Al Tharawat National Private SchoolPrincipal & Leadership TeamLast Updated: April 7, 2026

Principal Aly Mahmoud Abdelhamid Arafa leads Al Tharawat National Private School, a co-educational MoE curriculum school serving 1,713 students across KG through Grade 12 in Bani Yas, Abu Dhabi. The 2024–25 ADEK inspection identified a new leadership team in place, with inspectors noting their commitment to school improvement — though critically, their impact is not yet evident in outcomes. No tenure data is available for the current principal, and [MISSING: principal appointment date or length of service] means continuity cannot be fully assessed.

The school's leadership picture is one of transition under pressure. All aspects of leadership and management have regressed since the 2022 inspection, with the effectiveness of leadership, self-evaluation, improvement planning, parent partnerships, and governance all declining from Good to Acceptable in 2024–25. Inspectors found that the distributed leadership model does not clearly define roles and responsibilities at all levels, and that the school's self-evaluation form is not consistently aligned with the UAE inspection framework. The governing board's support and impact on overall school performance are described as unclear, with inspectors calling for increased board involvement in monitoring performance and resource provision.

On teaching quality, the inspection found that teaching for effective learning is rated Acceptable in KG and Cycle 1, and Good in Cycles 2 and 3 — a regression from the previous cycle. Inspectors attributed the decline to teachers' limited understanding of effective teaching strategies and insufficient provision of subject-specific, age-appropriate resources, including digital technology. Assessment quality regressed to Acceptable across all cycles, driven by the absence of robust procedures capable of producing accurate, reliable data. The school employs 98 teachers and 2 teaching assistants, with teacher nationalities drawn primarily from Egypt, Syria, and Sudan. [MISSING: staff qualification levels or percentage holding postgraduate degrees] and [MISSING: staff retention or turnover data] were not reported in inspection sources.

The student-to-teacher ratio, calculated from available data, stands at approximately 1:17.5 — notably higher than the Abu Dhabi city average of 1:13.6 across private schools. Among the 17 MoE curriculum schools in Abu Dhabi, this places Al Tharawat at the more stretched end of the staffing spectrum, a factor that may compound the teaching quality challenges identified by inspectors.

Parent engagement is rated Acceptable, with inspectors describing parental involvement in school life as limited. The school does operate a 'Your Parents and I Read' literacy program, which represents a positive community touchpoint, but there is no evidence of parent awareness sessions around international assessments such as PISA or TIMSS. Partnerships with national and international organisations are also described as limited. On a positive note, the new leadership team's stated commitment to improvement, combined with the school's maintained strengths in Arabic literacy — including winning the Sweet Recitation Competition — provides a foundation to build from, though the pace and depth of improvement required is substantial.