English Private School of Kalba, Sharjah

English Private School of Kalba is led by Principal Haroon Ahmed Kunwer, who took on the role as the school's new CEO and moved swiftly to implement a structured school improvement plan prioritising student achievement and resource enhancement. The governing board is chaired by Azza Faisal Bin Khalid, and the 2024 SPEA School Performance Review found that the governing board and senior leadership team share a clear and coherent vision for improvement — a quality that inspectors credited directly with driving the school's upward trajectory.

That trajectory is significant. ES Kalba improved from Acceptable to Good in its most recent SPEA review, conducted 26–29 February 2024 — a meaningful step forward that places the school among the 29 Good-rated British curriculum schools in the Sharjah system. Leadership and management is rated Good overall, with inspectors noting that effective leadership and the strong support of all staff demonstrate a very good capacity to move the school further forward. Governance quality is reflected in the board's active commitment to upgrading the school environment and in the direct representation of the parents' council on the governing board itself — an arrangement inspectors highlighted as a genuine strength.

The school employs 76 teachers and 12 teaching assistants, serving 1,544 students. The student-teacher ratio stands at 1:18, which is notably higher than the Sharjah-wide average of 1:13.6 across all private schools — a gap parents should weigh when considering classroom attention and teacher workload. The main teacher nationality is Egyptian, and staff stability is a relative positive: the teacher turnover rate is 8%, indicating a largely settled workforce. [MISSING: staff qualification levels — percentage holding degree or postgraduate qualifications not disclosed in available sources].

Teaching quality was assessed as Good in the 2024 review, an improvement on the prior cycle. Inspectors observed 174 lessons across the four-day review, 37 of which were conducted jointly with school leaders — a sign of engaged, hands-on leadership. Teachers were specifically commended for their support for the emotional wellbeing and educational progress of all students, and the school's pastoral environment was rated Very Good for protection, care and support. Parent engagement is a genuine institutional strength: productive partnerships with families were cited as a key contributor to school quality, and community events such as the annual Kalba Marathon — involving students, staff and parents — reflect a school culture that extends meaningfully beyond the classroom. Areas where leadership must continue to focus include the closer alignment of internal and external assessments and creating more consistent opportunities for student innovation and enterprise across all phases.