Newlands School is a British Curriculum school operated by well-known Beaconhouse Education which opened in Al Warqa in Autumn 2017.

The Story so Far...

Newlands School, operated by the Beaconhouse Group opened in September 2017, initially from FS 1 through Year 6 with a Secondary school that has now expanded to include Years 7 to 11 and will add Year 12 (lower Sixth Form) in September 2023, ultimately offering an all-through education to Year 13 in September 2024. 

The Beaconhouse group has over 315,000 full-time students in eight countries and was established in November 1975 in Pakistan.  In addition to Newlands School, the group also operates the US curriculum Beaconhouse Al Khaleej International School in Sharjah and the UK curriculum Beaconhouse School in Al Ain.

In August 2023, Mr. Kyle Knott, who had previously spent five years at Star International School Al Twar and Al Ghusais, joined Newlands School as the new Principal.

What about the curriculum?

The school follows the National Curriculum for England, including the Early Years Foundation Stage for Foundation Stage children. Children follow the UK curriculum from years 1 to 9 and then embark on their IGCSE subjects.

After completion of their IGCSE students who join Years 12 and 13 (Sixth Form) - due to open in August 2023 - AS-levels and A-levels. 

What about the Facilities?

Facilities at the campus include: 

42 standard classrooms, Activity Rooms, four science labs with three of them as specialist labs (for secondary physics, chemistry and biology) and 1 general lab for primary, one specialist room for computing, coding and ICT, specialist art, media and music rooms. There are external play spaces of more than 1,100 sqm including separate areas for FS, primary and secondary.

The Foundation Stage layout features a separate entrance, ground floor location, and separation from the rest of the school including immediate toilet access, and access to the outside FS play area.  Linked classrooms with corridors provide space where supervised activities can ‘spill over’ for free flow in addition to an Activity Room. 

All primary classrooms from Years 1-3 are also located on the ground floor, including an Activity Room. The school also includes a library/learning centre and a staff development/training centre.

Sports facilities include a multi-purpose hall, an outdoor football pitch and cricket net and a 10×20 metre swimming pool with changing facilities

What the inspectors say

Newlands was one of only two new schools due for inspection in 2019-20 whose inspection by the KHDA's DSIB inspectors actually took place. The inspection, held in February 2020, shortly prior to the cancellation of inspections as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic, resulted in the award of an Acceptable rating.

In May 2022, the school received its second inspection by the DSIB team and was again awarded the Acceptable rating. However, as is so often the case, the overall rating by no means tells the full story!  In reality, many aspects of the school's performance were rated Good, with 23 key performance measures improved to at least Good.

And in 2022-23 inspection round, the school achieved an overall Good rating for the inspection that took place in March 2023.

The strengths of the school were identified as:

• Strong progress in English, mathematics and science in the well-provisioned Foundation Stage (FS)
• Well supported transitions between FS and Key Stage 1 and strong early careers guidance in Secondary 
• Robust performance management leading to effective monitoring of teaching and learning
• Very safe, hygienic and well-maintained premises with leaders and governors who put in place excellent safeguarding procedures.

Areas of improvement were defined as:

• Raise students' attainment in Islamic Education and Arabic.
• Improve the quality of teaching, particularly in Islamic Education and Arabic, by sharing the best practices already evident in the school so that all teaching is consistently at least good, and often better.
• Refine assessment processes to ensure more-specific targets are set for all groups of students to ensure ongoing and sustainable improvement.
• Governors to make whatever new appointments are required to successfully launch phase 4, ensuring that the planned infrastructure fully meets the needs of older students.

If you would like to read the full inspection report - and we strongly recommend that you do so in order to understand the reasons behind the ratings and the improvements that are required - you will find it here. 

What about the Fees?

Fees at Newlands School start at AED 20,352 for FS1 and rise to AED 33,708 for Year 11. These fees can be paid in three installments at the beginning of each term. A sibling discount is being offered in the current academic year.

The school charges additional fees for learning resources (textbooks, stationery, online learning resources, assessments, library fee, and laboratory fee).  These range from AED 1,200 in FS, to AED 1,750 for Primary students and AED 2,000 for Secondary students.  The payment is due with the first term's fees.

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