UKRAINE, IB SCHOOLS, DOMINIC CUMMINGS, ART AND TELLING THE TRUTH – TABITHA BARDA’S THE SCHOOLS REPORT UAE PRESENTS… WHAT MADE THE NEWS FOR SCHOOLS, PARENTS AND STUDENTS IN EDUCATION THIS WEEK.

The Schools Report brings you the SchoolsCompared.com official Weekly Briefing on the Hottest News in Education.

Every Friday we bring you the latest stories in education in the UAE and around the world in the last 7 days. Here’s what’s been happening this week…

This Week in Education. UAE Education News. First. Every Friday. Only from SchoolsCompared.com.

Top UK independent, Durham School, to open in Dubai – 600 year old school educated political “genius” Dominic Cummings of Brexit renown.

Dominic Cummings pictured with Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

SchoolsCompared revealed exclusively that the renowned UK independent Durham School will open a satellite school in Dubai this August. The school follows a number of heavyweight British private schools opening in Dubai including the Royal Grammar School Guildford Dubai, Repton School Dubai, Kent College, North London Collegiate College and Brighton. The article argues that the winners are parents as competition intensified and standards rise – whilst the bigger picture questions around the long term impacts remain. The story follows broader questions on the impact of brands in education covered here, and here.

Read the full exclusive on the imminent opening of Durham School Dubai on SchoolsCompared.com here.  

Should we lie to our children to save their innocence? War in Ukraine presses home the issues – UK’s Guardian broadsheet reports…

Should children be told the truth? And if so, at what cost?

Many of us face the moral dilemma of whether we should tell the truth to our children every year at Christmas, as we put out the carrots for Rudolph – but the horrors of war in Ukraine and damage to education wrought by Covid-19 have made the issues far more pressing and brought explicit moral hazard. In a brilliant report covering the issues, the UK Guardian newspaper speaks with parents and experts to tackle the issues head on and comes up with the conclusion that, in the age of social media and horrors that directly impact children, we may have no choice but to tell the truth and rob our little ones of the innocent childhood that so many of us saw as their right to experience.

Should we lie to our children to protect them? Read the full story here.

6 Dubai IB Schools Make Top 100 in the World – but are exam results the real story in what makes an outstanding education for children? Is it time to scrap these endless reductive tables and, instead, look at the Bigger Picture of what makes an Education sparkle, and matter, for our children.

Half truth and half truth does not equal truth – questions over exam league tables continue as education grapples with how to define outstanding schools without misleading parents.

SchoolsCompared explores the remarkable achievement of 6 IB schools in Dubai, but warns that exam results tell us relatively little about whether a school is delivering for children. We explore the complexities of the issue – including the misleading focus on the Diploma over the Career-related Programme, and how misleading findings follow the differences between schools in the number of those sitting for each qualification, the academic inclusiveness of the school (or otherwise) and the detail of everything, from subject breadth to school exclusions, that such tables inevitably ignore.

Find out which six Dubai International Baccalaureate Schools are competing in the top 100 IB schools globally here.

As War Rages in Ukraine, Children are, against all odds, still being educated. But only just…. A special video report covers the extraordinary story.

Schools are remaining open as the bombs drop – the Ukrainian people fight to protect their children’s futures in the face of overwhelming war.

A short video report from Vice of America revealing the extraordinary and moving efforts to ensure Ukrainian children do not lose out on school. In many cases education has moved online, but the fact that education is occurring at all in the face of such horror and adversity is a testament both to the courage of a nation facing overwhelming odds – and the vital importance of schools that in peacetime we often take too easily for granted.

Watch the extraordinary expose of how a people ravaged by the brutality of war, horror and bombs is doing all it can to protect the education of its children. 

An uplifting celebration of every child’s capacity to change the world through Art – prizes for children and schools in Abu Dhabi announced for making beautiful and thoughtful things to recognise why we need to save the world from climate change.

The Art of Recycling competition for children and schools launched this week in partnership with Abu Dhabi Mall, Yalla Magazine and SchoolsCompared.

SchoolsCompared.com is proud to be partnering with Yalla Magazine and Abu Dhabi Mall to celebrate the extraordinary capacity of children to respond to climate change and saving our world through the Fine and Creative Arts. In a new competition launched this week, schools and children of all ages can win amazing prizes in a showcase for the Arts. Children and schools will see their creativity showcased to tens of thousands of admiring visitors to a landmark exhibition taking pride of place in Abu Dhabi’s most famous landmark shopping centre too . The competition, open exclusively to schools and children in Abu Dhabi, launched this week and is being supported by top schools groups including Aldar – long recognised for their outstanding investment in the whole child education of children and powerful support of the Arts in their schools. The competition celebrates the Arts broadly, from fashion and Fine Art, to sculpture and Installations.

Learn more about the beautiful celebration of the creativity of children, and how to take part, here.

14 teachers at Abu Dhabi school donate their hair to support student with cancer

The Khaleej Times this week reports that14 teachers and non-teaching staff of an Indian school in Abu Dhabi have donated their hair in a gesture of support for a Grade 5 student who has been diagnosed with cancer. One month ago, the 10-year-old girl, who attends International Indian School, Baniyas West, Abu Dhabi, was diagnosed with leukaemia. She is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment in hospital.

On Thursday, teachers and non-teaching staff cut their hair – with four of the staff members going fully bald – in a gesture of solidarity for the little girl,

The school contacted Premi Mathew, the founder of Hair for Hope India, to inaugurate the event. Premi said:

“Losing hair is a traumatic part of chemotherapy treatment. Hair is an integral part of a person’s personality. The teachers have set a noble example. I feel this should be an example for all the schools around the world.”

The teachers’ donated hair will be converted into wigs and given to cancer patients who have lost their hair to chemo. The hair donated in the UAE goes to Friends of Cancer Patients. Find out more.

Making Sense of American and British school Qualifications – what you need to know to get into Top Universities

The complexity of finding equivalence between US and UK school qualifications is explored – with solutions, by SchoolsCompared.

SchoolsCompared has published a guide to understanding US and UK qualifications, including Advanced Placement and A Level equivalence. The article tries to tackle the confusion faced by parents who believe that the High School Diploma is equivalent to UK A Levels – a misunderstanding that adds a year to undergraduate study at British universities.

The ‘explainer’ can be found here. 

Tabitha Barda’s The School Report © SchoolsCompared.com. 2022. All rights reserved.

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