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THE SCHOOLS REPORT UAE: WHAT’S NEW IN EDUCATION THIS WEEK?
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THE SCHOOLS REPORT UAE: WHAT’S NEW IN EDUCATION THIS WEEK?

by Tabitha BardaNovember 10, 2021

The Schools Compared Weekly Briefing on the Hottest News in Education.

Every Thursday 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 Thursday. Only from SchoolsCompared.com.

UAE nursery fined Dh10K for negligence over child’s facial burns

A nursery school owner and a teacher have been ordered to pay Dh10,000 to the father of a child, who got face burns from hot wax that had been left in the classroom.
The Abu Dhabi Court of First Instance ordered the the duo to pay the compensation to the father after they were found guilty of causing burns to the child due to negligence. Read the full story.

Dubai schools report 3.5% growth in student numbers

Enrolment in Dubai’s private schools has grown 3.5% since the start of the last academic year, with an addition of nearly 10,000 students, according to the KHDA.
The emirate now has 215 private schools, 21 of which have opened in the last three years. The Total number of students in Dubai is 289,019 students, of which 30,515 are Emirati students. Read more.

Data confirms COVID exam grade inflation in UK 

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A was the average A-level grade at UK independent schools in 2021, the UK’s Department of Education data shows. The figures for last summer’s A-level qualifications confirm the rampant acceleration in grades awarded by teachers in England, replacing formal exams that were scrapped earlier this year after the government announced a second national lockdown. Find out more.

Five UAE schools awarded COP26 eco accolade at ceremony starring UK’s Prince William

Five schools in the UAE have won a global award for their efforts to protect the environment and tackle climate change as part of the COP26 climate summit.
Pristine Private School, in Dubai, Springdales School Dubai, Gems Millennium School – Sharjah, Shining Star International School in Abu Dhabi and Delhi Private School Sharjah have all been awarded The Climate Action Project School of Excellence.
The awards ceremony featured speeches from the UK’s Prince William, Princess Esmeralda from Belgium, and representatives from the UN, WWF, NASA and many more. Find out what initiatives led to the UAE schools winning this international award.

40 Free family activities on offer at UAE Festival of Schools this weekend

Festival of School event Dubai UAE 2021

There will be more than 40 fantastic, free family activities on offer to entertain kids, teens and adults of all ages this Saturday 13 November at the Festival of Schools which is being hosted by the fabulous GEMS FirstPoint School in The Villa.  From a children’s fun zone and pop-up market, and a food court filled with to bursting with tasty treats to countless interactive activities to absorb festival goers in everything from robotics, coding and psychology, to archaeology and fashion design, there’s something to delight every member of the family. Book your free tickets and find out the full line-up.

One third of all Abu Dhabi students vaccinated against COVID-19

Vaccination rates among school children in Abu Dhabi have risen dramatically since the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (Adek) announced the Blue Schools initiative.
Overall, 37 per cent of pupils in the Abu Dhabi’s private and charter schools have had both doses.
93 per cent of students aged 16 years or more who are attending schools have already been vaccinated against COVID-19. The rate is currently 68 per cent vaccination among 12 to 15-year-old students, 21 per cent among students aged younger than 12 years. Find out more.

Don’t pay ‘snake oil salesmen’ who say they’ll get you into Dubai College, says Headmaster

The Headmaster of one of the most sought-after UAE schools, Dubai College, has hit out against the private tutors who claim to be able to secure children spaces at one of the emirate’s most over-subscribed secondary schools.
It is common practice in certain parental circles to intensively tutor students looking to take Dubai College’s highly selective admissions assessment, says DC Headmaster Michael Lambert.
But these expensive practices are overpriced and unnecessary, he says. Read the full interview.

Students now used to ‘speed learning’ online – what’s the point of going back to the classroom?

Many students now routinely accelerate their lectures when learning offline – often by 1.5 times, sometimes by more. There are whole Reddit threads where students discuss how odd it will be to return to the lecture theatre. One contributor wrote: “Normal speed now sounds like drunk speed.”
“This is a time for schools and systems to reimagine education without schooling or classrooms,” said Professor Yong Zhao of the School of Education at the University of Kansas, reports The Guardian. Read more on Guardian writer and novelist Laura Spinney’s ‘Big Idea’ about how education can be reimagine for the future.

WATCH: Safa British School’s Festival of Schools was a sell-out success

Last Friday saw the Which Media Festival of Schools kick off in fantastic style at Safa British School. The sell out event was attended by Safa families, families looking for schools and by members of the local community simply looking for an awesome day out. As an event designed to reconnect schools with the wider community, the very first Festival of Schools achieved just that (and more!). Every last ticket was sold, and feedback from the many families who came along was uniformly glowing. Watch the event video.

UK university lecturers so poorly paid some have to live in tents

Time to walk away from a school if it is not right for your child

Higher education is one of the most casualised sectors of the UK economy, and for many it means a struggle to get by.
Like many PhD students, Aimée Lê needed her hourly paid job – as an English lecturer – to stay afloat. But what her students never guessed was that for two years while she taught them she was living in a tent.
She decided to live outside as a last resort when she was faced with a steep rent increase in the third year of her PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London, and realised she would not be able to afford a flat and cover all her costs on her research and teaching income. Read her story.

About The Author
Tabitha Barda
Tabitha Barda is the Senior Editor of SchoolsCompared.com. Oxbridge educated and an award winning journalist in the UAE for more than a decade, Tabitha is one of the region's shining lights in all that is education in the emirates. A mum herself, she is passionate about helping parents - and finding the stories in education that deserve telling. She is responsible for the busy 24x7 News Desk, our Advisory Boards and Specialist Panels - and Parents United's WHICHPlaydates - a regular meeting place for UAE parents to discuss the issues that matter to them, make friends and network with others. You can often find Tabitha too on Parents United - our Facebook community board, discussing the latest schools and education issues with our parent community in the UAE - and beyond.

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