Normally I enjoy writing a newsletter as it is the occasion to reflect and celebrate on the good work taking place across the whole school and also find ways of showing the interconnectedness of our community. This week the newsletter share the healthy life of School such as our 30x30 healthy living commitment, the photography exhibition, World Children's Day, busking, National Day preparations and more besides but my letter is most sadly dominated by the most appalling behaviour that was witnessed earlier this week.
I have heard it said that my predecessor excluded parents for bad driving outside of the School and for foul language but today parent rights are such that KHDA does not permit such practice and perhaps this is for the best. So I write today in defence of the overwhelmingly greater majority of our parents and their drivers who understand the codes of behaviour at drop off and at pick up and who enjoy polite and courteous exchange with teachers and fellow parents. While this letter commends that greater majority of our community who understand the shared values and practices that make up social belonging it also draws attention to those whose right to belong may be questioned.
While we have often written about the need for us all to uphold the sensible standards that support us all this letter is focused on the most extreme rare occasion when some members of our community refuse to support the greater good.
This is about two incidents that have been reported by two of our Deputy Head Teachers who share responsibility for morning duty in the car park. Reading their summary reports from which names and number plates have been withheld, I am sure you will share similar response and support me in my request that the individuals concerned come forward to me directly and in confidence to offer their formal apology to our School and to the individuals they have hurt.
As part of our regular health and safety and safeguarding processes all incidents where any member of the community has been hurt or put at risk a formal recording is submitted and so I copy from two incident reports .
Incident 1 involving loud and foul language that upset all who heard and in particular the indvidual helping with the traffic flow.
Alarge red cabined pick-up truck stopped abruptly in the middle of the road outside the school blocking all other cars from moving. This took place causing the attendant to motion all the approaching cars to slow down. When asked to move onthe driver rolled down his window and began shouting using foul abusive language. The transcription of the exchange includes several expletives, marked with asterisks, that have their roots in Anglo-Saxon and which do constitute profanity and can result in public offence procedings.
Driver : “What the **** do you want?" .
Attendant: “ I'm just asking vehicles to slow down”
Driver: “ Your should put up a ******* sign then!" He swore obscenely again and drove off at speed.
Incident 2 involving a near accident as the driver refused to stop and continued driving over the foot of the School’s Head of Security.
At the end of the day yesterday, I was on duty at the junction on the café road and was finishing up. When walking back toward the school main entrance I witnessed a white SUV was parked in the drop off area and proceeded to do a U turn. Our Head of Securitytried to stop this person and asked them to turn around but they continued to make the U turn. The Head of Security then stood in front of the car insisting that he follow the correct flow of traffic and the driver proceeded to move his car slowly towards our Head of Security forcing him to move out of the way. The driver drove over the foot of the Head of Security and stated in an aggressive manner that the RTA had granted no authority for him to control the traffic.
At this point the School Deputy reached the car and asked the parent to calm down, confirmed that he was a parent and explained he should know the one way rules we have to have in place and why we have them during pick up and drop off times, that they are in place to ensure the safety of all students and parents.
At this point another parent driving by stopped and opened her window and began to reprimand the drive stating: ‘I saw you driver over his foot, how dare you!’
The Deputy then continued to calm the supportive parent but the driver of the white SUV became rude and aggressive towards the parent before driving off at speed and then abusing another of our security staff at the IB entranceway opposite to Lulu.
I am sure that everyone will agree that such behaviour is completely unacceptable. The selfishness and obscene profane language, the disrespect for the community at all levels, and the danger that is being presented to others is an embarrassment to us all.
When children see and hear such things, and they most certainly do, they may be frightened, embarrassed, shocked and even angry wanting to intervene themselves. They expect adults to be role models and children will follow the behaviour that they hear and see.
This letter is written as we must all do out best to support of our community respecting every member regardless of their age, status, position in society or at NAS Dubai sharing common codes of behaviour and courtesy.
It is written knowing the selfless way that many are giving their time each and every day, risking their own safety on the road and in the car park to ensure the greater safety of us all.
It is written fully aware of all of the implications of writing like this and trusting in the way it will be heard appealing to all of our reasonable understanding of a greater good.
We all accept that there are moments when our own behaviour or language may slip but to reduce so far without account is unacceptable.
Please would both of these drivers come forward to offer their apology to me on behalf of the whole of our School community. I hope we shall never have to return to such discussion and trust that we can all find closure without needing to take this any further.
Matthew Farthing
Thursday 19th November – The Day NAS turned blue!
World Children’s Day is a day that celebrates the power of children to change the world. The Year 2020 has been an eye opener for us all, and Covid-19 has made us more aware of just how vulnerable ALL life on our planet is. It gave us the opportunity to stop and reflect, slow down, and to really look at the world around us. Time stood still, and in that time our world had the opportunity to breathe again and reset for a more sustainable future.
The Younger Generation have looked to us to make a change, and now they are taking it upon themselves. Climate Change is not going away! Climate Change is real! Climate Change is happening!
NAS Dubai, along with many other organisations around the world, have dedicated themselves to tackling each of the Sustainable Development Goals in the run up to 2030! This year our Young Leaders are focusing on the Sustainable Goals:
13 Climate Change, 14 Life Below Water 15 Life On Land
This week, four of our inspirational Student Voice Leaders in Year 6; Rhianna Rattonsey (6F), Byron Pirrie (6B), Freia Key (6F), and Simran Khemani (6D) took a stand! They delivered and inspiring, motivational and informative Climate Change assembly to Year 3,4,5 and 6. An assembly that not only made us aware of how our world is changing, but an assembly that made us realise we ALL have a part to play in making a positive change. A huge well done and thank you to them all!
