School Talk: UAE
Welcome to "School Talk: UAE," your go-to podcast for all things education in the United Arab Emirates.
Join us as we sit down with teachers, experts, and parents to explore schools across the UAE.
Each episode provides valuable insights and perspectives from those directly involved in shaping the educational experience.
Whether you're a parent, an educator, or simply curious about the state of education in the UAE, "School Talk: UAE" is your window into the dynamic world of learning in this region.
School Talk: UAE
The Arcadia Approach to Sports Success
Unlock the secrets of a successful school sports program by tuning in to my latest conversation with Daniel Lewis-Williams, the passionate PE teacher and Head of Games at Arcadia School. Daniel brings to the table a wealth of experience from his international coaching career, which has deeply influenced the dynamic and effective sports curriculum at Arcadia. Together, we dissect the 'know show grow' method, an approach that champions physical literacy and essential life skills, and how this philosophy has cultivated an environment where students thrive not just in sports but in their overall development.
When it comes to school sports teams, the playing field isn't always level. In this episode, we scrutinise the complexities involved in categorising teams and ensuring fair competition. With Daniel's seasoned insights, we navigate through the responsibilities of schools in accurately evaluating their teams' skills to avoid mismatches in sports leagues. The dialogue extends to a comparative look at the sports programs in Dubai and the UK, unveiling the unique benefits and challenges faced by student-athletes in both regions. Parents and educators alike will find valuable takeaways in our exploration of the impact of co-curricular activities and the importance of thorough research when selecting extracurricular clubs for their young athletes.
Peering into the future, Daniel paints an exciting picture of what lies ahead for Arcadia School's sports offerings. Listeners will be captivated by the potential growth in both Dubai and the UK, with a particular focus on Arcadia's plans to enhance its PE department and upcoming sports scholarship program. This insightful episode wraps up with a reflection on the invaluable role models in sports education and how they shape the next generation. Our talk promises not just to inform but to inspire coaches, educators, and parents in fostering a nurturing and successful sports environment for their children.
Hi guys, welcome back to another episode of School Talk. This week I'm here at Arcadia School, where I was lucky enough to work for three years, and I'm joined by Daniel Lewis-Williams, who is one of the PE teachers here. He's also head of games. This week, dan's going to talk to us about all things sports at Arcadia games. This week, dan's going to talk to us about all things sports at Arcadia, their unique curriculum and why they've been successful over the last few years. To start us off, can you give us some background about your sporting career?
Speaker 2:A big thanks for having me on, chris. I hope it gives the listeners a good insight into what happens across school sport and PE here at Arcadia. I've always had a passion for sport, growing up playing sport at school and went to Milford School in Somerset which is kind of renowned for its sports. So that's kind of probably where the kind of passion started. Yeah, I've played a variety of different sports, probably the highest level competing in cricket, hockey. But yeah, that was my background. And then I went out to Australia on a gap year, did a bit of coaching there.
Speaker 2:I found myself in Cardiff Uni, continued to play sports. I played first class cricket there. I played a little bit at Glamorgan and then decided I fancied getting into the coaching background a little bit and through that got a coaching job at a school in Cardiff, the Cathedral School, and from there then did my teacher qualification and then after a couple years working in Cardiff, being the head of games there and a PE teacher there, I then moved to Dubai. The director of sport at the school in Cardiff at the time he'd worked previously in Dubai and was head of PE at Dubai College there. There was a connection there between kind of the UK and Dubai and that's kind of helped me get a job out here and it's great. Yeah, it's going really well, so it's a cool place to to work and live Big background in sport.
Speaker 1:Um, when it comes to specifically Arcadia and sport, how would you explain sport at Arcadia to the parents, obviously, of the students at Arcadia, but then also people who aren't affiliated with the school?
Speaker 2:yeah. So giles the principal, absolutely loves sport. Um, he's got a big push on sport. It's uh, it kind of gets the school. It's kind of like a free marketing tool to get the school out there. Really, his background, you know, to get to where he's been, he's been director of sport and come through the kind of sporting process through schools.
Speaker 2:So what kind of arcadia offers, which is a little bit different to probably other schools in dubai, is probably the contact time we have with kids.
Speaker 2:So we have an hour of p and an hour and a half games where they practice their sport.
