Class 6 students had the opportunity to participate in a debating competition titled ‘Are boys more intelligent than girls?”. Eleven finalists competed in a formal debating contest on November 20, 2009. Ms. Jamila John, the Principal of Resource Academia and Ms. Huma Farid, the Class 5 English Language teacher judged the event. The judges evaluated the contestants on their skills in content, expression and confidence. All participants spoke eloquently and very confidently.

The declared winners were:

1st position – Neha Shafqat Qureshi (6A)
2nd position – Muhammad Mustafa (6C)
3rd position – Armna Khan (6A)

ther contestants included Muneeb Muqeet [6A], Umair Shahzad Iqbal [6B], Azka Naeem Mukaddam [6A], Husnain Karim Khan [6B], Khadija Batool [6A], Hamza Rehman [6B] and Aasim Rehman [6A]. Ms. John addressed the enthusiastic debaters and gave valuable suggestions about how they could improve their rhetoric style and intonation. Ms. John expressed her appreciation of the efforts by the students and the Class 6 English teacher, Ms. Saira Imran

Students from class 6 to O3 at the Middle School Campus participated in the Inter-House Basketball Competition during the month of October. The students were divided into two groups: Group 1 – Classes 6, 7 & 8, and Group 2 – Classes O1, O2 & O3.

Each group was further divided into House Teams for the Green, Blue and Red Houses. After a series of very competitive matches and qualifying rounds, Red House was declared the winner of the Inter-House Basketball Competition with 6 points. Blue House and Green House shared the second position with 5 points each.

Abu Turab Asim [O3B] from Blue House was declared the best player of the tournament.

The Student Council Elections for Head Boy, Head Girl, House Captains, Vice Captains and Heads of School Societies were conducted on October 06, 2008. Prior to the elections, the candidates and their supporters ran their election campaigns which included putting up banners, distributing badges and raising slogans. Voting took place during break, with students from all classes voting for the Head Boy, Head Girl, House Captains and Vice Captains. For the Heads of Societies, only students from Classes 7 to 03 voted. The results were declared on October 9, 2008 and the winners received badges from the Principal, Ms John.

The Student Council 2009-2010 comprises the following elected members:

Head Boy:    Hamza Khan [03A]
Head Girl:     Mariam Pervez Sheikh [03A]

House	House Captain	Vice House Captain
Green House	M. Hassaan Khan [02A]	Mir Fawwaz Naeem [01A]
Blue House	Hussam-ud-Din [01A]	Hassan Amir [01B]
Yellow House	M. Omer Sheikh [02B]	Uzair Ikram [01A]
Red House	M.Samee Zahid [02A]	Khadeeja S.Cheema [01A]
Society	Society President	Society Vice President
English Debating Society	Palvashae Hussain [02A]	Arham Aftab Kazi [01A]
Urdu Debating Society	Ramisha Attiq [02A]	Zainab Arif [01A]
Sports Society	Haider Ali Hamdani [02A]	Farhan Ali [02A]
SWERA	Ayesha Aamer [01B]	Hadia Ahmed [01B]

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The Dawn Group of Newspapers organizes the Spelling Bee, which aims towards creating a competitive and challenging contest for young spellers all across the country. The Spelling Bee aspires to expand children's horizons beyond the classroom and enhance their process of learning. The contest is designed to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabulary, learn new concepts and develop correct usage of the English language. The Regional Championships are scheduled to begin in February 2010. The nine outstanding spellers who will represent Resource Academia at the DAWN Spelling Bee in February 2010 are: 

Age group 9-11 years	Neha Shafqat (6)	Mahnoor Qaiser (5)	Rameen Ata Bajwa (5)
Age group 12-14 years	Salman Tahir (7)	Rimsha Hajira Afzal (01)	Hamza Tariq (01)
Age group 15-17 years	Syed Haider Ali (02)	Musa Hasan (01)	Asfandyar Ali (02)

Arts students at Resource Academia participated in the ‘Art Poster Contest' organized by the Art Teacher. Students from Grades 4 to 6 designed posters that followed given themes. Class 4's topic was ‘Flowers', Class 5's topic was ‘Bugs', while Class 6's topic was ‘Shapes'. All posters were displayed in an Art Exhibition on May 15, 2009.  

The winners of the contest in each participating class were:

	1st Position	2nd Position	3rd Position	4th Position
Class 4	Fizza Niaz	Umer Rehman	Murtaza Daver	Talha Ilyas
Class 5	Talha Khan	Hamza Daver	Neha Shafqat	Kalim Khan
Class 6	Bisma Azam	Aleesha Ijaz & Misha Khan	Alizeh Hassan & Shehryar Ali	Roshan Usman & Kinza Bashir

In a Prize Distribution Ceremony on May 22, 2009, the Academic Coordinator, Ms. Zareen Tariq distributed prizes among the winners. Ms. Zareen appreciated the efforts of Ms. Zunaira, the Art teacher, for organizing the contest.

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Cancer accounts for one in eight deaths globally. In the 20th century, the tobacco epidemic killed 100 million people worldwide. According to the World Health Organization's (WHO) 2008 report, the global tobacco epidemic will cause more than 8 million deaths every year by 2030, unless urgent action is taken. An estimated 80% of these deaths will occur in developing countries.  

