DESC Newsletter 19

This newsletter was supposed to be easy. ‘It practically writes itself’ I had told myself. I need only to look at the past week and find my area of reference: Inspiration. ‘DESC is an inspirational place to be and the point is, to feel inspired, one merely need to open one’s eyes and breathe it in’. How true I thought. The problem was it was I who wrote the very same line back in September 2019, (yes, that’s right, I’m actually quoting myself). Undeterred, I was reminded of Picasso’s famous line (see above). However, I then stopped. Was it actually Picasso who had said this? On closer investigation I realised that I had read them before, twice in fact. The composer Stravinsky supposedly said “A good composer does not imitate; he steals,” and William Faulkner, author of The Sound and the Fury, allegedly phrased it as “Immature artists copy, great artists steal.” Steve Jobs has even used the phrase, although to be fair he did later state that he had ‘borrowed’ it from Picasso! The thing is, the saying is used time and again as a means to describe what inspiration means. ‘Steal’ here does not mean ‘plagiarise’ and it does not mean copy either. So what does it mean and how can we feel inspired today?

Inspiration comes in many forms and I like to take a magpie approach to inspiration, one that follows a simple premise of observation, emotion, action and resilience. First, I seek it out from all manner of sources which allows me to think about how culture comes together. I observe and listen to family, friends, staff and students; I watch films, I read, I think about conversations that I have. I consider the gestures people use, or the clothes that they wear. It’s about taking all the little everyday things and observing them with a critical eye in order to build a mental scrapbook from which you can draw. Second, I tap into my emotions. If it makes me feel positive and motivated, I will take the necessary action. From here, I feel it is important to start small and build. Mistakes will happen but even these can be tapped into for further inspiration. As historians are prone to quote ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’. Finally, I keep at it. At times it can look and feel difficult and different, but in these moments of doubt or decreased desire it is important to revisit the initial thoughts and feelings and go again. Revisiting these reminds ourselves that the very act of feeling inspired can bring immense benefits; it uplifts the spirit, creates hope, increases our energy and motivation and improves our personal wellbeing. Importantly, DESC inspires every day.

It even inspires during half term. The BBC were in school for a day, last Thursday, filming an episode of ‘My World’. This is a new documentary series for teenagers wanting to know more about the key stories and issues shaping our world today.  The Executive Producer of the programme is Angelina Jolie and it has just started broadcasting globally once a week, with content that supports teenagers to gain an understanding of complex global themes and stories.  You can get a glimpse into this and more on their new Youtube page:

One of Year 11 students, Elyazia Al Hashmi, will be starring in a forthcoming episode discussing minimum voting ages across the world and whether it should be reduced to 16. Elyazia was also able to discuss her involvement in Jujitsu, a sport she is passionate about and in which she competes regularly in tournaments across the Emirates. Watching the day of filming unfold was a genuine privilege. Elyazia was engaging, confident and articulate throughout. Not only will viewers around the world get an insight into what life is like for young Emirati people but they will undoubtedly be left inspired.

Moving into this week, we saw the seventh annual House Photography Competition (see article). Situated in the Parental Services reception you only need to spend a few minutes marveling at the display to appreciate the vast amount of talent, creativity and inspiration that exists amongst our staff and students. Photography here is inspired directly from the surrounding world. Consider that every day we walk by hundreds of potential subject matters that could be turned into an amazing photograph. Most of the time we just walk on by, about our business, without giving much notice to the scenes around us. However, if we simply pay attention, slow down, take in our environment, look at something in a unique way, we have a chance to ultimately capture or create an unique story in a single frame. Creating a photograph that evokes a feeling, emotion or a response from a viewer is what demonstrably drives and inspires the artists on display. Through their pictures they demonstrate that inspiration is all around us and that the world is full of stories to tell.

Inspiration also came in the form of Zoe Jackson MBE. Zoe was able to share with our students her story and incredible success from such a young age in a fun, motivational and engaging way. What was particularly inspirational was the clear message of keeping one’s core values at the heart of everything you set out to do. Not only was she an eloquent speaker, she was also able to motivate and engage with all of our DESC students building to incredible scenes at the end of the day.

