Ghaf Private School

The name of our school is derived from the ‘Ghaf Tree’ (Prosopis cineraria) which has been declared the national tree of the UAE. This tree is a drought-tolerant, evergreen tree, native to the desert and known for its resilience. It was nominated by as nature’s symbol of tolerance for the UAE’s Year of Tolerance in 2019. The qualities of resilience and tolerance are two of the moral values that we encourage our students to develop throughout their learning journey at GPS.

A unique selling point at GPS is that ’21st Century Life Skills’ are at the heart of the curriculum What this means is that we take a personalized and holistic approach to develop every child. The table below will provide you with initial guidance and we will be to expand upon these during your tour and as part of Parents Information at induction.

We want students to learn by doing, ‘hands-on’, through play, interaction, and collaboration with each other and with their teachers. Learning is student-centered and inquiry-led. Teachers facilitate learning and lead students into experience and present them with ‘why’, ‘how’ and ‘what if’ Questions which may have more than one answer or inquiry pathway.

We want our students to grow and develop in a safe and stimulating environment, where they are listened to and supported, whatever their needs and abilities. We want our students to embrace challenge, to understand what they ‘can do,’ to know clearly what their next steps are to reach their objectives.

We want to motivate them and for them to persevere when facing difficulties. We teach that mistakes are opportunities to learn better. We spend time ensuring that misconceptions are revealed and gaps in understanding closed. We encourage our students to assess their own learning and the learning of others collaboratively. We develop questioning, encouraging students to probe deeper, checking their understanding and opening up new pathways for inquiry. We want our students to be confident about sharing their learning, being creative in the use language and communication to explain, to persuade and take pride in their efforts. We believe that it is our role as teachers to design and reveal learning opportunities, to promote and celebrate discovery, to foster a love of learning that endures throughout life

Digital learning and innovation are important tools that support teaching and learning and also enable to support students’ learning at home. This allows us to ensure learning is creative through using age appropriate apps and games. It also allows parents to see first-hand how our teachers interact with their children and also communicate with parents, so that ‘home-learning’ (rather than homework) is always a task to be enjoyed and not a chore.

Through making the learning journey at GPS, parents will feel confident that their children will not only learn to achieve their own personalized, age-appropriate outcome objectives, following a curriculum that is both broad and deep, but that our teachers will track their performance closely against international benchmarks approved by the KHDA, identifying gaps and designing interventions to close them.

We also want our students to voice their own understanding and perspectives with growing confidence and certainty. We also want their learning to be underpinned by a set of learner attitudes and attributes that will make a positive difference to the world they will inherit. The development of character as well as personality is also critical to this purpose.

In addition to academic education, we seek to focus on physical, moral and personal, social and emotional development. Holistic education of the whole child develops Mind, Body and Spirit to be in harmonious balance. Mindfulness will be a feature of students preparing for each day of inquiry and reflection, of being in the right frame of mind to embrace the learning opportunities and challenges they will meet on their learning journey.

At GPS, our values and learner attributes underpin our Code of Behavior. These are integrated into the curriculum and are reinforced in the daily life of the school through the care and example displayed by our teachers and support staff. We expect parents to help us embed these values through an active partnership with us in supporting their child’s education, not only academically, but in terms of their child’s personal development.

This statement is already evolving. It is our mission to provide:

• An embedded ethos of compassion through respect for others and for oneself.
• An enriched curriculum with skills for life that transcend culture and gives access to all.
• An internationally-minded learning community that celebrates diversity and personal achievement.
• A safe, friendly positive environment where wellbeing is at the heart of what we do.
• A flexible 21st-century learning space that accommodates ‘bricks and clicks’ Integrated approaches to learning.
• Opportunities for students to become effective, enthusiastic, independent and collaborative life-long learners.