Al Ain English Speaking School

Infobox School
name = Al Ain English Speaking School


motto =
established = 1979
session =
principal = Peter Hodge
city/town = United Arab Emirates
school code =
enrollment = 700+ (Exact of 31st January 2007)
colours =
homepage = [http://www.aaess.com Link]

The Al Ain English Speaking School (A.A.E.S.S.) is a school for expatriate children living in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. AAESS had on 27th April 2008 around 700 students in total, 350 in Secondary and 400 in Primary. It is estimated that by July 2009 it will double in size. The Secondary building is currently being expanded into twice its size. The school consists of children and teachers of many nations which makes it nationally recognized. It is also Cambridge certified. The school has mostly teachers from England and there are some foreign teachers teaching subjects of their own country.

2 ICT Labs (Only For the Secondary School)

The school has two ICT Labs equipped with over twenty computers in each with Window 95. These computers are equipped with electronic optical mouse and keyboard. Most people use these ICT Labs for schoolwork and homework as you are not allowed to use them for anything else. The computers have USB slots in the front and back of which only the ones in the back work. The two ICT Labs are quite different to each other as Lab 1 has Flatscreen monitors and Lab 2 has the old-fashioned monitors, still both of them look the same, old-fashioned computers with Windows 95 software.

Staff

The teachers vary very diiferently. Some enjoy sleeping in religious facilities others enjoy shouting and screaming at innocent students. Overall an intresting school. Many teachers have some difficulties which are confidential but the students are trying everything to fix these difficulties (The last sentence refers to only some teachers).

Problems

The school has experienced many problems with a scandal frowned on by the whole country. The ICT Labs have hacked into the Pentagon and are now in debt because they have to pay with 0.5% interest. Whether this occurrence actually happened is being debated.No one who has done this but the Taliban are asking the person (whoever he is) how he did it.

There have, however, been a number of other scandals in recent years, which include Year 6 boys 'behaving inappropriately' and sexually in the Primary School bathrooms, leading to five suspensions [1] ; a female teacher being assaulted by a man who wandered into the school, which caused increased concerns about security in the school; popular teachers who had been teaching at the school for years being dismissed by the new administration; rumors (though unsubstantiated) about corruption in the school's administration; a recent dissatisfied teacher creating a website which poked fun at the administration and insulted several other teachers (this website has now been shut down), and going so far as to show this website to students in his class; inflammatory posters about the new Head Teacher being anonymously displayed all over the school, although these were quickly taken down; many promises being made by those in the administration to the students in Sixth Form-- these promises never materialized and left many of the older students feeling resentful; a teacher, now fired, smoking in class; another teacher, now fired, swearing in class; and many changes in the higher administration-- as one AAESS student said, "There have been so many new principals, and they never last long. I don't bother learning their names anymore." This has led to parents expressing concern that the school's environment is too unstable, and that this shows itself through a growing lack of motivation in students, especially those in Secondary School. The local consensus is that the school has become a business, and, in doing so, has lost the intimate, nurturing environment it boasted of when the student population was smaller and the teachers had all been working at the school for many years. The influx of new teachers, many of whom do not stay longer than a year, has led many students preparing to leave high school to worry about the impossibility of securing college references from teachers who have known them for more than a few months. However, it is hoped that the latest Head of Secondary, Mrs. Kilbride-Newman, will help to stabilize the school. [2]

BBC linked with the school

The teachers of the school are mostly British so they mostly teach students on BBC Bitesize, of course this all happens in the ICT Labs. This helps students learn about a certain subject but at the same time also helps them develop their ICT skills. However, this does necessarily limit the depth and variety of subjects that the students can learn.

Primary School

The Primary School ranges from Reception to Year 6. The uniform is similar to the Secondary School except the fact that the t-shirts have a bold blue outlining on their sleeves and collars. Students in Year 2 in May will write their SATs which will take them to the next stage of Primary and then in Year 6 the SATs will be written again too, and these examinations will act as the passports into Secondary School.

Secondary School

The Secondary School ranges from Year 7 to Year 13 from where students will eventually flee of their school life and go into colleges & universities. The students' uniforms differ from Primary School as the shirts have normal buttons from neck to waist with collars and short sleeves and a plain light blue colour, the pants will be however the same. When students are concluding Year 9 they will take the SATs examinations again including all the work taught since they started Secondary School. After Year 9 come Year 10 in which the GCSEs will be taught and at the end of the year very important examinations will take place. Year 11 will be the A-Levels. Year 12 & 13 are the AS-Levels of which Year 13 is optional and from finshing school, students can go into higher education and students really hate the standard but they have to live with it.

Subjects

There are many subjects in this school including ICT. The Core subjects are English, Maths and Science (Biology, Chemistry and Physics). There are languages of which Arabic is compulsory and then there are French and Spanish to choose from.Geography and History are also subjects taught. ICT is taught in the Two ICT Labs where some of the lessons are fairly useful and some of which students don't find keen to learn from. Physical Education is where students are put to the challenge of how much strength and speed they have. There are many sports to choose from like Table Tennis, Swimming, Rugby and many more. Often this is out in the heat, so students have to be careful not to overexert themselves. Students can occasionally go to ICT Lab 2 if they please to. Islamic Studies is for the Muslim children at the school and it is compulsory for all Muslim students to attend two classes a week and for some one a week and many of these are described as 'wrong'.

Outside of the classroom, students have the option of joining the Student Representative Council (SRC); however, students often complain that the SRC is unable to make substantial changes in the school due to the fact that the staff doesn't allow the SRC to do anyhting which is said to be 'pathetic'.

Key personnel

*Principal: Peter Hodge
*Head of Secondary: Mareve Kilbride-Newman
*Head of Pastoral Care: Lucy Elliott
*Former Head of Secondary: Derrick Duggan

The students remark

"This school honestly sucks, and I want to leave because it has messed my life up, nooooooooooooooooo...nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" This is a remark of only one student and there are many more.

External links

* [http://www.aaess.com/ Homepage]
* [http://www.dessdxb.com/Homepage for Dubai English Speaking School]
* [http://www.alaintimesuae.com/pdf/aat_16_english_full.pdf]
* [http://www.aaess.com/BOT/Letter%20to%20School%20-%20MKN%20Appointment%20_2_%2025.02.08.pdf]
* [http://www.ebay.com]
* [http://www.facebook.com]