Top Schools Awards
Now Reading
The Top Schools Award for Best Nursery School / Early Childhood Centre in the UAE. Top Schools Awards 2023 Nomination and Entry Forms.
0

The Top Schools Award for Best Nursery School / Early Childhood Centre in the UAE. Top Schools Awards 2023 Nomination and Entry Forms.

by Jon WestleyJanuary 3, 2023

Below is the official entry form for the Top Schools Award for Best Nursery School and ECC in the United Arab Emirates 2023-24, our award recognising schools offering the most outstanding Early Years curriculum education in the UAE, and its recognition of the many knock-on positive impacts of this on the lives of children. This is award is being run in proud association with our sister site WhichSchoolAdvisor.com.

The benefits of an Early Years education in scaffolding the pillars of every child’s education are countless, and the mechanisms for delivering this are seen in the UAE through the spectrum of approaches ranging from the British Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) to Montessori, Reggio Emilia, Froebell and Waldorf-Steiner – or in many cases a combination of one or more of these. Innovation in this sector is strong – but the passion of our Early Years Centres and educators is what is truly stand-out for us. This is a sector driven by educationalists with a conviction that Early Childhood education is centrifugally important to the development of our very youngest children to give them an outstanding start in life. You can read more about different approaches in our Early Years Curriculum Guides – our Guides to Montessori approaches here, Reggio Emilia approaches here and the British EYFS here. It is worth putting on the record here that this is a sector which creditably battled to the ninth through the Covid Years – many nursery schools and Early Learning Centres only just made it through – and this on the basis of extraordinarily supportive families and teachers and owners who put children first at often great personal cost. This is a sector that deserves to be cherished. 

In this Award we are looking at the most outstanding Early Childhood Centres and Nursery schools in the emirates. For the most part these will be dedicated stand-alone centres and schools, although we will accept applications from those Centres within all-through schools which are clearly separated and have their own dedicated teachers and leadership. The rationale for this is that this Award is fundamentally targeted at celebrating the strengths of this sector, the teachers and practitioners that work within it – and its very clear identity. We are also keen to celebrate the strengths of an educational sector that is in so many ways built on a philosophy of fierce independence and protecting childhood across all its varying approaches to the education of our very youngest infants and children.

We are looking for Early Years settings that demonstrate the deepest commitment to the education of our youngest children – evidence through investment in the most extraordinary Early Years teachers and practitioners that inspire children, creating settings that burst with compassion, care, innovation, personalised attention and children that love to come to school. We are looking for owners that demonstrate a hands-on, deep-seated commitment to the sector with a story that brings to life their impact on the lives of children and commitment to education in the region. We are looking for Early Years Centres that can demonstrate what play-based learning means in practice – and with a story to tell how this is made to work effectively with child happiness and well-being centre stage. This will mean a school, in practice, that builds powerful relationships with its families and community.

The best Nursery schools and Early Learning settings shine a light on why this sector should never be overlooked and should, rather, be celebrated for its critical role in society and the building blocks of each child’s story.

For this Award then, we are looking for Early Years schools and Centres that build to these strengths. We are looking for schools that celebrate the Early Years as the gateway in establishing a whole child education that leaves young men and women graduating to “big” school with  the benefits of a happy, inspiring and rich holistic Early Years education behind them, one built on their individual needs, ambitions and gifts, and one deeply protective of the wonders of Early childhood whilst carefully setting up the skills needed for continuing their journeys.

We are particularly keen to celebrate Early Years settings that can celebrate STEAM – and the inter-relating of first discoveries in Science, numeracy and the Arts for children – and making these inspiring. We are also look for examples of innovation…

This will be an Early Years school that sparkles with imagination and ambition in the way it teaches our very youngest children, one with a warmth that engenders the passion of teachers and the adoration of children and parents alike.

Kings_Interhigh_InArticle

Note: our Award for Early Years Teacher of the Year can be found here.

For Early Years Nursery Schools and Centres

The Top Schools Award for Best Early Childhood / Nursery School 2023-24 – Nursery Schools / Early Childhood Centres please download the official application form here.

