Message from the Principal: 2019 Examination Success

It is a real pleasure to welcome all our families back for the start of another school year and to see so many smiling faces once again! We also welcome all our new families to the school and we look forward to getting to know you and your children and to helping them achieve every success.

We are all looking forward to the new year, but this newsletter will also be a look back to the end of last year. During the summer we received the examination results for our senior students and it is a real pleasure to be able to share them with you. Students at both IB and IGCSE have achieved outstanding results and it is such a reward for their hard work as well as acknowledgement of the fantastic support from their teachers and parents. 

For IB, our students achieved excellent results yet again, achieving an average grade of 33 points. This is well ahead of the world average and is yet another record-breaking year for the school. These students are now all heading to their chosen Universities and will no doubt go on to achieve even greater success there.

The IGCSE results are exceptional. Before we mention a few highlights, a quick explanation that students receive number grades in some subjects (from 9 to 1) and the traditional letter grades in others (from A* to G). The comparison is that scoring a grade 7 is equivalent to getting a grade A. 

For the IGCSE class of 2019: 

• 24% of all grades were at the maximum of grade 9 or grade A*
• 55% of all grades were at grade A or better
• 86% of all exams were at grade C or better
• 31% of students obtained all or at least 9 of their subjects at grade A or better

These results are comparable with high performing schools in both the UK and overseas and are a tremendous accolade for these students. We should also note that BIS Abu Dhabi is an inclusive school that accepts students of all abilities which means that these results are even more impressive. Students at all levels are achieving great success and this opens the door for so many to go onto further study. We look forward to some great IB results from these students in the future!

A small note here for our Primary students too. Although they do not sit external examinations they do undertake assessments, particularly in English and Maths, and for Year 6 last year over 90% of students were working at or ahead of expected levels in both these subjects. These results put these students well ahead of their contemporaries and very advanced as they commence their learning in Secondary.

I’d like to extend my sincere thanks to all parents for their support for their children with their studies. This support, alongside the work of our wonderful teachers, is enabling our students to achieve results comparable with leading schools right around the world.

I know many students will be looking to exceed the results of their peers in the year ahead and will of course have all our support to do so. Whatever the students undertake and wish to achieve, we wish them and all their families a very happy and successful year ahead.

Patrick Horne, Principal