22 Sep 2016
Doha, 22 September 2016. This week marked the beginning of the new academic year and 265 student-athletes including 56 new joiners were welcomed back to the school of Aspire Academy. There are many reasons that people have been looking forward to the start of this school year.
“It’s the first academic year after receiving the Accreditation by the Council of International Schools and that keeps us even more motivated to keep up our high level and to keep developing our on-going programmes at Aspire,” said Badr Al-Hay, Director of Education and Student Care. Like many other he followed the great achievements of the Academy’s graduates at the 2016 Olympics in Rio including the silver medal for high jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim. “The successful examples that our graduates show in different sports make us all proud and they are a motivation for current student-athletes to work hard to become world-class athletes.”
This applies also for the new student-athletes that successfully went through the elaborate Talent Identification process of the Academy. The first weeks are going to be a lot of adjusting to the routines at Aspire. “The environment here is quite different compared to other schools. The boys stay much longer in school and train two times a day. That is a big change and it usually takes the first two months to adjust to the new schedule. But that is completely normal and everyone helps them as good as we can”, said Vice-Principal Ahmed Hussain.
The best way for a good start into the new school year is, according to Dr. Ali Fawaz, Master Teacher at Aspire Academy, to have a good time management to be able to successfully balance school and sports. “It’s also important to set goals for yourself. Not just for sports, but also for your academic and personal life.” And Badr Al-Hay adds: “And sometimes you also have to learn to be patient. Things might not happen as fast as you want, but determination and motivation are the keys to achieve the goals you set for yourself.”