Credence High School, Al Quoz 1

Updated November 2016

Credence High School is a new Indian all through school undergoing phased FS to Grade 12 launch. The school will follow the CBSE curriculum from Year 9.

The school aims, however, to radically differentiate itself from other Indian schools in the Gulf by replacing the standard CBSE curriculum to Year 8 with a curriculum provided by a relatively young start-up, XSEED, based in Singapore and founded by Ashish Rajpal, an MIT educated Indian entrepreneur.

The basic approach is to tackle one widely held critique of Indian education – that it teaches facts by rote with little relevance to the skills required later in life, with a model of education based on experiential activity-based learning in which students learn to think for themselves within a curriculum based on problem solving and the “why” of learning rather than the “what.”

To this end the XSEED approach is much more closely aligned with the International Baccalaureate early years’ approach.

It’s a risk.  Although XSEED advertises itself as having taken 2 million families through its programmes in India, it does not have the international recognition of the English National Curriculum, IB or American foundations – or the Indian Early Years curriculums it seeks to supplant.

The degree to which the programme transfers to later CBSE study is also relatively untested. This is not to say the programme is not impressive.

XSEED provides its own study materials which are excellent and particularly well structured for parents to support and engage with the curriculum. They also provide transparency between the school, parents and students of the degree to which a child is progressing – and the degree to which the school is meeting the requirements of the XSEED curriculum.

 

These are, however, very early days and the school is currently open to Year 6 only. Subsequent years will open as children move through the school.

We expect the KHDA Inspection report within 2016-17, but as with any new school, prospective parents should give the school time to bed-in its provision.

As of 2016-17, the school’s highly regarded founding Head, Kulbhushan Kain, has left the school to return to Delhi Public School [DPS] in Jaipur. We are waiting advice on his replacement.

Facilities are sufficient and include multiple shaded play areas; large playing field; running track; small swimming pool; 14,000 square foot multi-purpose hall, auditorium, sports arena and theatre; library; IT Labs; Medical Centre; dedicated Arabic language faculty; 5,000 square foot, air-conditioned dance and drama hall with wooden flooring; cafeteria and a digital campus. The degree to which current facilities will support a 3000+ capacity role, given that the owners want to push at the boundaries of the Premium Sector schools, is unclear, but the large site has the capacity for future investment.

School transparency and communications are less developed than we would have hoped, with much information still not updated from that provided at launch. The school does publish newsletters, however, which help bring to life the day-to-day feel of the school for prospective parents and there is a vibrant Facebook presence for a school so young in its launch journey.

WhichSchoolAdvisor.com independent feedback has been limited. Interestingly the feedback received to date has been exclusively from parents, and unqualified in its praise of the school.

This is unusual given the teething problems usually expected of a school in phased launch, and particularly in an independent new school opening without the support of a major Group.

Arguably this is in part due to the XSEED curriculum which is highly specific in its requirements from teachers and students and comes with dedicated lesson plans which, if followed correctly, should guarantee the quality of provision.

Given the early days of the school, and, notwithstanding its positive character, the limited feedback received to date, we are not able to provide a definitive recommendation of the school. However, it is clear that the owners are genuinely committed to re-defining the quality of Indian schooling in the Emirates and the school offers, in its breadth and quality of facility provision, a good return on its value fee structure.

This is a good start for any school. The rest is down to time, on-going investment by owners and the impact on CBSE education from Year 9 of the XSEED curriculum.

Note: scoring is predictive, based on whichschooladvisor data and feedback, published school information and comparative research. As a school in phased launch prospective parents are advised that school performance is likely to significantly vary over time.