Featured School
opportunities
planned
into
the timetable for everybody to
contribute. Induction is integral
to this and the entire school
team launches the academic year
together with a full understanding
of the school’s vision and direction
and how they intend to get there.
• A lot of emphasis is placed on
the school’s culture of reflection
and improvement with regular
information-sharing meetings from
Learning Assistants to the Executive
Leadership Team, where people
have the opportunity to reflect and
feedback on their experiences in
school, including their suggestions
on how things can improve.
• In addition to this, they use a
distributed leadership model for
curriculum
development.
The
development teams are made up
of all of the teaching staff, who are
empowered to monitor, evaluate
and innovate the curriculum to
ensure that they are keeping abreast
of up to date pedagogy and best
practice.
It is not surprising that serious
attention is given to establishing an
effective evaluation process in order
to keep teachers highly efficient in
their respective subject areas.
“Every member of our school
community is expected to be a learner
and to model learning for and with
children and colleagues,” explains Mrs
Turner, “We embrace risk taking and
creativity and see all mistakes as an
opportunity to learn.”
This, she elaborates, is celebrated in
termly Professional Learner Review
(PLR) meetings, whereby the member
of staff uses a range of evidence
sources to lead their own professional
development, in consultation with their
line manager. These sources include
reflections, classroom observations
and what the data reveals about the
children’s performance.
Furthermore, she states that they
avoid the usage of the phrase
‘Performance
Management’
but
instead use ‘Professional Learner
Reviews’ to reflect the fact that each
individual is on his/her own continuum
of professional development.
of the school’s attributes which is
instrumental to their success:
“Kings’ Dubai is an emotionally
intelligent school which has a
supportive and collegiate ethos. We
celebrate and share success, so that
every member of our school can
share in the pride we have for all our
achievements. Our vision and mission
capture this to ensure we provide ‘the
best by every child’.”
Dare to be Different – one of the themes used
in an earlier term to guide students’ learning.
Mrs Turner emphasises that the process
of embedding outstanding evaluation
is not necessarily measurable in steps.
“We work hard to nurture a culture of
regular reflection in our school amongst
both children and staff, and this is
what guides us in our improvement
planning. Linking this with having the
very highest expectations from all
members of the school community,
we feel we can achieve the very best
results in the right way for both the
children and the staff.”
Mrs Turner with FS1
students in the ‘Jungle’.
This nurturing environment has
produced lifelong learners who revel
in the knowledge that they receive at
the Kings’ School Dubai. The talented
teachers are facilitators who also take
pleasure in learning from each other,
from the students and the broader
education community.
In conclusion, the following quote by
Mrs Turner adequately captures one
The ICT Suite at Kings.
Year 4 students respond to a question
from their Math teacher, Mr Mitchinson.
Students of Kings during their break.
Class Time
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