2013 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

The flashcards conveyed how this is an institution that genuinely cares about teaching & preserving the Arabic language, and not just another commercial establishment. 350 sets of flashcards were given away in the locality of Jumeirah, the surrounding area of the nursery. After this exercise, My Nursery is functioning at full capacity, with 62 children on their waiting list for the next school year. The flash cards are also being used effectively by teachers at the nursery as their own branded teaching aid, helping them take out any fear of Arabic language, one letter at a time.

Creative Execution

To demonstrate this fact to parents, we took the letters of the Arabic alphabet and created scary versions of all 28 of them. They were used to convert the traditional teaching medium of flashcards a whole new twist – these two-sided flashcards had the scary letter on one side and the original form of that Arabic letter with a picture of the most common object it stood for, on the other side. They were given away to parents in the locality of the nursery. In addition to flashcards, we created posters and put them up in the locality of the nursery to invite parents for an Open Day. We used the medium of flashcards not only to teach children their own language but also to educate parents about the importance of ensuring that their children learn Arabic early on.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

48.1% of UAE expats are of Arab origin, and most speak to their children in English, as do their nannies of other nationalities. They grow up on English TV and >80% parents prefer an English curriculum school. With everything so English-centric, Arab children lose out on the foundation of their own language and can’t read Arabic, let alone write it. My Nursery is one of the few bilingual nurseries to introduce children to classical Arabic alongside English at an early age. We had to wake Arab parents up to this issue which they knew about but didn’t know how to deal with – and tell them that My Nursery was there to help. Our insight? Children fear the unknown. Things they have never seen before might come across as intimidating and even scary – and for most Arab kids in Dubai, this is the case with the unfamiliar Arabic alphabet.