their Gold Expedition) they carried all of their kit, including tents, food and cooking equipment, through mountains, over sand dunes and around annoyed-looking camels. Each day’s walking took between 4 and 6 hours, and the students were required to navigate their way through a series of checkpoints, where they found teachers who tested their navigation skills, but also helped patch up their blisters and supply them with water. It was generally agreed that the first day was the most physically demanding, as it ended with a 90-minute trudge up to the top of a mountain. The second day though was also very challenging, especially over the final 2 hours where the teams had to navigate their way through a seemingly never-ending valley before they were faced with another steep climb to their campsite. By the third day, most students were starting to feel a bit tired,

but then had the invigorating experience of walking through the rain, which became steadily more persistent as the day progressed. For the Silver Award students, getting back on the yellow buses at the end of their 60 km walk was perhaps the best part of the whole trip, but most of them claimed, whilst happily taking off their rucksacks, that they were looking forward to doing it all again next year! For the remaining 24 Gold Award students, however, another 25 km stood between them and their finish. At this point a few of them appeared to become delirious with exhaustion and insisted on singing “pop songs” for the rest of the day’s journey! Their campsite was reached after a steep climb over some dunes, nestled in a beautiful sand wadi, and seemingly untouched by humanity! As soon as they had set up their tents it began to rain, again, and the students happily ate their noodles and sang themselves to sleep. The final day was almost as eventful as the last. Despite

hobbling out of the campsite, with aching legs and sleep-deprivation the teams made remarkably fast progress through the remaining wadis. The onset of a sudden sand storm made navigation more difficult, but amazingly they still had the energy to “sprint” the remaining few hundred metres once they saw the familiar yellow school bus. Out of the 80 students who began the expedition, all successfully completed it and made it back home to Dubai. This was possibly the largest D of E group that the school has taken to the mountains and the fact that everything ran so smoothly, with all students completing it is perhaps a testament to the outstanding effort, teamwork and determination that Dubai College students show when things get tough. It also would not have been possible without the kind support of numerous teachers who gave up their weekends to support the expedition. Mr R Dennis D of E Silver & Gold Coordinator

GCSE Art Trip to DIFC Galleries Last Thursday, Year 11 Art students visited exhibitions at the galleries in DIFC, Gate Village. The theme for the examination this year is ‘FORCE’ and the purpose of the trip was to inspire and collect ideas. Mireille Merhej’s paintings of de-collaged torn posters and pages of magazines at the Sawa Gallery linked with the work of painter, Farzad Kohan at the Ayyam Gallery - his striking paintings consisted of recycled newspaper clippings and thin acrylic washes painstakingly layered through a method incorporating sanding and pasting and painting different colour washes between each of the forty or so layers to achieve the desired surface. We were delighted to have Eleanor Smith, a former Dubai College student who now works at the XVA gallery, talk to us again about their current exhibition entitled ‘paper’ which included works by Anish Kapoor. The students made an exciting start to the exam and we all left feeling really inspired. We can thoroughly recommend a visit!

Year 8 Trip Science trip to Space Camp Turkey 2013 Once again, the Science Department is organizing the Year 8 trip to Space Camp Turkey – leaving Dubai on Friday June 7th and returning early in the morning on Friday June 14th 2013. This is our sixth trip to Space Camp Turkey, a trip that has proved to be both educational and enjoyable. Unfortunately the cost of the trip (8,750Dh) is higher than last year due to price increases from Turkey but it still represents good value for money. Space Camp Turkey is affiliated to NASA and the original Space Camps in the USA and has a selection of the simulators used to train astronauts for space travel. The students design and test heat shields, build and fire rockets, visit the planetarium, use telescopes and study robotics in the robotics lab. The trip has a cultural aspect too with a visit to the beautiful Roman city of Ephesus (not to mention a shopping trip to Izmir) Full details have been distributed to Year 8 however for further details contact Mr Ashmore visit: http://www.spacecampturkey. com/defaulteng.asp .

Year 10 Science GCSEs May we remind parents that the whole of Year 10 will be sitting GCSEs in Science and Additional Science. These will be in the months of May and June of this year (ie in three months’ time). They are very important examinations as they are the ‘real thing.’ Recent changes to the GCSE examinations mean that they cannot be retaken. In the unlikely event of a student not achieving their desired grade then they would have to decline the awards and resit the whole GCSE’s at the end of Year 11 along with their third Science GCSE. Please be assured that the Science Department will take great care in preparing the students for the examinations as it is a good opportunity to reduce the load next year. However, it is important to remind students that they can no longer resit modules from now on. Mr L Ashmore

