Aishwarya wins GEMS Parental Engagement Logo Competition

Aishwarya Nair, a 15 year-old student from Our Own English High School, Sharjah, has won the GEMS Parental Engagement Logo competition which was open to all GEMS students in the UAE.

Aishwarya’s coloured pencil drawing of a circle containing a child between two parents was voted the most original and suitable entry to the competition by the judges who were looking for a symbol of parental engagement in learning in the home.

Asked to describe what inspired her to draw the image this way, she said: “ It shows a united family and without a united family a young child does not have a stable base to study from. If the base becomes weak you cannot be successful.”

Her art teacher, Annie George, said: “It is a simple image but it conveys great meaning.”

The competition had around 80 great entries, which will be placed on www.learnaspirebe.com and made into posters to promote GEMS Parental Engagement Week. The logo will be used in all GEMS parental engagement materials.

Rob Curtis, Design Manager for GEMS, John Taylor, GEMS Director for Enrichment and Wendy Berliner, GEMS Director for Parental Engagement judged the competition with input from the parental engagement champions in GEMS schools.

Wendy Berliner paid tribute to all the students who took part in the competition. She said: “ We had some fantastic entries and clearly a great deal of effort had gone into some of them so it was a hard job to choose the best.

“But Aishwarya’s entry was a worthy winner. It was a charming drawing of two parents looking over a child who was clearly the centre of their world. Parental engagement is all about parents focussing on their children’s learning and this image symbolised the caring attention that engaged parents give.”

Aishwarya was born in Kerala, southern India, but moved to Dubai as a baby with her parents. She has been a student at OOEHS, Sharjah, since kindergarten grade and plans to study to be a doctor.

Farooq Wasil, Principal of OOEHS, Sharjah, and also GEMS Director of Asian Schools, said he was delighted with Aishwarya’s success.