Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Extra-curricular tuition in the kingdom has received a major boost with the opening of a new academy in Hamala offering an impressive array of sporting and performing arts activities to youngsters.
The British School of Bahrain (BSB) has announced the launch of the BSB Academy run from the school premises during the evenings and on Saturdays. The facilities will be available to all students living in the kingdom and special coaching sessions will also be held during holidays.
The academy has already started to accept registrations for courses starting in the second week of January for children aged between three months to 18 years.
Hundreds of BSB pupils as well as children attending other Bahrain schools started to snap up places within days of its launch. For example, there are already 400 children paid-up to take part in the swimming sessions alone.
BSB head Karen Moffat said: “The BSB Academy is an investment into the community because it has an outreach beyond our school.
“Only professionally-run academies can offer such a breadth and range of opportunities. Now we can offer these facilities to the community and at the same time increase the opportunities open to our own students ... so everyone benefits.
“One of the key missions right from the beginning was to employ qualified teachers of the highest calibre and to make the courses affordable.
“It is about educational enrichment and making the opportunity available for developing the ‘whole child’ through easy access to sport, art, drama and musical expression which in the past has not readily been available here in Bahrain.”
On the sporting front, as well as swimming, its academy kicks off with an impressive list of activities such as the martial arts of aikido and taekwondo, football, basketball, tennis and gymnastics.
The performing arts academy will offer tuition in music and drama, dance, group and individual instrument tuition. Music for pre-schoolers is also being scheduled alongside hand-writing improvement lessons.
A creative academy will follow shortly offering calligraphy, glass blowing, painting, sculpture, craft and fine art courses. A tutoring service specialising in examination revision is also on the cards alongside an evening institute for adult learners.
The BSB Academy is led by Sven Kroger, the BSB’s director for after-school activities, who has been a physical education teacher for 15 years in international schools in Uganda and Kuwait. He will also be the director of the football academy while other academies under its umbrella will have their own directors.
Mr Kroger said: “This is an opportunity for students to continue their all-around development outside of school hours. All the academies will have a structured programme that will clearly lay out progress and will be open to children of all abilities.”
Mr Kroger continued: “Specialist directors, all of whom are very well experienced, will run the academies with the assistance of other coaches.
“I think a realistic expectation of the number of students taking advantage of this academy would be around 1,000. We have two sports halls and two large performing arts areas that will be getting a makeover during the festive holidays with parquet floor, mirrors and bars that will transform it into a proper dance studio.
“Our artificial football pitch is one of the best in Bahrain and it plays very nicely because it has a modern mixture of sand and rubber granules. We will also be providing a free football and a football kit to make the children feel part of the academy at the beginning of the course, as will some of the other sports. We will follow this with certificates, medals and trophies to keep the students encouraged.
“During holidays we plan to hold intensive camps for some of the sports academies. It is not just for fun but to learn and improve.”
Lydia Martin, who used to run Sar Music Centre, has taken on the mantle of director of the performing arts academy. She is currently in the UK recruiting seven more music teachers who will be able to offer a range of instrument tuition.
She said: “The academy has a great vision for the future. I am planning to offer individual lessons for as many musical instruments as possible. We will also have a junior and senior choir, music for pre-schoolers and music theory and musicianship lessons.”
Music and Stage for Kids (MASK) will now form part of the performing arts academy and will lead on acting and singing lessons and productions. Inna Akle, who formerly taught dance at the Children’s Health Academy of Specialised Sports (CHAOSS), is the director of the dance school offering classical ballet tuition.
Swimming is being led by Tara Thawley, who is qualified with Austswim and Swim Australia. She also formerly taught at CHAOSS. The academy will also offer an infant’s programme for children aged three months and above for a safe and enjoyable introduction to water.
The basketball academy will be headed by Arab-American basketball player and coach, Zaied Alobaidi, who also runs the popular Youth All Star Basketball Clinic at Muharraq Club.
Taekwondo classes will be supervised by chief instructor Fadi Humaidan, Fifth Degree Black Belt, from the World Taekwondo Federation, who boasts 20 years of experience in the discipline.
Yauheni Ivanou, a former member of the national team of Belarus, is the gymnastics director and tennis will be led by Dan Barrie of the Bahrain Tennis Academy.
Calligraphy and iconography specialist Swayta Mshah will lead on handwriting improvement courses.
The teacher-student ratio in most courses is expected to be one coach for every six to 10 students and even smaller for the baby swimming classes. All courses will be held on a term basis.
There are no registration charges, and fees can range from between BD4 and BD8 per hour, depending on the courses signed up for.
For further details contact 17610920/1.