By the time this article goes out we would have completed yet another busy and inspiring week at DESC. It can be found in the corridors, the classrooms, the sports pitches and drama rooms. It can be seen in our teachers, our students, our visitors and our parents. It can be sought from previous students who have come to support and give something back. It can be sought in the ArtsEd team of Clara, Tim and Luke looking to inspire the next generation of West End stars. I’ve no doubt it will be seen and heard on Thursday afternoon with our DESCFest. Needless to say ‘DESC is an inspirational place to be and the point is, to feel inspired, one merely need to open one’s eyes and breathe it in’.  There, I’ve stolen again!

Have an inspirational weekend!

Stephen Green
Assistant Headteacher

Year 7 Geography Volcano Competition

The Geography Department would like to thank all Year 7 students for their entries into this year’s Volcano Competition. We had a huge range of volcanoes, with the winners for each House as follows.

DESERT – Omar Charabish (D7A)

EARTH – Jonah Buysee (E7F)

SKY – Layla Dubois (S7H)

COAST – Colin Clement (C7E)

DESC Headteacher, Mr Vizzard awarded the ‘Volcano of the Year 2020’ to Omar Charabish (Desert House), for his cross-section idea and his underwater features! All four finalists were rewarded with their own map of the world, but more importantly; lots of points for their respective House.  

All students were also given the opportunity to erupt their volcanoes.  Be sure to follow us on our department Instagram to see the eruptions. @descgeography

Student Achievement

The Performing Arts faculty would like to congratulate Reese O’Connell for his recent performance for the UK Pavillion as part of the GESS Educational exhibit located in the World Trade Centre.

Reese was welcomed to the performance space by ArtsEd International Director, Dr Andrew Lee, following a speech by the Consul General. In support of the event were the UK Ambassador to Oman and the UAE minister of Education to name but a few and it was a pleasure to see Reese entertaining the crowds.

Reese performed his solo of ‘Something’s Coming’ from West Side Story, a performance that the DESC community are able to witness in our school production taking place from the 16^th-18^th March. Tickets are now on sale from the Performing Arts office in F Block and we look forward to inviting you to celebrate Reese’s future success.

Seventh Annual House Photography Competition

It was wonderful to welcome parents, students, staff and governors to the seventh Annual House Photography Competition on Monday, 24^th February 2020. This year’s competition welcomed over 200 entries across the different year groups. The exhibition is a rich, textured and diverse collection of images demonstrating the talent, creativity and inspiration that exists amongst students and staff of DESC. It draws upon entries from all year groups (including entries from our sister school, DESS) and is truly inclusive as both staff and students exhibit side by side.

An interesting aspect of this year’s entries was the use of the inclement weather we have experienced, with fascinating and imaginative results. Photos are always seen from perspective; the beauty of a captured moment is defined by the viewer’s eyes. A picture can hold so many emotions, but it will always hold a different meaning depending on what the photographer intended to depict and what the audience wants to convey through it. There are, as this year’s theme demonstrates, always unusual viewpoints.

Mr Green was delighted to announce this year’s winners, as well as pay tribute to the many who had entered the competition this year. He also thanked the Creative Art’s Team, in particular to Ms Smith, Mr Ford and Mrs Newman for coordinating and putting together the terrific exhibit and finally the Food and Nutrition Department, especially Mrs Barber, Mrs Cotgrove, Mrs Macdonald and the BTEC Students for the glorious refreshments. The exhibit is open for the next two weeks.