Speaker 2:So p is more concept curriculum, whereas the game session is where they practice their focus sport of the term whether that be term one would be football for boys and each student across the whole year group will get an hour and a half of that focus sport of the term and therefore we get to see the kids a lot across the week.
Speaker 2:They also have an hour of swimming in that as well. So kind of three and a half hours of physical activity I think does set us apart from the rest. And then on top of that, um, if you're kind of in one of the school teams, you'll get an additional co-curricular session as well, um to complement that and get a bit more training in. So that's probably what gives us a little bit of a usp um on other schools and starting to pay dividends. And we're seeing, you know, the the rewards of that and how we're doing and how we're competing, of course, certainly primary at the moment, but also moving as we move up through the year groups and secretary. They're starting to pay dividends yeah, I agree I think.
Speaker 1:Correct me if I'm wrong, but uh, having the head teacher really involved in sport makes a massive difference to the whole culture of sports within the school. I've worked in schools in the uk where it just wasn't a priority for the head teacher and as such, the team's never competed. You were struggling for resources and things like that, but with giles being so heavily invested, it does make such a big impact impact. Um, and then another thing there you talked about concepts within the PE lessons and then, more structured, focused on a specific sport within games lessons. How do the two kind of complement each other?
Speaker 2:yeah, so I think the traditional kind of the traditional PE program, uh, or the national curriculum in the UK it is sport focused, where you would practice your sports in the lessons, and we just tried to move away from that and I think other schools have done that as well. Uh, we did it back in the school in the uk where we just follow a bit more of a concept curriculum and it's kind of for everyone, um, and it just moves away from that sport side of things. So you're more about the physical literacy side of things. Okay, there'll be a concept of the lesson where you will maybe, in gymnastics, focus on your movement competency, um, and yeah, you'll have your no show grow, um as a common theme throughout the lessons and it's just more built for everyone to get involved. Explain that for us no show grow, no show grow. So it's like you.
Speaker 2:They need to know, they need to understand what the concept of the lesson is and they need to explain that back to you.
Speaker 2:They need to show you that, yeah, um, whether that be the physical aspect of it, or be able to communicate that with you verbally back and then grow.
Speaker 2:How does what the theme of the lesson that we're working on, relate to the outside world, and how does that, how can you see why that's beneficial? What can we do that's going to help if we can focus on that, help you with life and things like that. So it just takes away from skill specific as such with sport, where those may be a little more talented, a bit more geared to, whereas this is, um, you know you can have different types of skill over, but they can all be physically literate, um, and it's about understanding yourself where you are physically, where you're. You can have different types of skill, but they can all be physically literate and it's about understanding yourself where you are at physically, where you're at. Your physical literacy is at, I guess, and you're building confidence and kind of competence across kind of the year you've followed different blocks throughout the year and you've found that that's become a lot more transferable in terms of they're learning that skill.
Speaker 2:But then they're then able to apply it in a different context, in a different sport. As such, it probably caters for more doing concept curriculum and also then builds the confidence needed then for those to understand their own abilities and their own fiscal competencies and then help them maybe wanting to join, you know, a sporting club outside of school or something like that. So they do complement each other really, rather than just focus on the sport the whole time.
Speaker 1:I think in our first episode on School Talk we spoke about an IB curriculum and kind of that's a really good blend of the national curriculum and the IB. I think in our first episode on School Talk we spoke about an IB curriculum. That's a really good blend of the national curriculum and the IB curriculum, looking at specific knowledge of a sport but then also looking at concepts as a whole. Love that In terms of competitiveness, since Arcadia the last few years they've been so much more successful in a range of different sports. In terms of comparing with other schools in dubai, how do you think arcadia compares in terms of where it currently sits now and what do you contribute to that?
Speaker 2:so I think having the sports program that we've got, the people that we've got, I think obviously that's a huge factor of what's kind of made us start to compete and be up there. Um, certainly in primary we're one of the the top schools, if not the strongest, across a variety of different sports at the moment. But so that's due to the, the kind of games and the p program, the content. I may have the kids, but there are some big players out there who've been around for a long time. Some established schools and in your secondary level you've got kind of your desk, your jess, your dc who you know. There's no secret to it. They've been around for a long time. They've pumped a lot of money to facilities. Their academic side of things is flying. There's a big waiting list to get into these schools, so like that is going to attract the top kids.
