Countries come together
The importance of accepting and celebrating differences between nationalities
On February 3 this year, Deira International School (DIS) hosted their yearly International Day, where everyone comes together to celebrate their own and other nationalities. This is an event for all family and friends to enjoy.
Mrs Rania Abu Ghush, head of Primary AFL in Deira International School, organises this event. We spoke to her about the importance of accepting and celebrating differences between nationalities.
One of the main goals of International Day, is to celebrate your own nationality. You can do this by wearing national dress from your home country and bringing in traditional food. Each country has their own stall where they can showcase highlights from home. In general, people bring in food and play games that are popular from their country. For example, the Irish stall played a game called ‘Spud Racing’ where the players need to move a potato by twirling string around a spool.
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Another aim of International Day is to allow students and parents to experience other nationalities. It is stated in Deira International School’s vision, ‘To create an outstanding, multi-cultural learning community which empowers students to achieve their potential, become life-long learners and responsible global citizens.’ This special event is another opportunity for students to interact with their peers and develop a greater understanding of where they come from and the world around them.
When we asked Mrs. Rania why it was important to be accepting of other cultures, she replied, “It is extremely important to be accepting of other cultures. In order to live in harmony and to live in peace, you need an understanding of the differences between yourself and others.”
During International Day, you have the fortune of learning about other’s cultures nad backgrounds. You learn about the food they like to eat, their national dress, and why they wear it, and also about their language. There were 80 countries who were represented this year at International Day, that is a lot of learning and tasting!
Becoming a sustainable school
Deira International School’s Eco Committee is running a recycling programme successfully
Deira International School (DIS) is striving to become a more sustainable school. In the primary section, we have an eco committee to help us achieve our goals. We sat down with two members of the committee, Alya Al Alawi from grade 4 and Srinath Satish from grade 6, to discuss their accomplishments in the past and main targets moving forward.
The Eco Committee is an after school club that meets once a week. It is comprised of a group of primary students from grades 3 to 6. When they meet, they look at past environmental reviews and create action plans to move DIS to become a more eco-friendly and sustainable school.
A big achievement that the committee has already set in place is recycling bins in the classroom and around the school. The bins are divided into paper, plastic and waste. At the end of the day, the cleaners take the collection to a recycling factory, Bee’ah, to be properly disposed. Just last week, the committee wrote up a new action plan. Some of their new objectives are:
To encourage parental involvement in the Eco Committee through events such as Eco Day and through surveys sent out to the school community.
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To reduce the amount of water and electricity used in school. Many signs have been placed in the bathrooms to remind students and teachers to turn off the water when washing their hands and we have ‘Stair Sundays’ where everyone is encouraged to take the stairs instead of the elevator for that day.
In June last year, the Eco Committee was thrilled to receive the Bronze Flag from Eco-Schools UAE, which they worked insanely hard for. Then, they proudly went on to collect the Silver Flag in October. The committee will now make every effort to obtain the Green Flag, to officially become an eco-friendly school. They will have their assessment at the end of May where they will share a video presenting everything they have accomplished.
Carey, head of the Eco Committee, said: “To be eco-friendly, we must run our school in a way that makes as little impact as possible on the environment. We need to reduce the amount of water we use, limit electricity usage by turning off our electronic devices when they are not in use and by taking the stairs instead of the elevator.”
Skills for our future
School’s STEM course is all about team work and student-led learning
This year, Deira International School introduced a new subject called STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Mrs Thomas teaches STEM, which provides the students the skills to think outside of the box and be creative.
Mrs Thomas explained to us that she went on a course to learn about STEM and liked it so much that she implemented it into our school. She is part of a group, along with other teachers who teach STEM, which meet every few months to discuss what they have already taught and new ideas and challenges they can deliver to the students.
In STEM classes, students are given a challenge to accomplish by the end of the day. They are granted with a specific amount of tokens that they can use throughout the day to buy the resources needed to complete the task. Students learn many valuable life skills during STEM. They learn about critical thinking through budgeting for supplies, and how to be resourceful using objects in a different way when their tokens run out! STEM is all about team work and student-led learning.
Mrs Thomas is also involved with a new project in school, the organic garden. She works alongside other teachers, who each have their own part in caring for our crops. Mrs Thomas mainly looks at the science behind ‘The Lifecycle of a Plant’, consequently, relating to the science section of STEM. In order to keep the plants healthy and strong, she began collecting fruit and vegetable scraps from the students to add to the compost bin. Our garden, is completely organic, which means no pesticides or chemicals are used.
In the garden, we have successfully grown a variety of herbs and vegetables. Students will be using the produce in our upcoming Enterprise Day. Each year group will be given one ingredient from our garden, and they must come up with their own creative recipe to present.
