WHY CHOOSE THE AQUILA SCHOOL?

The Aquila School provides a supportive and engaging international environment, delivering an exciting and creative curriculum, which is based on the National Curriculum for England (NCE), combining science, technology, engineering, maths, and the arts, as part of a broader curriculum.

Opportunities to understand and celebrate the culture and heritage of the UAE and the diversity of our local community are integrated into the curriculum, and we also focus on design and technology and learning through enquiry – children make things, take things apart, and discover how things work!

We’re proud to announce that we were awarded the Best Design Education Project of the Year at the Design Middle East Awards 2018, a testament to the quality and design of The Aquila School’s campus and facilities.

ISP is a global family of 48 schools across thirteen countries (and growing). Being part of this group ensures The Aquila School has outstanding international learning connections, quality assurance and excellent governance.

The Aquila School has been rated as Outstanding by British School Overseas (BSO) across all of its eight areas of assessment.  The Outstanding grading this early on in a school’s operation is rare and The Aquila Team is very proud of this achievement.

We are delighted to have received a ‘Good’ rating from the Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau in our school’s first inspection (2022). We have also received two ‘Outstanding’ British School Overseas inspections – a true testament to our school’s offering.

Read more here.

Amazing Learning is our core purpose. You will see learning that will amaze you. Wherever you think your child might be in any subject or area, we will do all we can to allow them to do better than you can ever imagine possible.

For the last ten years, The Aquila School’s Principal and Head of Primary have worked together, beginning their journey at the first-ever school in Abu Dhabi to have been graded as ‘Outstanding’ in all areas, and the only primary school to be awarded outstanding twice.

We have recently appointed Benjamin Atkins as our Head of Secondary who brings extensive knowledge and experience to further develop the Secondary School at The Aquila School, ensuring even more success for the pupils who attend the school.

They are all very excited to have this opportunity to set up The Aquila School ‘from the ground up’ creating a caring and happy environment to encourage Amazing Learning in all children, which is central to everything we do at The Aquila School.

As a new school, we are privileged to have a range of brand new, top-class facilities, including an auditorium, two multi-purpose sports halls, two heated and chilled swimming pools (with weekly swimming from FS1) a dance studio, a well-stocked library with thousands of books, music and art rooms, food technology and design technology rooms, shaded outdoor play areas, and a multi-purpose astro pitch. We also have specialist KS3 rooms such as ICT suite and science laboratories.

Our spacious, well-resourced classrooms and learning areas are filled with natural light, providing excellent conditions for learning.

More on our Campus and Facilities here.

All of our class teachers are native English speakers and bring with them many years of UK/ international experience. Some of our teachers have also worked with the Leadership Team at their previous outstanding school.

You can meet our teachers here.

At The Aquila School, we believe children learn best when they’re happy and secure in a stimulating and nurturing environment.

We embrace the individuality of every child and ensure their safety and wellbeing is high priority. We ensure EVERY child, whatever their learning, language or emotional needs, makes the best possible progress within a truly inclusive and caring ethos. Our inclusion staff are on hand to provide any additional support our gifted and determination of children may need.

To find out more, visit Inclusion and Learning Support

The Aquila School offers a wide range of CAS (community, action, service (sometimes called ECAs)) activities to help cultivate the individual interests and talents of children and develop social skills.

For activities run by our staff we ask the children what they want as we value pupil choice and design a programme around this. In addition, we use IFA Sport, an external provider for additional paid-for activities such as additional swimming, football, dance, and so on.

For more information, please see our ECAs/CAS section.

We believe they are just as important to the whole development of a child as academics.  Every child has the opportunity to sing regularly and to learn to play an instrument. (Keep an eye out for our Tuneful Tuesdays!) 

We provide twice yearly detailed reports on your child’s academic progress, and social and emotional wellbeing.

There are regular opportunities for families to come and see their children’s work in class and talk informally with the teachers about their child’s learning.

The weekly newsletter lets families know what the children are learning and how they can support at home.

We are one of the few schools in Dubai to offer longer days for FS1 children, as well as Arabic from FS1. We also offer PE, swimming and music lessons weekly, taught by specialist teachers.