Speaker 2:And I think with your primary primary schools you've got some schools that have got large numbers. Okay, with large numbers you can you have a more of a, a pick the bunch, I guess. Um, and then those schools are kind of like your safa, your gesture, mary, just ranches, your deaths, your dia, emirates, hills, those, those kind ones off the top of my head that are consistently competing to a high level across all the DASA sports and then, yeah, I feel like at a primary level we are round about the top at that. At the moment it's about kind of now bringing those year groups through from year 6, 7 and trying to grow that secondary and retaining those tons of kids that we've got.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if I think about my eldest, who's at Jastjamira, in terms of their sporting program. Their training for netball, for example, started that very first week of term straight into it. They knew who their squad was from the previous term and that extra three, four weeks training, compared to other schools who might take a few weeks to get into it, is so much more beneficial. So in terms of actual contact time and continuity with the team. So, yeah, I think, like you said, the more established schools are, have a lot more success. Um, but then if you look at arcadia's perspective in the last three, four years, how much they've grown, not to say that it can't be done by every school. Um, you touched on there about dasa. Can you explain what dasa is and why it's important within the, the games, the p world?
Speaker 2:yeah, dasa I think it stands for dubai affiliated school sport association, um, so they are the longest running kind of sports affiliated governing body, I guess. Um across dubai they've been going a long time. Schools kind of pay to enter dassa and then they organize all the focus sports and the and the fixtures and and all that. You enter a different league so so you decide where that chosen sport so let's say football term one whether we want to enter a competitive league, development league, uh, performance league or something like that, and they both have. They're split into primary and secondary. They have different fixture nights that they organize there's, there's so many teams going out each day so they have to try and you know, fit the jigsaw puzzle together. Um, they also put the leagues into kind of the different areas to buy, like any east to west, north to south, uh, to try and limit that uh travel time, which is also tricky at the moment in dubai, in terms of the leagues that you enter.
Speaker 1:Say, for example, you went, you want to enter a team into a football league, who decides what level that team is? Is that a school decision? Is that that's the decision?
Speaker 2:yeah, that's a good question uh, because we're finding at the moment that some schools maybe are bigging their own teams up a little bit too much and then thinking they should be a bit higher than they are, not maybe understanding some of the other school standards. But it also does vary. You know, I could think I've got a very strong new group coming through, but unfortunately maybe they might not be as good as quick as I thought it would be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so then do you also get the side the situation where, to some context, dan and I did a status event and there was two categories, a elite and everyday, and we joined the everyday category but then there was a lot of elite people in there that probably shouldn't have been in there and been in a higher category. So have you found that schools potentially put the better teams in lower categories? Or?
Speaker 2:everyone's quite transparent, everyone's quite honest um, most of the time everyone is honest. Yeah, I think you do find a couple of times that happens, but you know it's.
Speaker 1:I guess, at the end of the day, it's not in the best interest of the kids for that to happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, no, there's that um, and most of the times to school. Schools will learn from that and if you can put them in them, correct.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the next time. So sorry you're saying. Ultimately it comes down to the school. What I need? This coach or?
Speaker 2:the head of sport of that sport will will put their teams and their age groups into what they believe is the correct category. So, for example, when I first joined arcadia, sport was still very new. We hadn't really had many fixtures. I joined just after covid, so fixtures kind of stopped for a little bit. And um, when we first started rugby, let's say the guys hadn't done rugby before, so we started in tag rugby under 10, under 11, um, and I put them in a development league for that yet, whereas now we're in the competitive league for that again performing nicely.
Speaker 2:So it's in the competitive league for that I'm performing nicely. So it's just it's understanding, I guess, your kids and where they're at, but also understanding where the schools are at. As a teacher, when you come over and you've been in the UK system for a while and you understand how it works there it is very different. Standards do differ a lot compared to, compared to the uk and and different schools, so you do need to kind of play a few fixtures to understand where other schools were at standard wise.
