Nord Anglia Education
WRITTEN BY
Nord Anglia
12 May, 2023

Message from the Executive Principal

Message from the Executive Principal - Message from the Executive Principal
Message from the Executive Principal
I start today’s newsletter celebrating BIS Abu Dhabi being shortlisted by Which School Advisor for ‘Best IB Blended Curriculum school in the UAE’.

This is indeed great praise for our school as we work hard to ensure our academic pathway enables our young people a direct flight path to the course of their choice.  We benefit greatly from being part of Nord Anglia, and our education team are continuously reflecting on the data that comes from our 82 schools which cover a variety of routes to the IB Diploma Programme.  These include full IB, American curriculum and of course British into the IB Diploma Programme.  The data over the last 4 years has demonstrated that our British blended IB schools outperform the other two routes; this would support our belief that this is the best route to achieve the best IB Diploma scores.

Curriculum design sits right at the heart of any great school from Early Years to Year 13, schools should continuously be reviewing and adapting to suit the needs of the child.  This best practice is something we observe daily in EYFS; my little boy has certainly benefited in his education from working with truly child centred teachers, who adapt the learning environment and curriculum to suit his needs and interests, and this is where his best learning takes place.

This is why we are looking at alternative pathways for our students in our Secondary School.  We must focus on the needs of the child and their direction of travel to design a curriculum around them.  Therefore, we have started to explore additional routes to complement our IB Diploma Programme.  The are many different routes to university, the vocational path seems to be gaining more interest and is one that benefits students greatly.  Our post 16 team are currently looking at a variety of BTEC pathways that will add value to our current education offer.

There are further adaptations to look forward to with our MIT inspired design technology and maker spaces across Primary and Secondary, as well as our engineering and product design pathways. Our Vision statement is to ‘Empower and Enrich’ and these latest adaptations will enhance our curriculum, experiences and outcomes for our students.

More information about these routes will be discussed at our upcoming parent events in June.

 

Liam Cullinan

Executive Principal

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