Posted: 16 November 2017
AAESS Inspection Report 2017
Dear Parent/Guardian,
After a long wait, I am pleased to announce that the school has received an Acceptable inspection grade, which contains elements of Good features.
“Once again it is very pleasing to hear the inspection team feedback on how impressed they were with our students, their conduct, 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 a area of strength in the report alongside the positive climate for learning.
I am also delighted that they have acknowledged the great work within our Foundation Stage, and see this also as a strength of the school and so well deserved. Once again, their recognition of the leadership team as an area of strength is also encouraging.
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 Good. Likewise, the protection, care, guidance and support that we give the students is also graded as Good from this inspection.
The summary of the inspection report shows every schools strength and areas for development.
The summary of strengths are:
1) Student’s good achievement in FS and the high phase of the school in English medium subjects.
2) Improved teaching and learning in the primary phase in all subjects so that it is now acceptable.
3) Students’ attitude to learning, their behaviour and relationships with others creating;
4) A positive climate for learning.
5) Leader’s shared vision and strategic direction resulting in strong improvement in almost all areas since the last inspection.
The summary of areas for improvement are:
1) Improve student’s achievement in all phases by:
a) making greater links in lessons between Islamic values and Emirati culture across the English medium subjects.
b) sharing good practice across the school.
c) using the full range of school data accurately to identify gaps in students’ understanding and to plan the appropriate next steps in learning.
2) Improve teaching and assessment by ensuring that all teachers:
a) provide work that is individualised to student’s learning needs, particularly those with SEN and those who are more able.
b) provide sufficient opportunities for students to develop enquiry, independent and critical-thinking skills in lessons
c) incorporate the analysis of continuous assessment data to directly inform plans for future learning.
3) Enhance leadership and management further by:
a) ensuring that the school self -evaluation is aligned consistently to the UAE inspection framework and that judgements are triangulated across all performance standards.
b) supporting middle leaders to monitor teaching and learning and use their findings to plan, and take, appropriate action to raise students’ achievement.
c) ensuring that middle leaders use data to sharply target students’ next steps in learning.
The last academic year saw fantastic results yet again, with A level Pass rates, and IGCSE pass rates being significantly higher than the UK in every subject. This week I have also been contacted by the Edexcel exam board who have notified me that we have one student who has gained the highest grade in an A Level for the whole of the UAE but also that one student has gained the highest GCSE in the world! I will be celebrating this more, later in the month once the exam board have sent me the certificates and details of the students.
AAESS will continue to prides 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
