Deira International
School Dubai
Jeff Smith
Director
Acceptable to Good to Outstanding
first impressions on appointment
What was good:
• standard of teaching
• focus on teaching & learning
• excellent facilities (except no performance hall)
• well qualified teaching staff
Why were we acceptable
• no real belief in our Vision, Mission
statements – no connection to policy and
practice
• teachers did not relate vision and mission to
what they did in the classroom
• confusion – KHDA targets, CIS targets, School
Improvement Plan targets
• student attitudes to learning, some teachers
professional attitudes
Why were we acceptable
• poor structure of school timetable in the Secondary
School
• Year 6 students in Secondary School instead of Primary
School & Middle School concept were not working
• Overall – school grew too quickly in student numbers
and staffing! This was not backed up by strong bedrock
policies and procedures for:
 Assessment, Reporting and tracking
 School Improvement planning and Department
Improvement Planning
 Monitoring and Evaluation Strategy
Quickly moving to good
Immediate Actions required –
• one timetable for Secondary School
• focus on staff professionalism
• raise students expectations on behaviour and attitudes
(Director controls behaviour not parents)
• Year 6 back into Primary School
• End the Middle School concept
• keep the focus on Teaching & Learning
• assessment -immediate plans to introduce CEMS across
whole school
• all SMT teach - including the Director
• new management structure (21 new positions inc. CPD
manager)
One key change that had the biggest
immediate impact
a new style 1 -3 Year DIS Strategic plan and
new 1 year action plan linked to the DIS
Strategic Plan, that:
• everybody understood
• everybody believed in
• everybody understands and plays their part on
the journey to ‘outstanding’
Suddenly
Everybody knew:
• where we were going
• how we would get there
• why we were making changes.
Deira International
School Dubai
At DIS the students are the most important
people and the staff are our biggest asset.
Thank You
Jeff Smith
Director