Dubai: A new American curriculum school, GEMS Nations Academy, which will open in September 2016 in Al Barsha, is now open for registration, GEMS Education announced on Wednesday.
In its first phase, the school will open to students from kindergarten to grade eight and will have the capacity to take in 1,500 students.
A new grade will then open every year for the next four years and will accommodate 2,500 students — given that they receive approval from the Knowledge and Human Development Authority.
The school fees per annum will start from Dh84,000 for KG1 students, Dh90,000 for KG2 students, Dh102,000 for students from grades one to five and Dh118,000 for students from grades six to eight.
Tom Farquhar, who will lead the new school as the founding head and is currently the Dean of American Curriculum Schools at GEMS Education, said Arabic language learning is going to be a key area of focus at the school.
Farquhar said modern pedagogy will be adopted where students will be encouraged to engage with one another because practising the language is the best way to learn it.
He also said the school will choose teachers fluent in both English and Arabic language to deliver the information better.
Farquhar said the school will also focus on computer programming language starting from KG1 to grade 12.
Computer coding will provide them with extensive experience in machine control languages, digital creation, and maker fabrication. Coding, robotics, projects and inquiry-based learning will enrich the programme.
Tony Little, Chief Academic Officer at GEMS Education, said teaching coding is valuable. “We have a generation here of people happy using the final technology but don’t really know how it works, which is why the school will use technology effectively,”.
Farquhar said the teachers were all required to make a video before they were hired to see how comfortable they are with technology and teaching with it. This will be one of the criteria for choosing the teachers as GEMS education receives 90,000 job applications for teaching jobs per year.
Commenting on the opening of the school, Dino Varkey, Group Executive Director and Board Member, GEMS Education, said, “With GEMS Nations Academy, we aim to provide that next generation educational environment for students, preparing them with 21st century skills for a dynamically evolving world.”
The new school will have the largest sports hall in the region that can accommodate three full size basketball courts. It will also have an Olympic size pool, a 400-metre running track, basketball courts, and soccer fields as well as music, art and theatre studios, to name a few.