Speaker 1:Two things leading on from that, the first being in terms of I'm assuming there's a good network of p teachers in dubai so you'll be able to speak to people at different schools to kind of gauge the level of their teams in those terms, and that influences the decisions as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah um, it's quite good actually because in terms of networking, the being a PE teacher is great because you get to mix every week and go and visit different schools and have a chat with other teachers and share and get to know them and share kind of experience how their sports program and PE program and run and take some ideas. That way, I think it's probably the only subject where you really get out and about to meet yeah, people can hear the same thing as you, I guess and where each school has always got that little bit different thing going on and it's always nice to pick up different ways to work more efficient or try different methods yeah, because that also validates how well you're doing as a school in terms of teaching, by comparing yourself to other schools and, obviously, with how well RKU is doing, is a testament to the PE department and what's in place.
Speaker 1:If you compare that to a kind of a standard class teacher, you're always looking for opportunities to moderate your lessons in terms of how well they're doing, how well the students are doing, and you don't always get that opportunity to meet with people from other schools to look at the level of the students. So yet being a PE teacher is very unique in that way. Now, looking at schools in Dubai compared to schools in the UK, how do they compare?
Speaker 2:now my kind of experience in the UK is kind of private school backgrounds are playing against other private schools. I feel like I heard in the uk, certainly in private schools, there is depth of sport, so you've still got a very high standard. Let's talk secondary level. There's a very high standard across your a's, b's and probably even c's, um, whereas out here putting out an, a team and then it really drops off the standard um. Of course we want to try participation and put out a B and a C team, a D team if we can with the staff available. But I would say the depth of sport out here is not as good as it is in the UK. But out here the co-curricular programs that run in all the different academies across the city is huge. There's so much that kids can get involved in out here that most schools use external providers to come in and use their facilities as a good little moneymaker for them and therefore, because schools finish around 3.30, 4 o'clock, parents that work late they tend to put their kids into co-curricular clubs.
Speaker 1:You know four to five, so those co-curricular clubs or those extracurricular clubs. You've got two different options there. You've got the clubs that probably link to a school, so they go from their school day and then do that club after school. So your asas, your ecas, depending on what school you are, or you've got the ones completely separate where you go home and then drop them back off again. Um, what's the benefits of those different clubs? Do you think they benefit and supplement what you offer in school?
Speaker 2:I think I think they do as a whole. I think you need to be careful, um, and do and have a bit of due diligence as a parent to understand the club or the co-curric club that your kid is going to be joining and why they're joining that, because there are so many providers offering different sports kind of different activities that some aren't very good. To be honest, the quality of the coaching isn't great. You know there is a lot of cheap labor and cheap coaches in dubai and you know with that sometimes comes poor coaching, um, so I think you do need to do diligence with it, um, but there's also some amazing fighters as well, um, and I think it's important that schools link themselves with, you know, external providers that are going to complement their kind of kids, because we have quite a lot of kids here that from end of the our own ecas because we run our own own ones till five.
Speaker 2:That when, let's say, soccer kids come in at the end five till seven or something, we know that those kids are gonna, it's gonna enhance their football. So we want them to join that club to keep that going. But I think from an arcade perspective, we try. I mean we go to 5pm as PSP staff because we run our own ECAs and we like to keep it in-house so we have that more quality time with the students. But definitely I think as a whole co-curriculum clubs, ecasas they definitely enhance the kind of students holistic, you know everything, learning the social skills, learning additional kind of you know your hand-eye coordination, your physical stuff, like as a whole is great yeah just quickly on the due diligence.
Speaker 1:Well, how would a parent say? A parent wants their kids to get into football and they can't do it in the school clubs, they want to go externally. What kind of questions should be someone should you be asking to find out more information? Now it's easy for us to say because we're quite heavily invested in sport. But someone who's not that invested or doesn't have that much knowledge, what kind of questions, what things could you look out for?
Speaker 2:I think you could one potentially ask where these providers are training, what schools they're at. I think I'll try and get in contact with, maybe other parents, um, and find out. Find out what type of coaches that they're providing, um, kind of what their pathway is, you know. Do they play competitive matches? Is it just simply a training session you know from here? Do they have an affiliation with the school? You find a lot of good providers, like speedo swimming, for example. They're in some of the top schools, um, and soccer kids here are arcadia. So we we kind of like promoting them a little bit so and just just just find out a bit more about them. Who are the coaches? Who's made the director football? What's their background? What kids are already in the system? Are there is a lot of their the year group training with them already? Are they with a different provider? Yeah, um, because if you're the only one with that provider, there's probably a reason why that is.
