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THE British School of Bahrain (BSB) held a celebration on Monday to mark the first anniversary of the launching of its highly-successful academies.
Under the leadership of its academies director, Sven Kroger, more than 1,200 places have been snapped up with students paying between BD50-BD100 for an agreed number of sessions.
The academies, run by qualified staff with a high teacher-to-student ratio, offer a wide and growing range of courses in three main areas – sports, performing arts and creative art – and are open to the whole community.
“Apart from developing their talent and learning new skills, students attending the academies have fun, make new friends and develop confidence,” said BSB head Karen Moffat.
The sports academies include swimming, football, basketball, tennis, gymnastics, taekwondo, aikido, as well as zumba for women and ‘Get Fit Quick’ for adults.
The performing arts academies offer a diverse range of tuition, employing five full-time specialist music teachers. Last year’s production of the Circle of Life sold out and rehearsals for this year’s classic musical West Side Story are well under way.
Deema Turkomani, 11, from Saar, said: “The academy gives people like me a great opportunity to become comfortable in what they love to do. I am part of the production team and last year I took part in the Circle of Life, and I’m going to take part in many more shows. It’s just an organised, friendly and fun group to join.”
The creative academies include the Bahrain Chess Academy, Handwriting Academy, Bricks for Kidz, Ceramic Painting and Arabic for Beginners and are set to expand further as more programmes and courses are added.
The academies also ran summer camps last year which attracted around 200 students. There are further holiday activities and camps planned for this year during the spring and summer.
Mr Kroger said: “We’ve certainly accomplished our primary goal to expand and enrich the opportunities and access for young people in Bahrain to high quality extra-curricular activities.
“It’s been encouraging to see so many young people challenging themselves to develop their talents and learn new skills outside the classroom and I’m looking forward to another busy and successful year.”
*The BSB Academies office is open 11 hours-a-day, six-days-a-week. Call 17610943 / 17610973 or email academies@thebsbh.com
