UAE schools ensure Year 13 students are not left behind

As Year 13 students across the UAE prepare for university at home, they’re unable to have their teachers guide them in person and help them with any challenges they may come across. The British International School Abu Dhabi and Nord Anglia International School Dubai have come together to create a Pre-University course that’s designed to keep IB students learning in order to ensure that when they head off to university, they’re fully prepared. Chris Lowe, Head of Secondary at BISAD shares more on this unique pre-university course in our exclusive interview.

What inspired this joint collaboration in creating a pre-university course?

When the IB exams were cancelled for Year 13, there were still a small number of pieces of coursework to complete, but we were concerned that our Year 13 students would end their academic learning in March and have perhaps six months of ‘nothing’ before arriving at university. That seemed wrong and we felt a strong moral responsibility for the learning of our students throughout April and May especially, a period when, had all things remained normal, our teachers would have been helping students with their preparation for exams. It just seemed like the right thing to do to stay involved with the students and to keep them learning.  We have close ties with our Dubai colleagues in many ways, for instance, Louise Brown, the Head of the Senior School at NAS Dubai, used to work with us in Abu Dhabi, so it was entirely natural for us to collaborate.

Do you believe students preparing for university are facing challenges with online learning? 

I think everybody is. For Year 13 students, the uncertainty could have been overwhelming but fortunately, most universities have been proactive in contacting our students with messages of support. Our students are fortunate that universities know and understand the value of having completed the International Baccalaureate course, regardless of the final grade, so some universities have been willing to offer places unconditionally rather than wait for the results.

Can you give us an insight into some of the lessons that the pre-university course will provide to students? 

We created six academic channels based upon the university courses that our students are going to begin in the Autumn – we have channels for Maths and Engineering, Politics and Economics, Art and Design, Psychology and Neuroscience, Medicine and Science and finally a European Literature and Culture channel. Teachers are using their own experiences of first-year university courses to build a weekly theme within each channel, provide resources for students to investigate independently and then two or three times in the week, all the students following that channel meet ‘live’ with the teacher for a university-style seminar.

Do you see other schools offering similar courses to students in the future?

Hopefully, there won’t be a need for courses like this in the future!  We all hope that the lockdown of 2020 will be a one-off event.

What are some of the key takeaways of this course for students? 

We hope that our students at The British International School Abu Dhabi have enjoyed the topics that teachers have provided during this period – the teachers have certainly enjoyed the freedom to teach all sorts of unusual topics that we don’t normally get a chance to teach.  It was key that we developed this course to help students understand the importance of independent preparation for seminars at university and to introduce them to some challenging concepts and ideas. We hope also that the course has served a social purpose, keeping the students in touch with each other and reducing the sense of isolation. Finally, we hope we have helped to keep the students academically active during these strange times. These young men and women are about to embark on a truly exciting journey of higher-level education and if this course has helped the preparation for that, we will be able to say that we have succeeded.