Dubai, United Arab Emirates - Uptown School, the first school in the UAE to host the International Baccalaureate Organization's (IBO) Primary Years Programme (PYP) Teacher Workshops, opened its doors to over 300 educators yesterday. The workshops will continue through Saturday engaging principals, teachers and administrators from all over the world.
The IBO holds annual training programmes for teachers at different IBO schools or candidate schools across the world. The aim is to achieve excellence in teaching skills and consistent curriculum delivery. Continual teacher professional development is a philosophy that Beacon Education shares with the IBO and Beacon is delighted to be hosting this year's PYP workshops offering educationalists an opportunity to strengthen their understanding of the Primary Years Programme.
This is an impressive achievement for Uptown School which opened its doors in 2005 to 160 students and in its second year has increased enrollment three fold. Uptown School is a candidate school for the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) and Middle Years Programme (MYP) and welcomes this conference to interact with like-minded educators from the farthest corners of the earth.
"As a relatively new school, we jumped at the opportunity to host this well-regarded annual conference. We are so proud of our school and wanted to share our success with the world," explained Mrs. Loadwick, Principal at Uptown School. "Not only were we honoured to host this event, but we also saw it as a great opportunity to increase awareness for the International Baccalaureate's Primary Years Programme in the UAE," continued Mrs. Loadwick.
This Primary Years Programme event is broken down into seven different workshops, each lasting three days, and designed for both educational professionals new to the PYP system and those currently administering the programme. The workshop's themes rang from an introduction to IB and the PYP curriculum to an in-depth look into collaborative (across all teachers) planning and effective curriculum delivery.
International Baccalaureate education has been available for older students studying the Diploma Programme for many years in the UAE, but it is not until recently that schools in this region have begun to offer both the Primary Years and Middle Years Programmes. The parents at Uptown School have enthusiastically received the PYP and are impressed by the delivery of the curriculum.
The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) is a recognised leader in the field of international education; founded in 1968 it currently operates in 1,918 schools in 124 countries. The IBO offers three programmes: the Primary Years Programme, the Middle Years Programme and the Diploma Programme which together aims to provide a world class education to students anywhere, and give them the opportunity to be globally mindful and mobile.
The three programmes offered by the IBO address the unique learning needs for each stage of a child's intellectual and emotional development. These programmes have been exhaustively researched, tested, and proven successful in providing students with an outstanding foundation from which to launch their adult lives and pursue all of their dreams and ambitions.
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About Beacon Education
Beacon Education was established to address the growing need for high quality schools in the Middle East. Dubai is the platform from which Beacon Education launched its initial projects, with four schools that opened in September 2005. Beacon Education is financed by Taaleem, a unique Private Joint Stock company, that over the next six to eight years will invest over AED 1 billion in educational ventures across the region.
With quality at the forefront, Beacon Education will tailor each project to answer the specific educational needs of families by offering a comprehensive choice of outstanding international curricula from American to British to the International Baccalaureate. The following schools fall under the Beacon Education banner: Al-Mizhar, American Academy for Girls, The Children's Garden, Dubai British School, Raha International School, and Uptown Primary.
For more information, please contact:
Alice Markson
Beacon Education
Tel: +971 43498806
Fax: +971 43498807
E-mail: amarkson@beacon.ae
Website: www.beacon.ae
© Press Release 2007
