10 GEMS students and teacher 
celebrate Shaikh Hamdan Award

This is GEMS’ most successful year at the competition. With only 74 awards available, GEMS’ tally of 11 awards is its best result to date.

Teacher Rana Khaleel, from the GEMS Wellington Academy, Silicon Oasis, won in the best project category. The winning students came from grades five to 11.

Simran Vedvyas and Disha Bobby from The Millennium School, Dubai, and Vrinda Shah from Our Own English High School, Sharjah, were also honoured with the Sharjah Educational Award for Outstanding Performance for Academic Excellence.

This is the second time Simran has received the award. He was also one of the ten winners in the Distinguished Academic Performance award.

Simran said: “Being named winner twice for both of these awards is an overwhelming 
experience for me. I am thankful to my principal and to all the teachers for their trust and immeasurable support to me and my endeavours.” Simran previously received both awards in 2009.

Margaret Atack, Group Senior Director, GEMS Education, said: “We are proud of the accomplishments of our students. The Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Distinguished Academic Performance and Sharjah Educational Award for Outstanding Performance for Academic Excellence are of particular importance to GEMS schools, because of their rigour in evaluating outstanding performance. GEMS students across the UAE are a fine example of what the youth of the region are capable of achieving.”

Currently in its fourteenth edition, the Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Distinguished Academic Performance has been designed to recognise academic achievements, talents, skills and leadership abilities across a variety of disciplines. In addition to the award, each of the recipients was awarded Dh25,000 this year.

GEMS winners: Student category: Simran Vedvyas (Grade 8, The Millennium School, Dubai); Disha Bobby (Grade 5, The Millennium School, Dubai); Aditya Rajesh (Grade 7, The Millennium School, Dubai); Adeeb Sulaiman Albelooshi (Grade 3, Wellington International School, Dubai); Michael Leo Kokkat (Grade 5, The Kindergarten Starters); Vrinda Mohan (Grade 6, Our Own English High School, Sharjah); Amata Sara Boban (Grade 11, Our Own English High School, Sharjah); Pooja Vinod (Grade 8, Our Own English High School, Dubai); Mariyam Mathews (Grade 9, Our Own English High School, Dubai); Amal Prashand (Grade 7, Our Own English High School, Abu Dhabi). Project category: Rana Khaleel (Teacher, GEMS Wellington Academy, Silicon Oasis). Sharjah Educational Award: Simran Vedvyas (Grade 8, The Millennium School, Dubai); Disha Bobby (Grade 5, The Millennium School, Dubai); Vrinda Shah (Grade 10, Our Own English High School, Sharjah).

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