The Indian High School-Branch, Dubai
KHDA Inspection Report & Ratings 2018
Last updated
Executive Summary
The The Indian High School-Branch maintains a Good overall quality of education for the 2023-2024 academic year. The school is recognized for its strong student behavior and effective wellbeing initiatives, fostering a positive learning environment.
In KG, children achieve Very Good progress and attainment in English, Mathematics, and Science, benefiting from a nurturing environment and enquiry-based learning. However, Primary students show a decline in attainment and progress in these core subjects, with inconsistencies in assessment and critical thinking opportunities. The curriculum is well-balanced and provides ample opportunities for talent development.
Leadership is committed to school improvement and wellbeing, with parents expressing high satisfaction with communication and feedback. While child protection is Outstanding, the school needs to improve assessment accuracy, teaching for individual needs, and students' self-assessment skills, particularly in the Primary phase, to ensure more consistent progress across all student groups.
Overall School Performance
Outstanding
Very Good
Good
Acceptable
Weak
Very Weak
The Indian High School-Branch Overall Rating
Good for 13+ consecutive years
Dubai Focus Areas
These three pillars represent the Dubai education authority's priorities: ensuring inclusive practices, prioritizing student wellbeing, and meeting UAE National Agenda targets.
The school demonstrates a good inclusive ethos, supported by an appointed inclusion governor and qualified team. Formal and informal assessments accurately identify student needs, and home-school communication is prioritized. However, differentiated lesson planning and teaching for students of determination are variable, leading to inconsistent progress. inclusive ethosexternal specialistsASDAN Life Skills Challenge
Wellbeing provision and outcomes are good, driven by committed leadership and supportive policies. The school actively uses assessments and feedback to guide wellbeing initiatives, with strong mutual respect evident. While KG curriculum planning promotes positive environments, primary curriculum planning for wellbeing is underdeveloped. supportive policiesreduce levels of anxietyfundraising and cultural events
The school's overall standards in the National Agenda Parameter are good, having exceeded targets in PIRLS 2021. While benchmark reports are used to adapt the curriculum, the impact of recently introduced changes is not fully embedded in practice. Reading literacy teaching is acceptable, with digital platforms introduced, but action planning needs more precise links to assessment data. PIRLS 2021high international benchmarkdigital reading platforms
Key Highlights
Standout achievements identified by the inspection team that distinguish this school.
Nurturing KG Climate
The Kindergarten phase provides a warm and nurturing classroom environment that significantly enhances children's engagement and learning.
Strong Student Ethic
Students across the school demonstrate strong self-discipline, a deep appreciation for Islamic values, and an excellent work ethic.
Balanced Curriculum
The school offers a well-balanced curriculum that effectively meets all statutory requirements and provides ample opportunities for student development.
Effective Child Protection
Child protection arrangements are robust and well-understood by all members of the school community, including students, staff, and parents.
High Parent Satisfaction
Parents express high satisfaction with the regular and effective feedback they receive regarding their children's academic progress and overall wellbeing.
Academic Performance Breakdown
In Primary, assessment information and lesson observations reflect a decline in students’ attainment and progress in English, mathematics and science. Children in the Kindergarten (KG) perform very well in science. Students’ progress and attainment in Arabic, remain acceptable. In Islamic Education, the majority of primary students make better than expected progress. The progress of students of determination is secure.
Leadership & Management
Effectiveness of school governance, strategic planning, and leadership capacity to drive continuous improvement.
Leadership Approach
Led by the principal, leaders are committed to inclusion, school improvement, and the wellbeing of the entire school community. They effectively establish a positive learning culture and achieve high standards, particularly in KG. While self-evaluation is comprehensive, the analysis of findings needs to be more rigorous, especially concerning assessment practices and monitoring of teaching in Primary.
Inspection Findings
Students' Outcomes
Students demonstrate good overall outcomes, with KG children showing very good attainment and progress in core subjects. However, Primary students' attainment and progress in English, Mathematics, and Science have declined. Students' behavior, understanding of Islamic values, and work ethic are outstanding strengths across the school.
Personal Development
Students' personal development is outstanding, characterized by very positive attitudes, self-reliance, and high leadership skills. They show genuine concern for others and demonstrate excellent behavior, punctuality, and attendance. Initiatives promoting healthy living and cultural awareness are highly effective.
Teaching Quality
Teaching for effective learning is very good in KG and good in Primary, with most teachers possessing secure subject knowledge and fostering respectful interactions. While KG teachers effectively use assessment to track progress, Primary teachers lack clarity in using assessment to measure progress and plan differentiated activities for all groups.
Protection & Care
Health and safety, including child protection and safeguarding, are outstanding, with regular staff training and updated cyber-safety measures. The school prioritizes student wellbeing, maintaining an atmosphere of mutual respect. Care and support are good, with effective systems for managing behavior and identifying students of determination, though differentiated provision for these students is inconsistent.
Areas for Development
- •Ensure that the teaching of Arabic is matched to student’s individual needs and is focused on improving their language acquisition skills.
- •Improve the accuracy of the assessment of students’ progress and attainment.
- •Ensure that teachers plan learning activities that offer appropriate challenge and support to all groups of students in all lessons.
- •Improve students' skills in assessing their own learning.
- •Ensure that reading literacy is fully embedded in all subjects and that texts and passages are matched to the students’ reading levels.
- •Ensure that all teachers make full use of assessment information to plan learning experiences that meet the needs of all students.
- •Ensure that curriculum planning in Primary includes activities that promotes the wellbeing of all students.
- •Ensure that all areas of learning in the subject are linked with the Holy Quran, Hadith and Seerah.
- •Improve students' recitation and memorisation skills of the Holy Qur’an.
- •Improve students’ writing and speaking skills by providing more opportunities for them to practice them extensively.
- •Ensure students’ comprehension skills are more consistently developed in primary lessons.
- •Increase opportunities for primary students to read and write extensively.
- •Improve students' recall of number bonds, multiplication facts and mental arithmetic calculations.
- •Provide students in Primary with more opportunities to create and independently test their own hypotheses.
- •Ensure that all students, particularly the higher attainers in Primary, are challenged to critically reflect, explain, and justify their predictions.
- •Improve primary students' skills in assessing their own strengths and weaknesses, so that they can play a more active role in progressing their own learning.
- •Consolidate students’ understanding of the interdependent nature of World-wide communities.
- •Plan learning activities that have clear objectives and success criteria related to the differing attainment levels of groups within the class.
- •Ensure that in Primary, assessments of students’ progress and attainment are accurate.
- •Ensure that teachers’ marking enables students to know how to improve their work.
- •Improve cross-curricular links and make these more meaningful to facilitate the transfer of learning.
- •adapt and modify the curriculum more consistently to meet the needs of students of differing abilities.
- •Improve teachers’ skills in supporting all students of determination and those with gifts and talents to enable them to make more sustained progress.
- •Ensure lesson planning and teaching is structured to provide students of determination and those with gifts and talents with consistent rates of progress.
- •Ensure all leaders undertake a systematic review of the school’s implementation of assessment practices and how they impact on students’ outcomes.
- •Establish more rigorous procedures for monitoring teaching and the impact on students’ learning, especially in Primary.
- •Ensure that all teachers have recognised teaching qualifications and there are more up-to-date learning resources for science and mathematics.