After a long wait, I am pleased to announce that the school has received a GOOD inspection grade, with elements of VERY GOOD features.

Once again it is very pleasing to hear the inspection team feedback on how impressed they were with the behaviour, attitudes to learning, and the quality of the premises and the learning resources available to teachers and students. I was also pleased with how they recognised the very high standards reached and the qualifications gained by students in iGCSE and A Level, particularly in the key subject of Mathematics, citing this as an area of strength in the report alongside the positive climate for learning.

I am also delighted that they have acknowledged the great work that we do to ensure the safety and well being of the students and acknowledge the work of the Nurses and our clinic. Once again, their recognition of the leadership team as an area of strength is also encouraging alongside the acknowledgment of the Trustees and the Parent Committee.

Over the four days the inspectors were looking at six areas: Students’ achievement; Students’ personal and social development, and their innovation skills; Teaching and assessment; Curriculum; The protection, care, guidance and support of students, and Leadership and management.

As in our previous report, it is good to see confirmed yet again what we knew about the way the school looks after the students’ personal and social development, and their innovation skills, where the inspection graded this as Very Good. Likewise, the protection, care, guidance and support that we give the students is also graded as Very Good from this inspection.
The summary of the inspection report shows every schools strength and areas for development.

The summary of 5 strengths are:

• The impact of school leaders on improving students’ achievement in all subjects.
• Students’ relationships with each other and their teachers, behaviour and attitudes to learning.
• Students’ appreciation of Islamic values and their respect for the heritage and culture of the UAE.
• Care, welfare and safeguarding arrangements to protect students.
• The strong partnerships with parents and the community and the commitment of the governors towards the school.

The summary of 2 areas for improvement are:

• Further enhance the quality of teaching and learning by:

Using assessment data more effectively to influence teaching and learning. Providing lessons that meet the needs of all students and offer challenge for higher achieving and gifted and talented (G&T) students. Ensuring teachers help students who speak English as an additional language (EAL) understand subject specific terms to support their learning. Offering students more opportunities to write long stories in both Arabic and English, and for students who speak Arabic as a second language (ASL) to practise further their speaking. Providing more opportunities in lessons for students to develop consistently their innovation and technology skills.

• Further improve the effectiveness of middle leaders by:

Training leaders in adaptation of the curriculum to meet the needs of all students & holding teachers more accountable for assessment data in order to accelerate sharply the rate of students’ progress.

AAESS will continue to pride itself on welcoming students from all corners of the globe and will continue to achieve high level results.

We look forward to working with you all in Achieving Excellence, now and in the near future, and I thank you for your continued support.

Kind regards

Andrew Thomas B.Ed (Hons) M.Phil NPQH

Principal