Being a Head Master is the Best Job in the World: Simon Crane

The curriculum has been co-developed and influenced by some of the world’s leading researchers on education, motivation and mindsets, as well as cognitive scientists, including Dr Carol Dweck, Matthew Syed, John Hattie, Guy Claxton, and Graham Powell.

AN OUTSTANDING TRACK RECORD

Having an extraordinary school leadership team is important because education in the 21st -century is a new frontier, and its learners are a new breed. That is why Citizens School has sought to attract the very best people; something it has achieved with considerable aplomb. Dr Adil Alzarooni, Hisham Hodroge, Ciaran Cunningham-Watson, and Kephren Sherry are all visionaries with vast experience, and approach their work with curiosity, persistence, resilience, flexibility and determination, helping to create a culture that encourages learners to do the same.

Dr Adil Alzarooni, Founder of Citizens School, explained: “At Citizens School, we are striving to empower our students to craft their own futures by celebrating and nurturing what makes them unique and providing them with choices alongside the right set of life skills to thrive in the communities of tomorrow. We believe in learning rather than educating because learning is a lifelong pursuit that creates limitless possibilities. As a school born out of Dubai and based in the heart of the city, we share its innate spirit, energy, and optimism for what is possible today and tomorrow, as we play our part in positioning Dubai as a global hub of learning excellence in a diversified knowledge economy.” Hisham Hodroge, CEO of Citizens School, added: “Dubai is a catalyst for innovation and from Dubai, we aim to disrupt the way education is provided in the region by capitalising on a unique offering that centres on the child. Through engagement with our partners, regulators and key stakeholders, we aim to achieve an ambitious school for the benefit of our future generations.”

“Blenheim Schools is delighted to be partnering with Al Zarooni Emirates Investments to support the launch of the groundbreaking Citizens Education Hub project. The Blenheim Schools team has a proven track record of outstanding educational leadership with real integrity, a passion for schools as learning communities and a commitment to excellence. Citizens School will nurture and promote the learning and welfare of all students and enable outstanding futures for the children of today and tomorrow,” Anita Gleave, Founder and CEO of Blenheim Schools, concluded.

UNRIVALLED FACILITIES

The Citizens’ 43,000m2 school campus, programme and approach have been thoughtfully curated to re-shape learning, enabling students to thrive as citizens of the future, by focusing on wellbeing, imagination and enabling outstanding outcomes for everyone. The groundbreaking Citizens School site is double the size of other schools in the same catchment area, with a capacity for 2,600 children between ages 3-18; a 2,900m2 open playing and recreation area; ample parking; a 1,250m2 multi-purpose performing arts and activity hall; six-lane semienclosed swimming pool and learning pool, football and rugby pitches adhering to FIFA and World Rugby standards; as well as a dedicated dining area for primary school students.

PAYING WITH CRYPTOCURRENCY

Underlining its visionary nature, Citizens School has announced that it will accept cryptocurrency as a mode of payment, making it the first of its kind in the Middle East to let parents pay tuition fees using digital currency. It will accept payments from the two major cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), providing parents with flexible payment options. This is in addition to traditional forms of payments and interest-free monthly payment options that Citizens School will offer. Payments using cryptocurrencies are accepted through a tie-up with a digital currency platform that processes cryptocurrency payments and automatically converts them to dirhams.

Hisham Hodroge commented: “Introducing the ability to pay tuition fees through cryptocurrencies goes beyond just providing another payment option. It is aimed at creating an interest in growing trends and breakthrough technologies that will have a profound effect on the lives of young generations. It is also a means to further drive interest in the applications of blockchain – a technology that Citizens School intends to deploy, in time, across several aspects of its academic and administrative operations.”

8BILLIONIDEAS

Citizens School has also announced that it will be joining forces with leading global education platform 8billionideas to build a unique programme centred around developing the entrepreneurial skillset for children, providing them with the opportunity to create and develop new ideas.

Students will get to work on an invention every week, have access to an entrepreneurial mentor, experience world-class lessons and experiences in the field, as well as take advantage of a Citizens Ventures funding programme. Children will be able to share their learning among a close-knit community, giving them real-time insight on future

ways of working and equipping them with the necessary skill sets to emerge successful in their adult lives.