Even our younger Students are shouting for change! Year 3 have a very special message and wish this year for Sustainable Santa – have a listen to what they have to say!
Year 3 Sustainable Santa
In the Secondary school, five of our passionate IB students led the charge in support of our whole school Climate Change Campaign. As part of their CAS programme, they were tasked with designing Climate Change activities for the peers to participate in.
Over the week, the Year 10s have been participating in a student-led lesson in which they tasked with producing a Witness Statement akin to David Attenborough’s recent documentary “A Life on Our Planet”. The results have been great, both humorous and informative about the growing issue of climate change. Not only did they create something extremely pertinent to the issue at large, but also allowed for them to go outside in order to film safely, something Year 10s have been wanting to do for a while. The effort and passion that has been put in has gone above and beyond our expectations. (Grace Rodsjo and Claudia Earl)
Keeping the SDGs, Climate Change and Life on Land, in mind I designed a lesson for the year 7s on the theme of farming. Focusing on monoculture, permaculture and the importance of biodiversity, I introduced the students to what permaculture is, who invented it and why monoculture is so detrimental to our planets biodiversity. At the end of the lesson I asked the students to design their own permaculture garden that they could grow at home. Keeping in mind what things grow best in Dubai. (Keelin Usher)
At the beginning of the week, we designed an interactive quiz concerning the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 13: Climate Change. The purpose in doing so was to create an entertaining activity that provided the Secondary students with knowledge on the global issue. The contents of the quiz included Climate Change impact on countries, animals, environment and many more. Furthermore, in correlation to World Children's Day, the activities gave the students the opportunity to learn and therefore want to make change for the future! (Te’ata Robison and Alyssa Rothe)
In addition to this, a whole host of other activities have taken place with some stunning examples of student led Climate Change themed videos, projects and artwork being produced. Please see here for a poignant piece from our Theatre Studies students below.
World Children’s Day and our NAS Dubai Climate Change Campaign has given the whole school an opportunity to come together and think about the type of world we want to create. This week students and children of all ages have reimagined a better world and we hope that the passion and conviction to keep our planet healthy, protect biodiversity and look after one another, will stay alive and burn bright towards a better future for us all.
IB Theatre students
News Bites
Dubai Fitness Challenge - Week 3
Well done to everyone who has taken part in this weeks fitness challenges.
Just a reminder to keep checking our social media channels for daily workouts and activities that you can join in ✅ 🏃🏻♀️🏋🏻♂️🚴🏻♂️🏊🏻♀️🧘♀️
NAS students and staff have thoroughly enjoyed taking part in this year’s Dubai Fitness 30 x 30 Challenge with the PE department hosting a series of initiatives.
This year we launched our very own virtual fitness calendar, providing daily fitness workouts, wellness guidance, yoga and nutrition activities on our @NASDUBAISPORTS YouTube channel. It has been great to see the varied and exciting fitness activities families have been participating in over the weekends. Miss Medina provided a live streamed yoga session to NAS parents, if you missed it you can view it through the YouTube channel.
All students and staff were challenged to ‘Walk the Metro’ over the 30 days. The Dubai Metro is 74.6km (159,857 steps), meaning students or staff should walk at least 5,329 steps a day to complete. It is never too late to join the challenge! Download the Steppi app to record the steps or use your SMART device.
Not only have we been active with the Dubai Fitness Challenge we have participated in a number of other sporting events. The DASSA 1KM Run for Primary students offered children from Year 3 – 6 to race against fellow students across Dubai. The PE department started our morning run clubs to record times over 2 weeks. The Run Clubs continue until the reset of the term giving students (and staff) an opportunity to challenge themselves to improve their times. Secondary students can run on Mondays 7:45am – 8:15am, Tuesdays Year 4 & 6 7:15am – 7:45am, Wednesdays Year 3 & 5 7:15am – 7:45am. Don’t forget our Beat the Teacher Festive Run at the end of term!
NAE Global Campus Heath & Well Being section has been a great addition to our school community. Our first event was the 5km run on 24th October taking place on the Jumeirah Beach Run Track. We would like to congratulate Lara Weissenfeld for taking 3rd Place in the Lower Primary Girls category and Archie Wade for placing 3rd in the Upper Secondary Boys category. The competition spans the 68 NAE schools across 29 countries!! This month students have an opportunity to compete at home in the Global Campus Swim Gala. Students swim a timed 25m Freestyle and/or 100m Freestyle and submit your time via the following form here.
Make sure you keep an eye out for the next Global Campus Global Sports Competition in December.
It has been great to see so many students, staff and parents taking part all the physical initiatives in school and at home as part of the Dubai Fitness 30 x 30 Challenge, Global Campus and Run Club.
Keep going we still have 8 days to go!!
Danny Thomas and Bekky Britton
NAS PE Department
richard.marks@nasdubai.ae
Busking!
Library Reopening!
The NAS Library is delighted to be fully reopened for Year 5 to 9 from this week! More year groups will be added over the coming weeks and we are looking forward to getting the students back into their reading habits and love of good books. For Primary students the lessons will be fortnightly with children able to borrow up to two books, Secondary students lessons are every four weeks and they are able to take up to three books if they wish. All returned books are ‘quarantined’ for a week to ensure student safety.
Please can we ask for any library books still at home to be returned to the library so we are able to offer the students the usual wide range of reading? They can be dropped at the library by any student or there are drop boxes in the Secondary English classrooms for our older students. We have a large amount of books outstanding from March and it would be great to see them back in circulation. If you need a reminder of what book/s your children may still have at home please do drop me an email, claire.roberts@nasdubai.ae.
"It's an absolute pleasure to go back to the place that is home to so many adventures and memories. I honestly was thrilled to find out that the library was open!" Zlata Honchar, Year Nine.
