Teach Middle East Magazine May 2014 issue 1 vol. 1 | Page 16

Featured School Of note is Ms Yasmine Tahhan, who Mr Sallam lauds for her innovativeness in creating impacting lessons for her English classes. He added that through collaborative efforts on the part of the teachers in each department, they are able to learn from each other. When asked what was special about Al Nasha’a Al Saleh School Mr Sallam said without hesitation, the students. “…Our special thing is our students and the kind of education we are giving to them. This is what keeps the students here in this school. If you go to Grade 12 students, you will find that most of them started here in KG.” Ideas that work The school will be going through the inspection process in the upcoming months. This is a commonality that all schools in the UAE share. Also common is the sense of foreboding that inspection creates among some educators and administrators. Mr Sallam deflects the negative connotations that some associate with inspections by outlawing the use of the word among his staff. He assures them that it is a learning experience that is geared at improving specific areas within the school. Encourage good practice When faced with the question on how he encourages his teachers, Mr Sallam shared, “We encourage our teachers to work towards their full potential and to actually create something that they are Abdulla Rashed Al Shamsi took home the prize for first place in Speech at the recently held Heritage Day Competition. 14 May 2014 Class Time proud of. If we are to look at Maslow’s hierarchy, most of our employees are at the top level of his pyramid… they want to create something worthwhile. There are a few who are behind but most of them are there. I will never say no to any teacher who wants to do something special, have some initiative or wants to start something new. When it works we can then copy the good practice across the school.” Future plans for the students include introducing some of the students to alternative activities for Physical Education such as swimming and/or shooting. Additionally, whilst he did not get into details, Mr Sallam stated that there are ambitious improvement plans in the pipeline to propel Al Nasha’a Al Saleh forward into the 21st century. Nashwa Hassan – Child Protection Officer poses with eleven year old Khalaf Saeed Al Dhaheri, who walked away with first place prize for the Chess Competition organized by Al Nasha’a Al Saleh Private School, which saw over 120 students from 7 different schools participating in the competition that was supervised by ADEC.