More than 50 students from Manarat International School, Dhahran Ahliyya, The British School, Orbit International School, Majd International School and the International Schools Group-Dammam took part in various contests, which included Radio Rabbits, Queen of Sound, King of Sound, Dream Time Tales, Countries of the World, Amazing Advertisements, Save the Animals, Talent Zone, My Favorite Speech/Poem and Quiz Zone.
Hanan El-Gibaly, coordinator for English department student activities at the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals Girls School, founded the Students’ Fun Zone and organized the contests.
She is also a television writer and presenter and is well known in local education circles for her work with youth programming and student contests. “Students’ Fun Zone is both the name of the program and the organization producing it,” explained El-Gibaly.
“The group is committed to improving communication skills for school-going children of all age levels. The program’s objective is to encourage all participants to improve their public speaking, thinking, listening, dialogue and presentation skills.”
She said the goal is to create a continuous weekly TV program. Last year, a pilot was recorded to build support for a regularly spotted program as well as giving the producers a chance to fine-tune the concept. El-Gibaly originally got the idea for the program while working as an announcer for the Dammam Radio Station, banking on her experiences as student affairs manager at Mohamed Al-Mana College for Health Sciences.
She initially envisioned a radio program, but it shifted to a television program after she met director Abdel Raauf Al-Khulaitit during an event at the British Council. She then invited him to a speech contest she organized at International Schools Group-Dammam, which resulted in the pilot being ordered.
“We are looking forward to including all cities in the Kingdom in our future plans,” El-Gibaly said.
“Dammam Saudi TV Manager Saeed Al-Yami and my television director, Abdel Raauf Al-Khulaitit, played a special part,” she said.
“I am specially indebted to Al-Hussan Group President Rashid Al-Hussan, Raed Abu Rumman and Kauser Osman for their tremendous support and continuous welcoming of our program in their schools.”
Also attending the taping were Dhahran Ahliyya English High School coordinator Dr. Anna Marie Amoudi, ISG-Dammam Principal Rick Barnhouse, Martine Obrien, Mona Babtain, Akanke Abdul Khaaliq and Muhammad Siraj.
The event was hosted by Jubran Jubran, activities manager at the Art and Culture Society.