Joining the global crusade against Tobacco, Resource Academia participated in the 'No Tobacco' Poster Contest 2009 organized by Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital . The poster contest was in line with the ‘World, No Tobacco Day' on May 31, 09. Students from Grades 4 to 03 designed posters that highlighted the negative effects of smoking. The winning posters of the in-school contest were sent to Shaukat Khanum. These posters were judged by a committee and names of winners were displayed on the Hospital website. Ms. Zunaira, Ms. Uzaira and Ms. Mahwish Shaukat, the Art teachers, are appreciated for the guidance and support that they provided to the participants.  

Mariam Pervaiz [02] secured the 2nd position in category C: Class 8-10/ O Level in the Anti-Tobacco Poster Competition. Mariam attended the Prize Distribution Ceremony that was held at the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Center on June 1, 2009, and received a trophy and a certificate.

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General Knowledge Classes through the year have contributed towards personal enrichment and a better understanding of the world as a whole for students from Classes 4 to 8. Students learnt about a diverse range of facts related to various subjects based on the premise that t he more you know about specific things, the more you can connect the individual, separate facts to other facts, which leads to enhanced understanding.

A comprehensive General Knowledge Quiz organized by Ms. Sofia Ahsan Khan marked the conclusion of GK classes for the academic year 2009. The winners of this quiz were:

	1st	2nd	3rd
Class 4	Zuha Tanveer [4C]	Zahra Anwar [4C]	Mahnoor Ahsan [4A]
Class 5	Khadeeja Batool [5B]	Isha Muneer [5B]	Neha Shafqat [5C]
Class 6	Mariam Fatima Ali [6C]	Fahd Usman [6A]
Class 7	Taimour Shoaib [7C]	Salman Tahir [7C]	Muhammad Shah [7A]

The following students are appreciated for their exceptional performance in research work and project work

Class 4	Ezza Majeed [4B]	Shahrukh Khan [4C]
Class 5	Ayesha Taseer [5C]	Neha Shafqat [5C]
Class 6	Zaid Bin Zafar [6B]	Anas Naeem [6B]
Class 7	Ahsan Khan [7C]

All winners received certificates from the Principal, Ms. John, who appreciated their efforts along with the efforts of the General Knowledge teacher, Ms. Sofia Ahsan.

Incapable and incompetent as the current batch of O2's may seem, we managed to throw the outgoing O3's a farewell party that they will not forget for quite some time.  

Being teenagers, we shunned the task till the very last two weeks. When we finally came about to preparing our skits and performances for the party, we flinched at the garrulous task that lay ahead of us. Had it not been for Miss Humaira, we would have shunned it further, and spent the farewell tucked away in a cosy corner at Gloria Jean's with cups of coffee and bagels to match. Miss Humaira rattled us to our bones and hence motivated us to organize something.

Furqan, Hashim and Salaar took the responsibility of being the main coordinators for the event. Mariam and I declared ourselves the formal hosts, while the informal hosts were, naturally, Salaar and Hashim. Everyone else was involved in some way or the other, whether it was the skits or the event management. The theme was “rockstars” for the O2's, while the O1's weren't given a theme, but told to come in formal clothes (not Egyptian robes, mind you).  

When the evening came, we were all prepared. The hosts had their speeches, the performers had their scripts, and event managers had nothing. The gates opened, and after a rather long escort, Zoya and Romeena came into the school riding in a BMW. The other girls drove up in a limousine. The remainder of the students came in Land Cruisers. Needless to say, this caused a traffic jam outside the Senator's house. The Senator could not be reached for comment.  

Mariam and I started the party, and then Salaar and Hashim made their much controversial entrance. We were extremely horrified to discover that their PG-15 rated entrance was being broadcast on national television. I rushed to warn them before they could make some terrible mistake while being hyper active; but not before I fixed my hair.  

Haseeb Sher Bajwa showed us how some notable O3 personalities would fare were they to appear in ‘Kon Banega Crorepati'. Hashim performed on a song and which Rejja later sang very nicely with him. We gave out some excellent titles. The head boy and head girl's speeches were very nicely delivered and were a pleasure to hear… so I'm told. The O3's thoroughly enjoyed the videos and skits that were presented. A skit about the goings on that go on inside the O3 classroom publicized the nature of some of our teachers, while also giving everyone an opportunity to meet Saad's “behens”. We witnessed first hand Bakhtawar breaking into tears (which can also be seen in the video of the farewell recorded by the news channel and featured live on TV). Tamkinat was presented with the award for lady of the evening, while Saad's efforts were rendered fruitless when Sachal walked away with the crown of the Gentleman of the evening.  

At the end, we presented a well-made slideshow with David Cook's mantra, “the time of my life” playing in the back. Most of the O3's were soon in tears and could not find words to appreciate the farewell. Their happy faces and tears were enough for us, as we ourselves could not face the fact that our seniors, with whom we had developed a deep bond, were leaving school in less than a month. After some photos, everyone headed to the dinner tables to devour the meats that were laid down in front of us in a most enticing fashion, while my friends and I sneaked out to café Life to enjoy the remaining part of the evening.

Danyal Haider [02]

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