06 Sep 2021
Doha. The week beginning from 5 September 2021 will see Aspire Academy usher in the new academic year (2021-22) by welcome new and current student-athletes in a gradual return to in-person attendance to classes on the premises. This academic year starts with an enrolment of 277 student-athletes of whom 50 are new joiners. The composition of new students is as following, Football 21, Athletics 15, Football Refereeing 5, Fencing 3, Squash 1, Swimming 4, and Table-Tennis 1.
While the coronavirus pandemic has brought about changes and adjustments to general lives, there has been set in place a system that will enable the world renowned Aspire Academy to partially open its doors to students and run as close to normal and pre-pandemic programme as possible: withing the State stipulated regulations and observance of safety measures.
The new joiners will be gently introduced to life at Aspire Academy through various entertainment and educational games to help them adapt to life at the institution and enhance their social and behavioural skills. The Academy will ensure that all entering the premises will have a temperature check, green status appear on the EHTERAZ app, wear face masks in closed places, maintain social distancing and other directives issued by the Ministry of Public Health.
After a socially distanced welcome assembly where the Academy’s teachers were also present, the new joiners were split into groups led by senior students and began to familiarise themselves with the Academy premises timetables and facilities.
The new students got to participate in several educational activities and games in their classrooms, receiving life lessons amongst these: how to live a healthy lifestyle and how to support each other in such a high-achieving environment.
Speaking on the school’s expectations for this academic year, Jassim Al-Jaber, School Principal at Aspire Academy said: “We are gradually returning to our pre-pandemic time-table and programme but in careful and small steps. Within the pandemic period we developed learning resources which have become an important reference for the students, and we were able to benefit from them and strengthen our education process even further. Our objective remains to enable our student-athletes to realise their full potential and achieve remarkable things in whatever they choose to pursue. We, as a school, achieve this by constantly working with students, their parents and teachers to improve the academic and sporting mix we offer each individual.”
Principal Al-Jaber went on to say that the high percentage of those vaccinated has helped and made returning to easier for us as Aspire Academy, but we still must adhere to the precautionary measures because the students’ health always comes first. Our numbers at present are as following, 90 % of student and 95% of staff have been vaccinated.
The Academy also uses some of the latest technologies available to improve students’ living and learning experience and help them become self-learners and knowledge seekers. It also keeps an open line of communication with parents through regular meetings and several applications, such as the Blackboard and Parent Corner programmes, which keep them abreast of students’ results and performance.
Aspire Academy student-athletes are developed through comprehensive athlete portfolio management, whereby coaches, educators, support service, service providers and management personnel actively cooperate to achieve an integrated Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) program based on specific and measurable performance outcomes. The progressive development, duty-of-care and creation of a fun and interactive environment are core to these efforts.
About Aspire Academy:
Since opening its doors in 2004, Aspire Academy has become one of the foremost national sports academies in the world and is today recognised as the reference for youth sports development worldwide. Working as part of the Aspire Zone Foundation - an international sport destination – Aspire Academy is at the heart of a sporting revolution currently taking place in Qatar and around the region. The Academy is conceiving, promoting, and implementing game-changing excellence in sports training and elite athlete development that is enabling an entire generation of talented, disciplined and committed individuals, both Qataris and internationals to pursue their sports dreams.
Together with the other members of the Aspire Zone Foundation (Aspire Logistics and ASPETAR Qatar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital), the Aspire Academy is developing sports champions, promoting healthy lifestyles, and galvanizing the sports economy of today, and the future.
For more information, please visit www.aspire.qa.