1- School design:
School design plays an essential role in determining the success of a school well before its physical existence.
Design is developed at the engineering and architectural levels to guarantee functionality of the premises as well as the proper circulation flow while providing a modern and avant-garde design. Future expansion of the school is taken into consideration and special provisions are built in the master plan right from the beginning. This work is done by our engineers that are specialized in school and university design.
The other aspect of design is actually preparing all necessary details ranging from furniture and equipment to preparing the mission and vision statements as well as the organizational chart and job descriptions on the administrative level while the academic level involves the preparation of the school's curricula, the design of its academic process and setting up its book of procedures in preparation for future accreditation.
University design involves practically the same procedures with the addition of the links and collaboration with known European or American universities.
2- Workshops:
We offer custom designed workshops upon request. These one to three days workshops are designed to address a specific topic and provide participants with a variety of hands-on activities that will enable transfer of acquired knowledge into the actual workplace.
We can prepare and conduct workshops about any subject. Some of the workshops we offer are:
- School Management.
- Discipline.
- Classroom Management.
- Multi-Level Teaching/Learning.
- Learning Theory.
- Multiple Intelligence Theory and its Implications.
- Motivation, Goal Setting and Achievement.
- Child Development Stages.
- Pre-school Education.
- Peaceful Conflict Resolution.
- Instructional Strategies.
- Assessment Strategies.
All workshops offer the theoretical side as well as actual models that bring theory to practice. Participants are asked to conduct hands-on activities in order to reinforce skills and competencies.
3- Seminars:
Seminars are usually a one day event that aims at developing knowledge at the conceptual level. Participants are then asked to apply what has been learned. This practice is normally reserved for highly experienced faculty and staff as it only offers the concepts while it is left up to the participants to develop tools for implementation.
4- In-Service Training:
In-Service Training sessions are conducted during the course of the academic year. These sessions include:
- Observation. (General school observation includes administration, classroom, playground, activities, internal meetings, parents’ meetings)
- Conference to discuss what was observed and set goals.
- Follow-up to ensure decisions implementation.
Coordinators and Administrators are active participants as they are essential stakeholders and must have ownership of the decisions and plans that are produced during the conference stage.
5- Recruitment / Performance Assessment:
Recruitment: This is done in three stages
- We provide participating schools with a standard job description for every position in a school.
- The school’s administration must review these job descriptions and make any amendments deemed necessary.
- We will then use these J.D.’s to develop a candidates’ screening procedure in order to ensure that all candidates are evaluated according to the same criteria and standards.
We can also provide support by having a consultant present during the interviews or we can conduct the interviews ourselves thus relieving the school’s administration from this burden.
6- Performance assessment:
This is a continuous process that involves at least three yearly visits by our consultant(s) to observe all teachers and personnel at work and complete an evaluation form for each.
Each faculty and staff member will have at least three evaluations that are then translated into a percentage that can be used for promotion or remedial action planning.
7- Curriculum Design:
A school curriculum does not consist of only what publishers offer in their programs. It must include the elements and tools that will ultimately enable the school to achieve what its mission statement and vision statement claim. This is in addition to what books seldom offer, skills, attitudes and competencies.
We will provide the school’s administration with a curriculum design that reflects international standards for all subjects regardless of the language of instruction.
We will also provide the school’s administration with enhancements that will help achieve curricular integration on all levels with the subjects that are given in Arabic.
This work is done during summer with the participation of coordinators and includes:
- Training sessions for coordinators and teachers.
- Producing the yearly educational plan.
- Producing the cross-curriculum integration plan.
Skills for program evaluation are also developed at the administration level.
8- Curriculum Implementation Follow-up:
We provide regular reviews of curriculum implementation by:
- Verifying adherence to curriculum scope and sequence.
- Checking on the adherence to the implementation time plan.
- Conducting periodical tests (three times per year) to verify school standards are met.
- Providing support to coordinators in promoting curricular integration, skills, attitudes and competencies development throughout the curricula in a measurable fashion.
It is in our experience that subject coordinators are immersed with the day to day task of providing teacher and student support as well as parents’ communication not to mention the planning and supervision of the regular monthly tests and yearly exams… The above work plan provides coordinators with accurate data and evaluation that can fine tune their work and increase efficiency.
9- Students Screening for Special Needs:
When a child proves to be an under-achiever, parents tend to resort to the private school where children receive more support and attention as compared to what public schools offer. The success of the private school resides in its ability to differentiate between students who simply need remedial education with some additional attention and those who suffer from learning difficulties and are in need of specialized services.
The most important factor for success is to be able to define what services the school is able to offer its students and put forward a clear and logical admissions policy, an appropriate staff development program and provide the necessary environment for such services.
Special needs screening during the course of the academic year will help the school understand the results achieved by 15% of the students’ population that does not exhibit any noticeable characteristics or visible differences. This helps the school coordinate with the parents and cater to the students' needs in a better way.
Special needs screening during admissions helps the school control the ratio of special needs students to regular students according to the school’s ability to handle special needs.
Either way, we can help initiate screening during and after admissions, and initiate a special education program for students with L.D. and can provide the necessary support for these two programs.
10- Individual Educational Plan Design:
The IEP design is of utmost importance for teachers who are responsible for teaching small groups in a remedial program, or in a special education program.
We will train coordinators and teachers on IEP design, and will provide support and follow up services throughout the academic year by holding regular IEP meetings and conducting observation in the remedial education program and in the special education program.
11- Design for Remedial Education Center:
Designing a successful Remedial Education Center involves:
- The ability to pinpoint areas of strengths and weaknesses for each student.
- The ability to pinpoint causes of such weaknesses.
- The ability to put forward a well designed IEP to improve the situation in a measurable fashion.
- The ability to communicate facts to parents in a constructive and productive way.
- The ability to provide the remedial education center with the proper resources from books, equipment and human resources.
We develop the required environment and the human resources once the appropriate screening is completed and the needs defined. This is done through monthly visits and regular communication.
12- Test & Measurement Design:
This service is provided in two stages:
- A training seminar/workshop on test & measurement
- The review of all tests and exams via e-mail in order to provide coordinators with an outside opinion.
This requires a yearly contract and internet connection at the participating school.
13- Career Guidance and Counseling:
This is given at all levels starting from pre-school and ending at the secondary school. Career awareness at the lower levels helps children set long term goals that will increase motivation and productivity; this awareness will develop in knowledge of requirements at the middle school level and will help students set short term goals that are easily measurable. All this translates at the secondary school level into a student population that has a clear vision of its goals and a roadmap to achieve these goals.
This program is completed at grade 12 with the administration of a career test by a specialized educational psychologist that will determine what the best career choices are for each student.
The program activities are planned by the coordinators and teachers after a workshop and the Career Test is given once a year for students from grade 9 to 12.
14- Launching the School and Parents’ Community Involvement:
School launching requires a well planned sequence of events, the three stages for launching a school will play a major role in the way the local community will perceive the school and its administration. The three stages are:
a. Planning and Design.
b. Promotion Stage.
c. Launch Stage.
Community involvement is present in each of the three stages in order to insure maximum exposure.
This program requires three months for planning and implementation. A well planned program will make a great difference in the growth rate of a new school.
15- Direct and Indirect Promotion:
Promotion is an integral part of any service oriented endeavor. Promotion is planned using every school aspect at every occasion. Academic results, school services, school grounds can all be part of direct advertising, however, indirect advertising is just as powerful and result yielding.
This is the work of specialized planners and will provide the school with a comprehensive advertising and promotion plan for a whole academic year.
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