Speaker 1:So yeah, if you are looking for a club. Do that due diligence. I can say Exactly yeah, when it comes to parents. Obviously, with fixtures parents are so supportive with all of it actual supporting them, getting them ready, preparation to and from fixtures, things like that weekend fixtures but there also comes challenges with parents. What would you say? Some of the biggest challenges are when it comes to parents.
Speaker 2:I think probably a big one is understanding team selection. I think some parents, especially in the international setting, are from a variety of places. They might not necessarily have grown up playing that certain sport that the school is offering. They don't understand maybe the sport as much. They also have a perception of their child a little bit and maybe perceiving to be a bit better than maybe they are.
Speaker 2:Um, that also comes back to the kind of external providers. If you're a parent and you've got um kids in, you know working with external providers and some of the external providers call some of their squads elite squad. Your son is in the elite squad, yeah, well, that's. That's just the name of what it is. It doesn't necessarily mean they are now elite. Yeah, that sport, um, and I think having and of course that's a paid activity. So those external providers, obviously they're to develop the kids but they obviously want to keep them in their program. So they'll do what they can and what they to keep them there. Um. So I think some that are maybe in the in the co-curricular external provider clubs feel like they should maybe be in the school teams, um. So it's kind of having those conversations early on with parents as to where they're at, what they can improve on. You know, ideally I'd like to pick everyone. Everyone should really be representing the school in some shape or form, yeah, in a sport, especially if they enjoy that sport. But that then comes back to having the staff available, uh, and the facilities available to run those, yeah, fixtures, um, so it comes back to that kind of participation v performance model and it's trying to to balance it as much as we can with the resources and the staff and facilities that we've got.
Speaker 2:Another thing as well I would say with parents is I think you're seeing, you're seeing, let's let's use football as example a lot of parents now where they they love their football, um, they're in football academies, and parents, because they get into their kids very good, at eight or nine, they will just want them to play football. Right, they focus in on one sport exactly. So I've had a couple of incidents where you know I'm a firm believer and you should play a variety of sports until you get to a certain age. Until then you go to different groups. They all come from each other, different, and I coordination skills, you know foot coordination skills, they all come from each other. Different social skills playing on your own in sport and playing as a team. So I've had a couple of.
Speaker 2:This is where parents have chosen I know they won't play cricket for the school because they're training for football, right, okay, when we're not quite in season for football at the moment, this, this time of year and it's just trying to kind of break that, break that kind of mindset that the parents got, saying that this is why it's beneficial for your child to play a variety of everything you know. Um, so I'd say that that's an issue as well. Um, I think the the key is just trying to be as transparent as possible with parents. Um, you know, dealing with their questions, being honest with with how we run our sports program. Um, you know, unfortunately, not everyone can play. You know, when we are playing in these data leagues, we are putting out our most competitive sports side. Um, you know, it's like if you're in a maths exam, a maths test against another school, or of competition, you're not going to pick your weakest people.
Speaker 1:That are in maths. I do definitely think it's a very hard balloting act because there are kids that are so motivated to play and aren't just at that level as others. But again, you don't want to squash the ambition, so they're going to be played in that balloting act. Now I know there's not so much in Dubai, but in the UK you don't even get winners or losers in some schools. I don't agree with that at all. I think losing is a very good thing and I think winning is a very good thing, and I think winning is a very good thing and the whole process and journey is all part of the learning curve.
Speaker 1:I think that point about there is trying to educate the kids in their sporting ability but also as a whole in terms of being open to try and do things. That's not just going to be a sporting thing, that's everything. If you pigeonhole them, if you focus them on one thing now, then their whole perception might be, I wouldn't say affected, but they're going to be very targeted on one thing and you want them to have a real broad perspective. So yeah, but on the whole, parents super supportive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they are, on the whole, super supportive. Yeah, it's just about the ones that maybe have a few questions and queries just kind of being transparent and what we offer. I guess, um, and making it clear that you know what we offer. Arcade is a games program as well, where every student gets the opportunity to play that focus sport of the term, and that's something that most schools don't offer, because that, that, what we offer as a games program, you could argue would be like a co-curricular club, yeah, for other schools, which would be selective. Um, so what they are getting here is actually more sport and more opportunities than most in terms of participation. Yeah, which is a massive plus of arcadia. I would say a really big plus is actually more sport and more opportunities than most in terms of participation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which is a massive plus of Arcadia. I would say a really big plus, okay, moving kind of away from Arcadia if you think about Dubai as a whole increasing all the time. But then that also comes to, obviously, fixtures each day and travel commitments to each fixtures. Now, even this term, kids will go to a fixture and the traffic would cause a 20 minute game to be kind of a two and a half hour round trip. How do you foresee things improving? How can we work around that? Is there anything that you've got in place that could potentially make this easier for fixtures?
