The Student Council 2011 was announced during a special Morning Assembly on November 11, 2011. Council members were selected based on their academic record, personality, popularity, manners, likeability among fellow students and teachers' recommendations. The Head Boy, Head Girl, House Captains, Vice Captains and Heads of School Societies received badges from the Principal, Ms John.

The Student Council 2011-2012 comprises the following elected members:

Head Boy:     Musa Hassan – O3A
Head Girl:     Zainab Arif – O3A

Each school had sent in a team of two participants, one each from Class 7 and Class 8. Class 7 students were required to select any ‘nazam' titled ‘Mausam'. Class 8 students could only recite ‘Ghazal'. The ghazal was required to meet specific criteria. The tarah misrah had to be… ‘bahaar aa ker chali jaati hai veerani nahin jaati'. The kafiya had to be ‘veerani' while the radeef would be ‘nahin jaati'.

Most participants selected poetry by renowned Urdu poets while a few recited their own poetry.

Resource Academia's team comprised Mahnoor Ahsan [Class 7] and Bilal Ahmed [Class 8]. Mahnoor recited a poem called Roshni. Bilal recited a ghazal by Ms Sidra Farooq, poetess and the Class 8 Urdu teacher.

The winning team trophy went to LGS Cantt.

The expert panel of judges comprised renowned poets Mr. Farhat Abbas Shah, Mr. Tahir and Ms. Bushra Ejaz.

Each school had sent in a team of two participants, one in the English category and the other in Urdu. The English speakers recited poems about ‘Friendship', while the Urdu speakers recited poems about ‘Mausam'. All participants were from Classes 5 to 8. The poems could be 2 to 3 minutes long. Most participants selected poetry by renowned English poets, some of which were George Moses Horton, William Robert Spencer and Khalil Jibran. Among the Urdu poets, popular ones included Amjad Islam Amjad, Anwar Siddiqui, Perveen Shakir, Allama Iqbal and Nazir Akbar Abadi. A few participants recited their own poetry.

Resource Academia's team comprised Serena Sulehry [Class 7] and Bilal Ahmed [Class 8]. Serena recited a poem by Khalil Jibran titled ‘On Friendship', while Bilal chose a poem ‘Mausam' by Gulzar. Both students recited their poetry eloquently and with poise.

The students from Aitchison won the first prizes in both categories and the winning team trophy too.

The expert panel of judges comprised Ms. Perin Boga, the debates and drama teacher at Kinnaird College and Ms. Farida Amer, an O and A Level Urdu Teacher.

The event concluded with the prize distribution ceremony where Ms. Boga and Ms. Farida presented trophies and the shield to the winners. All participants received certificates.

The participants could choose one out of the following four topics, which added diversity to the competition.

•  Thank you! Pakistan does not need your charity.
•  It is lonely being at the top.
•  All enjoyable things in this world are sinful.
•  There should be one global language in the world.

The most popular topic of the day was ‘Thank You! Pakistan does not need your charity!'

Resource Academia's host team comprised Mustafa Chaudry and Alizeh Hassan, both of whom spoke in favour of and against their choice of topic which was ‘Thank You! Pakistan does not need your charity!' However, in keeping with tradition, they were not competitors. Resource students from Classes 6 and 7 attended the event as audience and their enthusiasm and support for the speakers brought the auditorium alive.

The results were as following:

The school shield was won by Bloomfield Hall.

The expert panel of judges comprised Ms. Jamila John, the Principal of Resource Academia, Ms. Andaleeb Nadeem, the O Level English Language Teacher, and Ms. Saima Riaz, renowned Teacher Trainer,.

The event concluded with the prize distribution ceremony where Ms. John, the Principal of Resource Academia, presented certificates and trophies to the winners.

Excerpts from the event ran on the local news channels that evening.

Click here to see the pictures

The 7th DAWN in Education Spelling Bee 2011 was held at the Alhamra Cultural Complex, Hall # 1, Qaddafi Stadium from October 5 to 8, 2011. RA students participated in all three age groups in their assigned pools.

RA's Spelling Bee teams comprised:

RA's team in the first age group comprised Abdullah Yousaf Malik [5A], Arfa Syed [5A] and Qurat-ul-Ain Arif [5B]. They competed with 9 teams and Abdullah was the speller. In the first round each team was asked to spell four words. The RA team spelled three words correctly; however, they did not spell ‘grandiose' correctly. In the second round, which was the double sting round, they spelt one out of their two words, ‘vehement' incorrectly. Ms. Sadia Saeed accompanied the spellers for the contest.

