KHDA Inspection Reports 2017 – Best Newly Inspected Schools

Sunmarke School

As a new school that has been open for less than a full academic year, the decision to opt for inspection in order to open the Secondary school (which had transferred from Sunmarke’s sister school, Regent International School) was a brave one – but one that appears to have paid off.

Unlike most school who go through the first inspection in their third year, the early inspection at Sunmarke meant that none of the historical analytical data on students’ attainment and progress was available. The inspection team made judgements on students’ attainment and progress from the work in lessons, a scrutiny of students’ work, the school’s internal assessments and external benchmark assessments.

Their conclusions were that students have good learning skills across the school. In English, mathematics and science, students make good or better progress in the Foundation, primary and secondary stages. Students’ attainment and progress are very good in mathematics in the secondary and post-16 phases. The design of the curriculum is very good at the Foundation stage, it is good in the other phases and is effective in developing students’ knowledge, skills and understanding. There are, however, weaknesses in the progress and attainment of students in Islamic education and Arabic.

The quality of teaching and the use of assessment is good across the school. Teachers have strong subject knowledge, they are clear about students’ next steps in learning and understand how they learn best. Teachers in the Foundation stage make sure children learn through being active and independent. There are coherent and robust assessment systems in most subjects.

Students’ personal and social development are very good across the school. Health and safety and the support provided to students is good across the school, including for students with special education needs and disabilities (SEND). The support children receive in the Foundation Stage is very good.

Senior leaders across the school have a very good knowledge of best educational practice. They are successful in ensuring good teaching and learning across the school. The school is very well resourced, has outstanding premises and has developed good partnerships with parents.

 

In addition to improvements in Arabic by drawing on the very good practice of language teaching in the modern languages faculty and improving students’ progress in Islamic education by adopting the strong practices which are evident in other departments, the school is encouraged to adopt more creative approaches to engaging and challenging students.

With a staff:student ratio of 1:7.5, Sunmarke offers the lowest ratio (and therefore the highest level of student support) across any school at the moment. This will inevitably change as class sizes grow with additional students joining the school.

The inspectors noted that the school is providing a high quality education in the short time it has been open, as a result of the impact of senior and middle leaders and the efforts of teachers. The school emphasises students’ well-being and promotes effectively their personal and social development and provides outstanding accommodation and facilities.

It is very positive that the main areas identified for improvement can be supported by best practice already available within the school. We expect to see rapid progress at Sunmarke as a result. However, experience shows that schools often have difficulty in ensuring that standards and processes keep pace with rapidly increasing student numbers. We are sure that the management team at Sunmarke will be keeping a very close eye on this correlation.