Speaker 2:it's a tricky one because traveling to fixtures is great. Fixtures is fantastic for the schools. It's definitely something that that's we're looking at the moment and this there's a lot of discussions around it about potentially moving because we're half day on fridays now potentially moving to more tournaments or round robins or trianglers that take place on a friday morning. Okay, because at the moment your monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday evening fixtures are school. The roads are crazy at the moment. Now I know that's a lot due to a lot of roadworks being done to try and alleviate that, um, but we're kind of seeing the worst of that at the moment.
Speaker 2:But I do think they will go to more block fixtures, potentially on it as a friday morning. So the same school you play them across, maybe under eight to you, could you know if facilities allow, obviously different timings, but even up to your secondary school, those three schools for sure. So we could see that. But there's definitely lots of discussions on it and then things probably will change a little bit for next year. But, like they do in the UK actually, they use saturday mornings for block fixtures, yeah, um, so they don't really have that many fixtures in the week. Maybe a wednesday afternoon, maybe normally saturday mornings are when, when all your teams go out from kind of year three up to kind of your sixth form playing devil's advocate.
Speaker 1:Those parents are saying we pay for a curriculum and then all of a sudden we're losing a friday morning for actual core english math, science lessons to play sport. How do we balance the two, the academic and the sporting side?
Speaker 2:I would say that's a timetabling, probably, yeah, a thing that could get changed from slt perspective, so that if they still want sport to be a big push in the school, then we could potentially move those core subjects to a slightly different times throughout the week and then, and then alleviate, have them friday morning potentially for sport. But it is obviously a problem, isn't it? You know, um, everyone thinks their subject is the most important one, so, um, getting the balance right is is definitely, definitely tricky and also I forgot to say before that sport from anyone you know you and me discussing to parents, it's all subjective, really.
Speaker 2:I might think someone's very good at sport and you might have a slightly different opinion to it, but and that's why sport is so great, because everyone's got different opinions about how things probably should be run or the quality of the player and things like that. So it's kind of following your own process as a school and being transparent with that.
Speaker 1:Perfect In terms of international competitions. So in Dubai, you'd say, in terms of the schools, they're always relatively close together and you can, if wanted, to play any school in Dubai in pretty much any sport. In terms of international, two things here Do you think Dubai, having a student in Dubai gives them more chance to compete internationally, and what is Arcadia's do on traveling internationally for sport?
Speaker 2:what is Arcadia's do on traveling internationally for sport. So I think being in the Middle East it does open you up to opportunities to travel to the Middle Eastern countries. We have the British schools Middle East games that that kind of takes place a bit like a little mini Olympics for a variety of different sports, which Arcadia hosted the under 13s um this year, and they also have their sports specific bsmu games that each school across the middle east will host each year. So that gives students across kind of under 10 to your secondary an opportunity to travel internationally, but but kind of local. You also have your world school games where, for example, football this year, last year the under 11s went to barcelona. So that was really good.
Speaker 2:But I'd say in terms of competing internationally, the uk is is the same.
Speaker 2:I would say the uk has obviously a much bigger pool of students. So in terms of pathways it's a lot. The pathway are huge, so it's quite hard to then go, maybe because the standard is higher, quite hard to go and maybe represent your country or represent the county or regionals, whereas here with your rugby and your netball, because there's not so much of a large pool, there is actually a nicer pathway, yeah, for you to progress and then potentially go represent your country being the UAE. So there's pros and cons to both really. However, representing internationally is kind of similar to the uk as it is as it is here there's just a lot more events that happen, obviously here in the around the middle east, whereas the uk you're probably turning to europe a bit more, but still with the school trips as well. Um, we have our annual ski trip and things like that, so we do travel kind of all over yeah, the opportunities that the students have are endless in, I'll say, every school in dubai.