Marriam Fatima Ali [O1], Neha Shafqat [8A] and Taha Ahmed [8A] participated in the 12-14 years category. Marriam was the team's speller. The team scored the highest in its pool of 13 schools and qualified for the Regional Final, which was conducted on October 9, 2011. At the Regional Final, they were three out of the 39 contestants competing on an individual basis in the Regional Final. The contest was on a knock-out basis. Marriam and Neha were among the 9 contestants out of 39 who made it into the final elimination round. Unfortunately they could not qualify to be among the three finalists who would compete in the National Finals to be held in Islamabad on November 1, 2011.

The third team comprising Hamza Tariq [O3], Taimoor Shoaib [O2] & Shahalam Riaz Tarar [O2] participated in the 15-17 years category. The team's Speller was Shahalam. They were one of the 12 schools in their pool. The teams had to spell four words in the first round and two in the second round. The word ‘ blithe' was mis-spelled by the RA team. Although they performed well in the initial rounds, they could not qualify for the Regional Finals. Ms. Perveen Haseeb accompanied the team for the contest.

An Urdu Spelling Contest was conducted in all sections of Classes 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Urdu teachers compiled spelling lists with words that are frequently misspelled by children in each of these classes. The spelling tests were conducted by the Urdu teachers. The top five students from each section were selected for the finals.

During the Final Round, students were tested on words from the initial spelling lists in addition to five new words that had been selected by the Academic Coordinator, Ms. Samira. The top two students from each class were announced as the winners. These winners received prizes and certificates at a special award ceremony. All students who scored A grades during the initial rounds were also awarded certificates and prizes.

The winners were:

Everyone was anticipating the farewell with a lot of excitement, and we the O2s had made plenty of extravagant plans on what we were going to do. However, the final week before the farewell suddenly arrived and we had not prepared anything! In a panicked state of mind, we managed to put together some skits but barely rehearsed them. The only thing that was completely ready was the rather artistic, Hawaiian/Night time themed backdrop.

April 8… The day had finally arrived. Tensions were running high as we were afraid we would not be able to pull it off. The O3s entered, dressed up to the nines (but half an hour late) in a couple of Mercedes, and the rest piled up in a truck. The A2s made their entrance in some wheelie-ing rickshaws.

It was time for the show to finally start. The hosts, Khadija Cheema and Zainab Arif kicked off the event with their opening statements. These were followed by the recitation of Surah Al-Zilzaal by Ibrahim Akbar and its translation by Hamza Tariq. Fawwaz Naeem delivered his touching tribute to Sir Tahir-ullah Khan. The first skit of the evening was a parody of some of the O3s and was well-received. Mariam Rahman and Uzair Ikram (us!) followed that up with a cover of Green Day's “Time of Your Life” which was quite enjoyed by the crowd. The second skit of the evening was a parody of the ridiculous and infamous fight between Ubair Shaheen, Haider Hamdani and Sachel Ghani (a former RA student).

The next skit was called “The Meera-Veena Show”, in which Khadija Cheema and Zainab Arif interviewed Raza Sheikh and Hamza Gujjar of A2. The A2s came up on stage with a couple of them performing some songs, and then they gave out a few titles. The RA Awards skit, in which sarcastic and humourous awards were given out to various O3 students, was well enjoyed by the crowd. The entire O2 then came up on stage and performed the “O3 Qawwali”, which the O3s loved and half of them ended up singing along!

Another skit elaborated and parodied what the O3s usually did in break. Asad Farooq, Wu Ran Shun, Erica Luo, Rimsha Naqi and Fawwaz Naeem performed an original song for the outgoing O3s. Abeera Attiq called some of the O3s up on stage to read out silly poems they had written years before, which included a hilarious rap by Irtaza Jaffer. The sketch on Fahad Bajwa described one of the craziest students Resource has ever had. Mariam Rahman then delivered a very heartfelt speech for the O3s.

The titles were given out on wine-glasses, each accompanied by a different song. The memory videos of the O3s and A2s were played out and the awards for Lady and Gentleman of the evening were given out. From the O3s, Ubair Shaheen and Anam Arif received them and from the A2s, Hamza Gujjar and Amna Cheema received the awards. The Best Teacher awards were given out to Ms. John and Mrs. Najaf Bukhari.

The show had finally come to an end. All the O3s and O2s got up on stage and balloons were released into the sky. There were tearful farewells as we said our last goodbyes to the O3s.

By:
Uzair Ikram and Mariam Rahman – O2A

Click here to see the pictures