For Parents, Governors, Teachers and Students

Parents, teachers, governors and students – we want to hear from you! If you believe that the Early Years education offered by your school , nursery or Centre is outstanding – and one which has made a profoundly positive and inspirational impact on its children, please contact us with your answer to the following. “I would like to nominate X school [name of school] as the best British Nursery / Early Years Centre in the UAE because …. ” Please email us at [email protected]. You can write as little or as much as you wish, and please include photographs if possible. Please give do your best to bring to life for us the impact the school’s investment in teaching our youngest children has had on you and/or children in your email.

The Top Schools Awards 2023-24

Top Schools Awards 2023 The STEAM Years

This year, the Top Schools Awards are celebrating outstanding achievement in our schools with a particular focus on how schools inspire children by linking all subject areas to bring the extraordinary wonders of the Arts, creativity, imagination – and freedom to experiment and innovate, into all areas of the curriculum including, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

We believe, passionately, that the Arts are absolutely fundamental to delivering an outstanding education for every child, one focused on the whole child and the gifts all children have to change the world for the better and make the difference – every day, and in the future. The Arts bring STEM to life.

Rocket Girl – the Arts and Sciences, together, brought to life

Top Schools Award for Best Nursery School / Early Learning Centre in the UAE 2023 - 2024. Here we see a picture of an aspiring young enginbeer first phase testing a Jetpack specially created for the Top Schools Award gto celebrate the importance ogf STEAM in education.

In November 2023, members of the TSA Space and Rocket programme completed first phase testing of the ImaginationTM powered Jet Pack specially manufactured for this year’s STEAM focused Awards. We visited a number of the region’s most outstanding schools. We are particularly grateful for the assistance of the extraordinary and accredited Rocket Pilot, Space Girl and aspiring young engineer Tilda from The British School Al Khubairat in Abu Dhabi(pictured) for her considerable, and quite, totally, awesome, bravery and kindness in completing rocket pack inaugural flight testing.

Without her, and those many other children we visited across the UAE, none of this would have been possible. They made us… believe.

Further Information

For schools seeking further information on The Top Schools Awards 2023 – 2024, please contact [email protected]

Read our Guide to the Top Schools Awards 2023 – 2024 here, including details of our Awards for STEAM and Bursaries.

Read about the Top Schools Award for Fine Art and Creative Studio Work here.

Read about the Top Schools Award for Music here.

Read about the Top Schools Award for Sport here.

Read about the Top Schools Award for Environmental Science and Sustainability here.

Read about the Top Schools Award for the Best School in the UAE for “Architecture and Design to Inspire Children in a UAE School” here.

Read about the Top Schools Award for the Theatre, Dance and the Performing Arts here.

Read about the Top Schools Award for the UAE Early Years Teacher of the Year 2023-24 here.

Read about the Top Schools Award for the UAE Primary School Teacher of the Year 2023 – 2024 here.

Read about the Top Schools Award for the UAE Secondary School Teacher of the Year 2023 – 2024 here.

Read about the Top Schools Award for Best Principal in the UAE 2023- 2024 here.

Read about the Top Schools Award for Best Primary School in the UAE 2023 – 2024 here.

Read about the Top Schools Award for Best School in the UAE for Post-16 Education here.

Read about the Top Schools Award for Best School for Technical and Vocational Stream Education in the UAE, including for BTEC and/or the IB Career-related Programme.

Read about the Top Schools Award for Best School in the UAE for its Outstanding Blended Arabic-International Curriculum 2023-2024 here.

Read about the Top Schools Award for Best Indian Curriculum School in the United Arab Emirates 2023-2024 here.

Read about the Top Schools Award for Best American Curriculum School in the United Arab Emirates 2023- 2024 here.

Read about the Top Schools Award for the Best British Curriculum School in the United Arab Emirates 2023-2024 here.

Read about the Top Schools Award for Best International Baccalaureate School in the United Arab Emirates 2023-2024.

Read about the Top Schools Award for Best Nursery School / Early Learning Centre in the United Arab Emirates 2023 – 2024 here.

© SchoolsCompared.com. A WhichMedia Group publication. 2023. All rights reserved.

About The Author
Jon Westley
Jon Westley is the Editor of SchoolsCompared.com and WhichSchoolAdvisor.com UK. You can email him at jonathanwestley [at] schoolscompared.com

Leave a Response