Raschèr Saxophone Quartet Masterclass Since its formation in 1969, the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet has appeared regularly at the major concert halls in Europe, Asia and the U.S. The Vienna “Zeitung” hailed the quartet as the “Uncrowned Kings of the Saxophone” and a critic from “Die Welt” claimed, “If there were an Olympic discipline for virtuoso wind playing, the Raschèr Quartet would definitely receive a gold medal.” The 14th January saw the quartet give their first masterclass in Dubai as part of the educational outreach programme of The Score. Dubai College tenor saxophonist Daniel Wakefield performed the second movement of Villa-Lobos’ Fantasia as part of this event, gaining insightful advice from quartet. His sensitive playing impressed the performers, with their guidance on stylistic and technical elements of

his work being of inspiration and value. Bethany Wright, Bianca Pereira and Cate Waft also performed the final movement from Milhaud’s Suite op. 157b, Introduction et Final. Again, the quartet were enthused by the talent demonstrated by the girls, helping them to focus on the some of the more complex musical challenges which the piece presents. We offer our sincere thanks to both the members of the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet and to the staff at The Score for providing us with such an important afternoon of music-making. More information on The Score or the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet can be found at: www.rsq-sax.com & www.thescore. ae

DC Alumni Traditions: The London Reunion On November 24th 2012 former students and teachers of Dubai College came together from around the world to enjoy the longest standing of all DC Alumni traditions: The London Reunion – in its 24th year! Despite much of England being stranded by floodwaters, we had a good turnout – not least amongst the former staff. The uncontested star of the evening was Hassan Lakiss, who’d flown over from Dubai to attend. Although Hassan organised the first Dubai Reunions, this was the first time he’d made it to a London one and it’s safe to say that it won’t be the last. A good many of the other alumni present were London Reunion regulars, who’d never dream of missing this yearly chance to see their old DC friends and feast on their latest news, served up with a delightful dollop of nostalgia. It would take more than a few disrupted rail services and washed out roads to keep them away! Don’t miss the 25th annual London Reunion, on Saturday 30th November 2013! (Venue to be confirmed) We are expecting a record attendance for our Silver Jubilee celebration!

Enrichment Day On January 14th we held our second Enrichment Day with the general title this time of 'Self'. The day started with a talk by Nils El Accad, owner of the Organic Foods and Café. He covered a variety of topics including dyslexia, setting up a business and healthy eating. During the day all students in Years 7-11 had a session of team building and then followed a year group timetable which included four sessions covering a range of topics including healthy eating, healthy body, cyber bullying, rights of the child, self-esteem, skin cancer, the influence of the media, first aid and choices for the future. Year 10 even had a practical session on cookery.

Maastricht University Visit For the second year running we welcomed Maastricht University from the Netherlands to the College on the evening of Wednesday, 30th January. Once again, the various benefits were stressed such as the cosmopolitan lifestyle, superb value for money (cost – approx. 1,800 Euros/ year) and, most importantly, quality of provision. Maastricht delivers the vast majority of its degree courses through English and is ranked higher than many well known UK universities. We are well aware that the majority of our students wish to attend higher education institutions in the UK but Maastricht is certainly a very attractive alternative for those with something of an adventurous streak. We continue to urge students - and their parents - to at least do a little research on this attractive alternative. www.maastrichtuniversity.nl

Zen and the Art of Sixth Form Life As phase two of the Enrichment Programme gets underway in the Sixth Form with its usual array of sporting, cultural and academic pursuits, 34 students have signed up for an 8 week course in Mindfulness and Meditation. The course was inspired by the happiness classes pioneered by gamechanging headmaster Antony Seldon at Wellington College in the UK, who credits the sessions with the meteoric rise in pupil attainment at the school. Happiness is now on the agenda internationally as more schools begin to offer equivalent courses and countries such as the Kingdom of Bhutan scrap the traditional GDP indicator for one that tracks GNH (Gross National Happiness). The 8 week course at DC is based on mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), co-developed by Professor Mark Williams of Oxford University. MBCT is recommended by the UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and is as effective as drugs for preventing depression. But, more importantly, it also works for the rest of us who are not depressed but are simply negotiating our way through the demands of the modern world. So if you find yourself wandering through the campus on a Tuesday afternoon and stumble upon a group of Sixth Formers sprawled on the floor with their eyes closed, relax, they have not cracked under the pressure of next term’s exams, quite the opposite, they are adopting a position of meditative equipoise to guard against stress. For more information on MBCT and the benefits of Mindfulness visit http://oxfordmindfulness.org/

House Round-up Having enjoyed considerable success in last term’s house competition, Heyerdahl looked to be well on course to repeat last year’s victory. They managed to build up a considerable lead (11½ points, no less) and the other Houses looked, even at that early stage, to be battling it out for second place. Since then, however, the competition has taken on a different look. A succession of successes, firstly by Barbarossa, and latterly by Cousteau and Chichester, has seen Heyerdahl’s lead reduced to just 2 points. The current standings read: Heyerdahl 94½ points, Chichester 92½, Cousteau 90½ and Barbarossa 82½. All could change radically in the half term to come, especially with Sports day looming, and it will be interesting to see which House will be taking a lead into term 3.