Speaker 1:The amount of things that they offer sports fixtures, international trips is just fantastic. So definitely something to jump on if you can. So, looking into the future Arcadia in the next few years, what can we expect in terms of development to the PE department clubs just as a whole? How is sport and PE looking at Arcadia in the next two to three years?
Speaker 2:So it's quite an exciting time for Arcadia. At the moment we're up to year 11. At the moment we're opening up a sixth form next academic year and for us that's exciting because now we have to grow the facilities a little bit more. So we're in discussions to potentially open up or have the land at the back of school to hopefully add additional sports facilities to it. We've had a nice little revamp of the mbh and we are ac and covering the primary rooftop court to so that we can have a few additional spaces when during the hot months we've also arcadia global schools open up in alfajan which also have very good facilities. So we are kind of working closely with them um and using their facilities to host some aquathons and things like that, which is quite cool.
Speaker 2:So also not just facilities, staffing as well. We've got three or four new staff joining next year um all have played high level sport with their teaching qualification as well. So you know the students will be getting high quality teaching and coaching throughout the year the next few years. And because we're growing and secondary is growing, we are retaining a lot of very talented kids um, which is going to really help benefit our um secondary sport because at primary at the moment we're kind of we're kind of there with it at the moment, it's just trying to keep them now through to secondary. Um, and also our sports scholarship program is growing. Uh, we also have a sports scholars uh pullout program where during certain lessons they come up, they come down to the snc in the gym. Um, we run an snc program with them and a sports perfect program, um, to just basically keep them, keep them kind of developing and progressing um, yeah, just quickly on the sports scholarship program here, arcadia.
Speaker 1:How are you selected? How can you apply for that?
Speaker 2:so you'd first of all get in touch with um the admissions here, arcadia, um you can say that your student or your son or daughter is very, uh, loves their sport, has played sport at this school before or represented this school um or club and things like that um, and then we will run a. We'll probably go for a tour and we'll run a sport scholarship assessment, uh, which we normally offer year six going into year seven, and then each year we will assess um the kids as they go up so they can apply for it.
Speaker 1:You get up to 30 off um your fees um from there, okay I think, as you mentioned before about new teachers coming in, but also the existing PE teachers have all played and continue to play sport at a very high level. I think that's great for the students to see that they're so invested in sport. I think basing your own sporting ability on like a role model obviously you've got your big superstars that you see on TV, but then seeing it every day in practice, me is really beneficial for a student kind of even in the classroom that you want children to read, so you read yourself, things like that. So basing your own kind of passion within your job is a big thing and it's good to see that arcadia are continuing to do that with their new staff. Yeah, for sure. So, as we draw to a close, just to start off by saying thank you for coming on today speaking about everything arcadia, it's been absolutely fantastic I hope it's.
Speaker 2:It's given the listeners a bit of an insight into school sport across kind of dubai and how that works in terms of fixtures and the focus sports. You know that that's a kind of promote each term and also an insight into what, how arcadia runs this kind of sport and p program and kind of how that works moving into the next next few years okay, super, um.
Speaker 1:One last thing. I haven't prepped you for this, but one question for me how many?
Speaker 2:subscribers. Do you want for this channel?
Speaker 1:oh, gosh, I don't know. Okay, well, I said no subscriber. Wise, my wife is very much saying that she'll never come on the podcast. So I'd love her to come on and talk about kind of her journey and going to school here and then having kids in school here and things like that. Um, I said to her, if I get 10 000 subscribers she'll come on. So that's the goal 10 000. It's perfect. Now I want you to think about our next guest. I would like you to ask a question that they will answer about education on the next podcast. So keep it open and during the next episode they'll answer your question.
Speaker 2:Looking back at your career journey, is there anything that or mistakes that you've made that have taught you a valuable lesson?
Speaker 1:Gosh, very deep, deep question there. Okay, so we'll answer that on the next podcast. Yes, that whole concept might have been taken from another podcast podcast, but it's good to kind of link them together. Mr lewis williams, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I hope it's been informative. People have learned a lot about sport, about games, about pe at arcadia and kind of across schools in dubai. Thank you so much for listening. This has been school talk. I am your host, chrubsole. Join me next week for another episode.