WINNERS

Staff

1^st: Lawrence Winter E

2^nd: Lynsey Hilton D

3^rd: Ebrahim Rawat

4^th: Kristen Bishop E 

DESS

1st: Sanna Nooruddin & Maira Shah

2nd: Sophia Grieve

3rd: Niamh Carberry

4th: Caleb Tewharau

YEAR 7

1st: Chloe Corby E

2nd: Beau Fountain C

3rd: Aiden Watson D

4th: Leah Quborsi C

YEAR 8

1st: Michaila Arnot S

2nd: Anya Shetty C

3rd: Zara Bradley D

4th: Mineshi Singh S

YEAR 9

1st: Mariyah Vania D

2nd: Jack McCurren C

3rd: Alec MacKay S

4th: Kalea Griffith C

YEAR 10

1st: Marina Adamantiadi E

2nd: Lucas Bird E

3rd: Soha Mulla C

4th: Sasha Bird E

YEAR 11

1st: Aaryan Siram S

2nd: Alannah Hill E

3rd: Louisa Spencer C

4th: Saman Mukkaram C

KS5

1st: Abigail Watson D

2nd: Cydnee Howard S

3rd: Eden Owen D

4th: Lehar Kastwar S

HOUSE Results

1^st: Earth

2^nd: Desert

3^rd: Coast and Sky

DESCrepes Competition

Over the last couple of weeks, over 130 Year 9 French students have embraced the opportunity to make crêpes during their French lesson. All the students were very excited to make and decorate their own crêpes and present to the class their own and unique creations. This experience links to the topic of food that we have studied this year. All students were challenged to interpret the recipe in French using their knowledge of vocabulary. Each group of students had to demonstrate effective collaboration, teamwork, creativity and good communication skills. It was a difficult task to choose a winning group per class as competition was fierce.

A huge thank you to the Food and Nutrition Department for allowing us to use their kitchen and offering an enriching cross-curricular opportunity to our French students. Be sure to check out our tweets on twitter @DESC_MFL

Performing Arts Week

This week, DESC was a hive of activity as part of our second Performing Arts Week. Students were able to celebrate all things Performing Arts by exploring a range of activities and performances. Students were encouraged to try something new and challenge themselves to get involved in as many events as possible over the course of the week. Firstly, we introduced musical mornings, with a different playlist of themed music that played around the College each day. Within Key Stage 3 lessons, students had the privilege of working with our ArtsEd professionals on a number of Musical Theatre numbers. Luke Baker, Tim Jackson and Claira Vaughan put our students through their paces with dance numbers from Everyone is Talking About Jamie, We Will Rock You and Cabaret, before commenting on how impressed they were with our student’s positive attitude towards the complicated choreography. Luke, Tim and Claira have a wealth of West End experience and provided valuable feedback to students regarding the performing arts industry and further education.

Using a passport stamping system, students were challenged to attend as many lunchtime performances as possible. We were spoilt with performances from our LAMDA students, Trinity Singers and GCSE Dance students, and treated to excellent performances from both our Junior and Chamber Choir who all took to our outdoor stage to perform.

On Tuesday we welcomed Zoe Jackson (MBE) to the College to lead a range of high energy flash mob-style workshops. Zoe began by engaging students through her inspiring story and how she created her extremely successful performing arts school ‘Living the Dream’ at the age of 16. Zoe worked with entire year groups, rehearsing a number of dance moves before assembling all of the students (over 1000) on to the rugby pitch where they all performed together. The event was a real celebration of students coming together and having a real ‘give it a go attitude’.

The weeks finale will take place this afternoon and takes the form of our second DESC Fest event, where friends and family members of the DESC community are able to enjoy an afternoon of live music, children’s entertainment and delicious food. We also have the opportunity to welcome ArtsEd alumni and rock bands from English College and GEMS Wellington to the stage. The afternoon is a real celebration of student’s passion to the Performing Arts and we would like to thank everyone for their continued support.  A full report and video will be available next week.

The Performing Arts would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who took part during the week; both staff and students alike. We look forward to sharing our future events with you; including our production of West Side Story, for which tickets are now available from the Performing Arts office.

Be sure to check out our Performing Arts Twitter and Instagram page @descperforming where you will find many more exciting updates.

Year 12 Physics Trip to the American University, Dubai

On Tuesday, 25th February our Year 12 Physics pupils were lucky enough to take part in an Engineering workshop at the American University in Dubai. On arrival, pupils were warmly welcomed by Alaa Ashmawy, the Dean of the School of Engineering before gathering with the other 100 students ready for the first activity. Pupils were given the task of designing a boat with only one cup, 10 straws, clingfilm and sellotape. Our pupils relished the challenge! Their boats were an engineering triumph and managed to float and hold 64 weights successfully. Next the pupils took part in different engineering workshops of their choosing. Pupils learnt about drones and how they are used in industry and then even got the opportunity to fly one, managing to incorporate flips and tricks within the programming. Others attended a robotics workshop where they were given a ‘LEGO Mindstorms EV3’ to programme to move around the workroom. The pupils’ programming skills were impressive and they managed to navigate their robots around the various obstacles designed to test the pupils’ coding. The trip concluded with a tour of the impressive campus and of course a vital visit to the campus Starbucks to give the pupils a taste of real university life! Overall, an informative experience and the pupils look forward to what lies ahead of them as they consider starting their careers in Engineering.