BSO/KHDA Inspection The College has undergone the largest and most rigorous inspection in DC’s 35 year history. A total of 178 lessons were observed; data, records, policies and our own self-evaluation analysed and interviews completed across the school with teachers, students, parents and Governors. We are the first institution in the UAE - and one of the first in the world - to undergo a Joint Inspection i.e.a British School Overseas (BSO) and national (KHDA) inspection process. The BSO inspection is a voluntary inspection process established by the UK Department of Education with the aim of checking if a ‘British’ school overseas is actually delivering the teaching, learning, systems and procedures you would expect to find in the independent sector within the UK itself. The whole process attracted the attention of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate who also arrived to evaluate the inspections. Indeed, at the height of the week, we had no fewer than 12 Inspectors (split between KHDA British inspectors, BSO inspectors and HMI flown to Dubai specifically for this inspection and Arabic and Islamic inspectors.) Two separate reports will be produced with the BSO one published on the UK Department for Education website. We will obviously inform all once both reports are published. An inspection is never an easy time - let alone when dealing with two parallel ones - so a huge thank you to the entire DC community for its superb work, attitude and outlook throughout!

Omega Dubai Desert Classic 2013 Dubai College students and staff once again acted as scorers at this year’s event. A team of 200 students and staff

obtained the scores from the course and kept the scoreboards up to date during the tournament. Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher saw

off the opposition and claimed this year’s title.

Year 8 Fun Day Once everyone was back from the Christmas Holiday it was time for the Year 8 Fun Day. The event started with a pool based competition where most of the teams made their intent clear – to win! There was lots of swapping going on as people found the best mix of objects to get from one end of the pool to the other – but eventually our judges sorted things out and having dried off it was time for food. Pizza and burgers always go down well and there was only a little left – despite pancakes, popcorn and ices being available as well. It was also the first time we have cooked pancakes on the barbeque! Down to the field where there were three events taking place: A soapy relay where each class needs to get a team from one side to the other, one person at a time over a wet and soapy tarpaulin (we were never sure

whether those falling over did it on purpose or whether it was just really slippery!). A chain relay – where each team simply needed to run together holding hands to the other end of the rugby pitch and back. As easy as that may seem we needed a second attempt because the first one resulted in everyone being disqualified! Then, the highlight of the day – the doughnut relay. Each class had to eat six doughnuts tied to string in a relay – the supposed spectators also all had doughnuts – but could use their hands. Finally, the results which were the closest we have ever had - at the end of all the events the top two teams were a dead heat but on an official count-back 8CT won. Despite there being a winning team, who get to keep the cup until next year, everyone seemed to have fun – and hopefully no one went home hungry – just wet and happy!

The Senior Girls Basketball The Senior Girls Basketball played in their first ever overseas competition during the weekend of January 10th -12th in Qatar. Hosted by families of students from the American School of Doha, the girls took part in a four team Tournament comprising the hosts, the American School Dubai, the American Community School Abu Dhabi and Dubai College. The girls played four games in total and while they did not manage to win any of their games, a very young Dubai College team playing against much older and more experienced opposition, gave a good account of themselves and were far from outclassed; the standard of basketball played was very good indeed and the girls will benefit hugely from the experience in the years ahead.

Dubai College Cricket for Care Festival The inaugural DC cricket festival will be taking place over the 7th and 8th March. The event, which will involve 12 teams across three age groups, will be taking place at the Dubai Sevens ground. The festival is being generously supported by Mr Shyam Bhatia’s Cricket for Care programme. His children are both Alumni of Dubai College. Mr Bhatia initiated his Cricket for Care Foundation in 2007 on the premise that his success in the field of business was primarily due to the lessons learnt on the sports ground. The College is extremely grateful to Mr Bhatia and his son Vikram for their support of the event which will provide a wonderful experience for a large number of students in Dubai.

Dubai College Netball vs Millfield School Dubai College hosted the hugely prestigious Millfield School who played against our U18 and U16 teams. Our A team played brilliantly. They were great ambassadors for DC and showed Millfield that netball at DC can compete with such talent from the UK. However, after a hard fought game we had to concede to a 34-22 loss. The U16 A team played Millfield U18 B team. The girls fought bravely against bigger and stronger girls and came away with great playing experiences, but unfortunately lost by 26-13.

Dubai College and Millfield School U16 and U18 netball teams

Hatta Run On Saturday 19th Jan four teams of bleary eyed DC students boarded the bus at 6.30am to head over to Hatta Fort Hotel for the annual schools’ cross country race. Upon arrival all the students knew exactly what was in store for them after walking the course and seeing “THAT HILL” which they were going to have to run up twice!! In the girls race there was a very competitive finish between the girls of both age groups which saw Tamsin Rose and Siena Gordon from Year 7 take second and third places in the junior category, but also finishing well ahead of a number of the senior runners too. Not to be out done, the senior girls swept the board with the top three places being taken by Maisy Duncan, Libby Johnson and Lara Fowler respectively. The boys supported the team well and as a result DC managed to retain the team trophy for yet another year. The efforts of the race were followed by a well-deserved brunch and a few games of crazy golf and archery and the brave few tested out the cool waters of the swimming pool!