GEMS Millennium School – Sharjah awarded ‘Outstanding’ rating by SPEA

• School is only UAE CBSE curriculum school to date to be rated Outstanding
• GMS jumps two levels from ‘Good’ at its previous review to the top ranking
• Report is based on observations by six reviewers who attended 180 lessons

GEMS Millennium School – Sharjah (GMS) has become the only school in the emirate to date to be awarded an ‘Outstanding’ rating by the Sharjah Private Education Authority (SPEA) following its recent highly detailed review of the school. SPEA will be announcing further results of other schools in the emirate in due course.

The Indian curriculum school jumped a very rare two levels from a ‘Good’ rating at its last review in May 2019 to the top ranking. This follows an in-depth inspection by six expert reviewers that observed 180 lessons towards the end of last year. More than 2,200 students attend the school, which is to date the only CBSE curriculum school in the UAE to be rated ‘outstanding’.

The reviewers’ report highlighted many key areas of strength at GMS including students’ achievements and understanding of English-based subjects, the role and values of Islam in UAE society, and the pupils’ very effective use of technology and learning skills.

Additionally, teachers were praised for their strategies and planning for creative learning as well as their use of innovative cross-curricular links and extensive analysis based on data to ensure students’ progress is effectively tracked.

The report also highlighted the students’ “exemplary behaviour and attitudes to learning, and their relationships with staff” and added that the school’s excellent facilities efficiently met the pupils’ learning requirements.

In summary, the report said: “Teaching is outstanding overall; teachers make very effective use of questioning and assessment. The curriculum is highly modified, and the school is inclusive of all students.

“Strong leadership has resulted in highly accurate self-evaluation and improvement planning. The learning environment is exceptionally well developed, with plentiful specialist resources, including the availability of learning technologies for teachers and students.”

SPEA also mentioned the outstanding governance of the 13-year-old school by an independent board that also includes both parents and students.

GMS Principal/CEO Teresa Varman said: “We have always felt that we have a unique school that is outstanding, because it has been our determination to ensure that pupils make as much progress as possible both academically and personally. To have the SPEA Review Team confirm this, and acknowledge that alongside outstanding academic outcomes GMS ‘is inclusive and provides an outstanding learning environment that meets the needs of all students’, is a truly wonderful achievement – the gold standard for us.

“I am grateful to the staff for their unparalleled commitment to ensuring that our pupils are the best people that they can be. I extend my thanks to the school community, including the governors, for working together to achieve this outstanding recognition and for helping us to achieve this remarkable success in a relatively short span of time.”

The school is part of the GEMS Modern-Millennium cluster headed by Nargish Khambatta, Principal/CEO of GEMS Modern Academy in Dubai, a school that, since 2011, has also received an ‘Outstanding’ rating, from the Dubai education regulator, Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA).

Nargish Khambatta said: “When educators place children at the heart of everything they do, the outcome is bound to be outstanding. The many accolades won by GEMS Millennium School and the happy, well-rounded children are a thumping endorsement of the exemplary leadership of the principal and her team, who have taken the school from strength to strength.”

Further details of the school’s provision and its enrolment opportunities are available via the school’s official website: https://www.gemsmillenniumschool-sharjah.com