“We teach not for school but for life. We believe our children are talented and the pedagogic principles we apply must guide them to achieve their true potential”.
Established in 1994, The Apple International School is a mixed gender school located in Al Qusais, Dubai. It offers private primary and Middle school education (Foundation Stage to Year 10) with a UK based curriculum. To date, it has 2196 students, 130 teachers and 30 assistant teachers working at the school. The largest nationality student group is from Philippines but students from many Arab countries, India, Pakistan and Srilanka study harmoniously.
The Apple International School, as a multi-cultural and diverse learning organization aims to provide a learning environment which empowers students, staff and the community to maximize their personal, creative and academic potential in order to become lifelong learners and responsible world citizens.
Students here explore future career options to get a better insight of what they aspire to become. The school organizes ‘Meet a Pro’ sessions for students of year 9 and 10, where professionals from different walks of life share with students the demands and scopes of different professions.
Impeccable Leadership
Ms. Jaya Menezes is the Principal of The Apple International School. She joined AIS as the Vice Principal and was later promoted to the Principal’s position. For her, students and their well-being is at the center of all the activities at AIS.
Ms. Jaya is wholeheartedly respected for her leadership skills and her inclusive and open approach to staff, students and parents. She possesses a strong sense of personal integrity and professional ethics as an able School Administrator. She enjoys the challenges of education, working with teachers, parents, and students, and the opportunities to make education happen for each student. Primarily her proficiency lies in conducting School Assessment, drafting Strategic and Operational Plans, preparing schools for Self-Assessment, designing of systems and structures, Institutional Planning and Development, Policy Setting, chalking out the school development plan, Handholding, Recruitment, Staff Development and training, and using management tools to enhance the quality of deliverables in the school.
The Principal is ably supported by a team of highly dedicated team of professionals with a passion for teaching and love for learning. The Vice Principal, Mr Mahesh Sajnani is a skilful educator and an accomplished leader who with his passion and positive mindset contributes immensely in developing independent learners and skillful global citizens. The Secondary Phase Leader, Mr Jinto and Primary Phase Leader, Ms Dimpy are dedicated to helping children develop academically, physically and emotionally into individuals with skills, knowledge and mindset to impact our world positively. This Core team is strengthened by a team of Section Heads, Subject Heads, Learning Leaders and Master Coaches who ensure that the dreams that our students see today may become a reality in the future.
The Modus-Operandi of Teaching
The Apple International School follows the EYFS curriculum at the Foundation Stage and the CIE curriculum in the Primary and the Secondary. Students answer the Primary Checkpoint in Year 6, Secondary Checkpoint in Year 9 and IGCSE in Year 11.
The school’s curriculum has been carefully designed to ensure that every child has access to a high-quality education that will promote lifelong learning and produce responsible citizens, fully engaged in their community and able to compete in a global economy. The school goal is to create a learning environment that empowers teachers and principal to hold their students to high expectations and provide meaningful and relevant schoolwork. There is a strong emphasis on multi-sensory, cross-curricular learning throughout the school, with a clear focus on skills and attitudes in the development of life-long learning. Through the range and choices of subjects offered, the curriculum is designed to meet the educational needs of all the students of different ages, nationalities, backgrounds, aptitudes and levels of academic attainment. The subjects offered by the school effectively contribute towards ensuring a complete and holistic education of the students also enforcing a reasonable understanding of the Emirati culture and traditions and Islamic values.
Rainbow of Offerings
The Apple International School strongly believes in the holistic development of their students. The school provides a wide range of opportunities which call for innovative thinking, creative thinking, enterprise and inculcating values.
The innovation projects that target to improve co-curricular learning at school have been designed to support students to experience real-life skills through projects. These projects involve four aspects of innovation – the content, the process, the outcome and the environment. Most of these projects are student-led and give them an opportunity to be a part of an improvement plan.
The Apple International School has a strong student voice represented by the student leaders. The student council and prefectural board are part of the student development process. They meet twice a week and prepare their own responsibility charts and are led by three members of the student community. They are deeply involved in improving attitudes and behavior along with supporting new initiatives and community work. Most recently they have taken up the initiative to plan, implement and measure the outcome of a literacy and ICT training for the school ancillary staff. Some annual trips to local museums, industrial visits, university drop-ins, internship opportunities and international trips help them gain the valued experience needed to reflect on their learning.
Initiative for Personal Development
At Apple International, high expectations are maintained from all regarding the students’ performance and to make them believe in their abilities. It is ensured that they receive praise for simple tasks for encouragement. Maintaining a curriculum that remains respectful of differences, ensures that all students are included within all aspects of the school and it acknowledges the unique differences students may possess.
Initiatives taken at the Foundation Stage to promote education
- Assessment
Each child’s on-entry to the setting has been recorded in an individual tracker within first few weeks of the setting in period, taking into account contributions from parents. The progress tracker should then be reviewed periodically throughout the year to monitor progress. Based on the information gathered for each child, teachers’ will use this information to ensure that every child’s learning and care is tailored to meet their individual needs.
- Curriculum
- FS 2 Curriculum is modified and tailored to cater to the needs of the children such as;
- Accelerated
Offered to the fast learners to enhance their thinking, research, reading and exploration skills. Mostly trans-disciplinary lessons will be offered in this curriculum.
- Extended
Children those who completed the Foundation Stage 1 in the school will be offered this curriculum.
- Core
Children those who are new to FS 2 and are not having previous nursery experience will be offered this curriculum to thoroughly focus on prime areas of development and introducing phonics.
Initiatives in the Primary
Students from Year 3 to 6 experience curriculum beyond their text books and the schemes of work. Each Year level is involved in a trans-disciplinary term wise project which encourages critical thinking, thinking out of the box, innovation and enterprise.
Initiatives in Secondary
Inter-disciplinary projects such as integration of Math with ICT, English with Blogging and Science with Healthy Lifestyle are what the students are enjoying in the Secondary. Mental Math strategies in every day Math Lessons encourage actual understanding, not just memorization and master mathematical strategies.
Improvement of investigation skills is the focus area of Science Department. The three well equipped science laboratory facilities is providing opportunity to carry out required investigations and to improve students’ exploration skills.
Words of Trust
I have been studying in this school since kindergarten and I am in the process of learning something new every day. This school is so united that it reminds me of a huge family of different nationalities and qualities, but we are similar at heart because we all are Appleites. We are given opportunities and one of the events was when we went to Abu Dhabi and saw lot of innovation which enabled me to have a clear view about my future occupation. The Apple international school does not only focus on academic behavior but also on improving our social and extracurricular skills. I love this school and I chose it because it has really ambitious people, like my principal, who always inspires me to become a better human to achieve excellence.
-Abdul Hamid
Being a part of Apple International School has been a joyful and interesting journey in which I have developed a foundation filled with knowledge and an ability to work independently. This school gives a chance to their students to prove themselves. I got an opportunity to be a part of the IBRP which is working with Dubai Customs to help people to be aware of their intellectual rights. It helped me boost up my confidence and opened me up to a different world of communication. Now I’m in year 10 and the experience throughout the years has been intellectual and involves various activities that improve my life standard as a whole. I love this school and it has taught me not the solution to my life problems but how to deal with them so it is not only educating me but also preparing me for the future.
-Jameela
