The Philippine School
Executive Summary
The Philippine School provides an Acceptable quality of education, with most students achieving in line with curriculum standards in Islamic Education, English, and mathematics. Students demonstrate strong attainment and progress in Filipino, and their positive attitudes foster a collaborative learning environment. Senior high school students are making faster gains in science and mathematics.
Teachers' subject knowledge is adequate, and interactions are positive, but the level of challenge and support does not consistently meet all learning needs. The curriculum is structured for smooth transitions, though opportunities for innovation are limited. The school has adequate safeguarding procedures and meets health and safety requirements. Leaders align the school’s vision with UAE national priorities, including inclusion, and parents are highly supportive.
Overall School Performance
Outstanding
Very Good
Good
Acceptable
Weak
Very Weak
The Philippine School Overall Rating
Acceptable for 3+ 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 shows a growing commitment to inclusive provision, supported by a qualified inclusion leader and sufficient resources for students of determination. Parents have positive relationships with the inclusion team. However, individual learning support plans are inconsistent, limiting appropriate curriculum access and qualifications for students with more complex needs. students of determinationinclusion leaderlearning support plans
The school is developing its capacity and knowledge of wellbeing practices, with leaders understanding its significance for all stakeholders. While data collection exists, its scope is limited, and its impact on planning is inconsistent. The curriculum inconsistently promotes wellbeing, and student understanding of their own wellbeing is still developing. wellbeing visiondata collectioncurriculum planning
The school's performance in international and benchmark assessments is Good for the whole school, with students close to their PIRLS 2021 target. Leadership in this area is Acceptable, with plans to address deficiencies, though actions have not substantially influenced student improvement. Reading literacy skills are at an Acceptable level, with efforts to apply data for interventions, but consistency is evolving. PIRLS 2021reading literacybenchmark assessments
Key Highlights
Standout achievements identified by the inspection team that distinguish this school.
Personal Development
Students demonstrate positive and responsible attitudes, fostering a collaborative atmosphere and showing an understanding of others' needs.
Islamic Values & Culture
Students show a good understanding and appreciation of Islamic values in the UAE and awareness of Emirati and world cultures.
Parental Engagement
The school maintains strong relationships with parents, who are highly supportive and appreciative of the school's welcoming nature.
Academic Performance Breakdown
Students’ Holy Qur’anic recitation skills are weak across all phases. Problem-solving, innovation, and critical thinking skills remain underdeveloped across the school.
Leadership & Management
Effectiveness of school governance, strategic planning, and leadership capacity to drive continuous improvement.
Leadership Approach
The principal and leadership team align the school vision with UAE national priorities, focusing on inclusivity and students' personal development. They are dedicated to improvement and foster positive relationships within the community. While self-evaluation is systematic, improvement plans lack specific targets and consistent monitoring, and leaders recognize the need to enhance middle leaders' skills.
Inspection Findings
Students' Outcomes
Most students achieve in line with curriculum standards in Islamic Education, English, and mathematics, with strong attainment and progress in Filipino. Senior high students show faster gains in science and mathematics. However, Arabic outcomes are below expectations, and Holy Qur’anic recitation skills are weak across all phases.
Personal Development
Students exhibit positive and responsible attitudes, fostering a collaborative atmosphere and demonstrating an understanding of others' needs. They develop personal, social, and innovation skills, showing a good appreciation for Islamic values, Emirati culture, and their responsibilities to the community. Older students actively participate in leadership roles and environmental initiatives.
Teaching Quality
Teachers possess secure subject knowledge and maintain positive interactions, but their understanding of how students learn best varies. The level of challenge and support is inconsistent, and questioning is not always effective in promoting critical thinking. While internal assessment processes are consistent, data is not consistently used to inform differentiated planning, and feedback to students is underdeveloped.
Protection & Care
The school meets general health and safety requirements, with effective student supervision and well-maintained premises. However, safety procedures are not fully understood by all staff, and risk assessments lack rigor. The school provides a secure and inclusive environment, with staff knowledgeable about students' needs and effective counselling support, though career guidance needs broader options.
Areas for Development
- •Promptly and urgently address any health and safety issues by providing thorough training to all school staff.
- •Raise students’ achievement in all subjects.
- •School leaders and governors should immediately ensure that teaching is of a consistently high quality, all assessment data are accurate and used to plan learning activities that meet the needs of all students, improve the capacity of all leaders to drive improvement in their areas of responsibility, and teachers’ ongoing professional training is linked to their individual and school improvement needs.
- •Improve students’ Holy Qur’anic recitation skills and their understanding and application of Islamic Education domains.
- •Raise students’ achievement in Arabic as an Additional Language so that it is at least in line with the curriculum standards, and provide students with learning activities that match their abilities and starting points.
- •Improve students’ reading comprehension and writing skills across all language subjects.
- •Ensure that there are regular opportunities for students to present mathematical solutions to one another to improve their knowledge, skills and understanding.
- •Ensure that the skills of the scientific method are taught as a progression across all phases and develop further the use of scientific terminology to enhance learning and students’ reading literacy skills.
- •Provide students with more opportunities to apply their learning skills across different subjects and improve their critical thinking, innovation, and problem-solving skills.
- •Ensure that younger students are also provided with more appropriate opportunities to take on leadership roles.
- •Improve teachers’ use of questioning so that students’ learning builds on what they already know, understand, and can do, and ensure that measures of students’ progress are accurate and used to inform lesson planning.
- •Provide all students with clear feedback on the standard of their written work and guidance on how to improve.
- •Ensure that in all lessons, learning goals are adequately differentiated to enable all students to be successful, and that planned cross-curriculum links and use of technology are fully implemented.
- •Improve the rigor of all risk assessment and security checks and ensure that safety procedures are fully understood by all staff.
- •Develop a stronger curricular programme for students with gifts and talents to match their interests and needs.
- •Improve the learning support plans for students of determination and increase the range of curriculum pathways to better meet their needs.
- •Ensure that subject and reading benchmark assessments are used to systematically identify gaps in reading proficiency and guide improvement plans, and monitor interventions more rigorously to reduce gaps in learning identified from data analyses.
- •Ensure that curriculum planning consistently promotes wellbeing through general modifications and initiatives.