Horizon International School, Umm Al Sheif

Horizon International School – updated August 2019 KHDA latest accreditation – this review is currently being updated.

“We give equal importance to academics as well as extracurricular activities to foster the holistic development of our students. Our aim is to give children all the tools they require to make a positive impact in their lives, and the communities they live in.”

Darren Gale. Principal. Horizon International School

Prospective parents should be advised that, to some degree, Horizon International should be treated as a new school in weighing up the strengths of the school for potential provision of education for their child(ren). It is also fair to say that the school’s overall performance deteriorated at the time of its last inspection reported in May 2017.

The school begins GCE A’ Level provision for the first time in September 2016.

A very limited number of (I)GCE O’ Level examinations were taken for the first time in 2015 (mostly in languages) and (I)GCSE full examinations were sat for the first time in 2016 with very mixed results. The school on opening was running with very high teacher turnover running at 45% but this has now settled to an average 23%.

Horizon International has a key advantage over other relatively schools: it started with the foundations of a well-established Junior school already in place, the new school owners having purchased the originally named “Star International School – Umm Al Sheif” outright from previous owners.

Star International UAS was a Grade 1-9 English National Curriculum School established by the previous owners in 2008. Significantly, for prospective parents, the original school was consistently rated in the “Good” class of schools by the Dubai KHDA schools Inspectorate, and this had provided some security for prospective parents that Horizon had all the foundations in place when it was taken over by its new owners.

One caveat to this had been the loss of the very respected principal, Dave Wilson. It is not very clear why Mr Wilson left the school, however he had provided a lot of the continuity between Star and Horizon. He was very liked by parents for creating an inclusive and warm school environment, and for raising its standards and quality of education.

One of Mr Wilson’s legacies will be the range of subjects offered by the school – a key measure parents can look at in deciding the degree to which a school is genuinely committed to matching its provision to the individual talents of its students, and the degree a school is will to invest in higher levels of staffing required to offer more subject options to children. The greater the subject choices, the more likely a school will be to meet the needs of children. (I)GCSE subject options are impressive. All children sit a core of 7 subjects with a further (maximum) 3 options to be drawn from a wide-ranging list of options.

These options stretch across 18 core subject areas ranging from traditional options like History and Geography through to Psychology, Performing Arts, Photography, three Design and Technology options; Dance and Business studies. The school offers language provision across English, Arabic, French and Spanish.

In terms of breadth of (I)GCSE provision the school is operating strongly. Curriculum subjects are provided both by Cambridge International and EDEXCEL, the school committed to drawing on the examination boards necessary to ensure the maximum breadth of provision for children.

https://youtu.be/ZZTdtQBzvyM

As of 2018, school Principal Darren Gale has been post – and we have received excellent feedback from teachers and students. Mr Gale was recruited from Kings’ Nad Al Sheba.

As of 2016, the school announced a dedicated scholarship programme. The aim of the programme was to ensure that gifted children should not be disadvantaged by their financial background in gaining a place at the school.

Scholarships are provided in all five areas of core subject provision for children gifted in each one or more of Academics; Music; Dance; Drama; and/or Sport. Scholarships will offer fee remission of up to 25% and be available to existing and new students from Year 6 onwards. Although the school does not advertise the number of available scholarships we would strongly advise all parents to complete the relevant application found here.

Facilities provision continues to suffer from a lack of on-site cafeteria facilities, this a result of the school’s growth and earlier facilities simply now not having the capacity to meet projected need. As a result, students are required to bring packed lunches to school or a catering provider brings food in from off-site. Although Horizon does have a “Juice Bar” we believe that proper lunch provision is important and hope that this will be addressed as a matter of urgency in the school’s development planning moving forward.

We also believe that eventual provision for a lift to enable disabled children to access all floors of the school is something that should be equally prioritised in future stages of school development.

Notwithstanding these omissions, however, facilities are as a whole of a very high standard and of sufficient breadth and quality to meet the needs of students. They include wi-fi equipped classrooms; fully digital campus; (fabulous) FS Indoor Play Area zoned across areas providing role-play and exploration; further shaded FS Outdoor Play Area with climbing frames, a fun slide, space rocket, firefighter’s pole and “spider’s web”;; whole-school library; juice bar; clinic; Main ICT Lab; Control Technology Lab for robotics (including Lego Mindstorms provision); art rooms equipped for collage, 3D modelling, textiles and craft work; science labs; and community theatre and auditorium.

