Dubai Heights Academy (DHA), a leading British curriculum school located in the heart of Al Barsha South, has rolled out a wide range of distance learning programmes to ensure the education of its students is not affected by the closure of schools as a result of the COVID-19 virus outbreak.
The distance learning programme, which is in line with the Ministry of Education and KHDA’s directive for all schools to adopt interactive learning programmes for students of all academic levels, ensures continuity as well as offering a broad and balanced curriculum to students.
Available since Sunday 22nd March, with teachers on hand to assist and guide students through the modules during normal school hours, the distance learning programme provides motivation for parents to ensure an effective and interactive education for students during the school closures.
Students have access to a range of interactive modules including My Maths, an online tool which supports maths home learning and enables teachers to send coursework which is pitched at each individual’s level; I Read Arabic for Arabic A students and I Start Arabic for Arabic B students; Literacy Planet, a platform which aims to make English Literacy learning fun for pupils of every level; Linguascope, an interactive language learning platform and Seesaw, an interactive portal which enables successful collaboration between students, parents and teachers.
Rob Hitchings, Vice Principal & Head of Secondary, Dubai Heights Academy, said: “As a school, we have already invested in and are using a number of online learning resources and platforms, and we will continue using these to provide engaging online learning activities and experiences for our students over the coming weeks.
“Ensuring continuity and providing the highest quality education which is fully inclusive is of upmost importance to all our staff members, and the roll out of our distance learning programmes is providing the opportunity for the DHA community to leverage and embrace technology and for students, particularly those in Year 6, to further develop their independent learning skills ahead of making the transition to secondary school.”
Students are not expected to be entirely online but will receive a variety of learning activities from all of their teachers for them to complete both online and offline and to upload work or evidence as appropriate for teachers to provide feedback as this will become a journal of their distance learning. The teachers have created multimedia audio and video content using screen casting software and are able to interact with the students through the use of video conferencing and collaboration software, to further support students and enhance the distance learning experience.
“In addition, we are continuously reviewing our distance learning programme and will make changes as appropriate over time based on our monitoring and feedback procedures. This is an opportunity for the Dubai Heights Academy community to leverage and embrace technology and for students to further develop their independent learning skills.”
Vice Principal Hitchings added: “DHA’s distance learning programmes combined with our overall approach to embedding the use of technology into the curriculum encourages students to think more broadly about real-world problems, to question, to problem solve, to think critically and creatively and to be more innovative.
“We have put together a distance learning programme that is both practical and realistic, while ensuring students are pushed to their full potential whilst away from the classroom. The programme is adaptable to the learning environment students find themselves in and is also flexible for different family schedules and childcare situations.”
For more information about enrolling your child at DHA, please visit: https://www.dubaiheightsacademy.com/admissions