Sports facilities include a large artificial grass pitch to the front of the school with shaded seating and equipped for Football, Cricket, Tag Rugby and Athletics; very high quality 25 metre climate controlled eight lane swimming pool with High Board Diving and PADI Diving facilities; and two further mosaic splash pools with colourful surroundings for younger children.

Extra-Curricular Activities [ECAs] provided by the school are excellent and include a Film Club; Mathematics Club; Arts and Crafts Club; Arabic Writing; Debating Club; Primary Swim Club; English Support; Primary Rounders;  U14 Girls Basketball; HIPI Dance; U16 Boys Football; Drama Club; Table Tennis; Stop Motion Animation Club; Recreational Badminton Club; Secondary Girls Rounders; U14 Boys Basketball; Art From Film Club; iMovie Club; Secret Writing Society; KS3 Football; Recreational Volleyball; Primary Swim Squad; U11 Basketball; and Primary Development Swim Squad. These are strengthened with external provision for Du Gym; Chess; Elite Football; Young Engineers; Clay Modelling; Dance Project – Cheerleading; Dance Project – Salsa/Latin/Ballroom; karate; Drama Scene; Turning Pointe Ballet; Al Tawash Diving; Aquatix Swimming; Silversmith; Kidzart; Diverse Street Jazz; Bounce; Level Up Capoeira; Buko Judo; Tennis 360; Indoor Hockey; Mandarin/Chinese; choir; Horizon Band; and horse riding.

We argue strongly that the depth and thoughtfulness of ECA provision is one indicator that should draw parental attention in measuring the genuine commitment of any school to whole child provision. Horizon certainly operates at outstanding levels of delivery.

There are some stand-out innovations we particular like:

• Horizon’s Year 2 to 6 “Curriculum Workshop Programme” dedicates 1 lesson every Thursday afternoon for children to choose new activities across creative arts, sports, music or languages, this culminating in an annual Enterprise Afternoon in June each year for children to showcase their talents.

• The Year 7 to 9 CAVE programme provides concentrated enrichment across Community, Achievement, Volunteeringand  Activities range from building new businesses to charitable works. In Year 7 this is supplemented by short course provision in areas including food technology, Dance, Drama, Psychology and Spanish.

• Horizon’s International Performance Institute (HIPI) enables high achieving Performing Arts students to pursue qualifications underwritten by LAMDA and the Royal College of Music as well as providing elite athletes with a range of targeted specialist further enhanced curriculum(s).

• Whole child provision is strengthened by early stage intervention in the Arts. Between Years 2 and 6 all children have piano lessons integrated within the curriculum, supported by extra-curricular instrument options. At Secondary stage the music curriculum floods children with appreciation of music styles and cultural impacts. The (very impressive) ambition is for “all students to have the basic skills and knowledge to see Music GCSE as a viable option at Key Stage 4.”

Horizon has a House System, dividing children into one of four houses on entering the school: (Blue) Dalma Dolphins; (Red) Fahidi Falcons; (Gold) Liwa Leopards; and (Green) Hatta Hornets. Each has a democratically elected, secondary and primary, Captain and Vice-Captain. This, together with the other features we identify above, are telling of the very significant changes and improvements being undertaken across the school under its new owners.

It is fair to say that the school has had its share of frustrations as it has built its capacity to open all-through provision. Leadership has been ambitious, and the school wanted to ratchet up the quality and breadth of provision quickly so that all children benefit.

More time will give Horizon schools as a whole the opportunity to pull together better, and to ensure feeder transition is smoother and of a better fit. Many of these problems are clearly related to very significant growth in student numbers aligned with the robust recruitment of new teachers to ensure 1:12 teacher to student ratios are maintained. It is frustrating that by 2017 these identified weaknesses art the time of our last review have yet to be fully ironed out.

Prospective parents should note too that ongoing investment in the school is being made by owners and the KHDA note a capacity for growth and improvement over time.

Bottom line? It remains simply too early, as of 2019, to provide a clear view.

Positively, the provision of scholarships – and on a wide-ranging basis – is indicative of a very principled school driving to meet international benchmarks of outstanding school provision.

School fees have reduced by some AED 20,000 over the originally planned fees for GCSE and Sixth Form which does moderate our original view of the school which we believed then simply did not stack up. Value we now rate as offering good ROI.

We expect to visit the school in late 2019 and will update our review then.

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