Having announced the launch of cryptocurrency as an accepted payment option at Citizens School, this latest development is an example of how Citizens School is committed to reimagining education and helping to position Dubai as a global hub of learning excellence in a diversified knowledge economy.

Only 55% of students attending school feel prepared to enter the real world (Source: AACU)

Underlining its visionary nature, Citizens School has announced that it will accept cryptocurrency as a mode of payment

There are four events planned with 8billionideas over the next few months, each with three sessions (11.00 am to 12.30 pm, 1.00 pm to 2.30 pm, and 3.00 pm to 4.30 pm):

1. Public Speaking Demystified (21

May), where participants can learn the fundamentals of communication, pitching and public speaking.

Learners will sink their teeth into an hour and an hour workshop in which they will practice their public speaking skills and learn the importance of sharing ideas.

1. Lightbulb Moments: Coming Up with

Business Ideas (18 June), allowing learners to understand the power of coming up with amazing business ideas. In this session, learners will create a variety of business ideas across many industries.

1. Brand a City (2 July), during which students will put their thinking caps on and try to innovate on Dubai’s tourism industry sustainably.

1. Your Future Dream Job (20 August), where learners get to understand their personality power and how combining their skills and passion can help them to come up with not just a single future dream job, but a variety of dream jobs they might want to pursue in the future.

Citizens School will continue to develop unique partnerships, accreditations and collaborations with sector leading organisations to position Dubai as a global hub of learning excellence.

This is a school whose time has come, and it will revolutionise the lives of all of the learners that are lucky enough to call it ‘home’.

CITIZENS SCHOOL

 +971 04 458 1063  +971 50 237 7273

VISIT WEBSITE

CULTURE EATS STRATEGY FOR BREAKFAST

I SUSPECT MY BACKGROUND IN TEACHING IS A VERY COMMON ONE. I MOVED FROM TEACHER THROUGH A SERIES OF MIDDLE AND SENIOR LEADERSHIP POSITIONS UNTIL I WAS A DEPUTY HEAD. AS A RESULT, WHEN I FIRST BECAME A SCHOOL PRINCIPAL, I FOCUSED ON WHAT I KNEW; NAMELY THE PROCESSES AND STRATEGIES WHICH I’D SEEN TO BE EFFECTIVE. THIS INCLUDED A FOCUS ON TEACHING AND LEARNING, PARENTAL ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES, QUALITY ASSURANCE PROCEDURES AS WELL AS ASSESSMENT ROUTINES AND SO FORTH. BUT LOOKING BACK IT IS NOW CLEAR THAT, WHILST THESE WERE INCREDIBLY SUCCESSFUL, TO A LARGE EXTENT THEY WERE ALL INDIVIDUAL STRATEGIES AND INSTRUMENTS, RATHER THAN AN HOLISTIC APPROACH.

Simon O’Connor, MA NPQH, the Director at Deira International School and Director of COBIS- addresses why school culture eats strategy for breakfast. During that first term, with new learning protocols in place and staff offering both on site and remote learning, the focus became staff wellbeing. Teachers across the world were being asked to teach in a totally new way, using unfamiliar technology, yet being asked to perform at previous levels of success. As a school we recognised that if this was going to be sustainable (and there was significant doubt about this) we needed to ensure staff were properly supported in this new context. Very rapidly, this focus extended to looking at the culture of the school. As well as putting well-being strategies in place we wanted to identify how the school could be led from an holistic perspective.

Over the last 18 months this has become an increasing topic of fascination. There is significant writing on the impact of organisational culture within a school and, whilst there is inevitable disagreement about many aspects of this, that this is a powerful force for school improvement is rarely challenged.

The concept of organisational culture is a familiar one in the corporate world and many will know the observation of Peter Drucker that ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’. Furthermore, one of the key authors on organisational culture, Edgar Schein, wrote ‘the only thing of real importance that leaders need to do is to create and manage culture. If you do not manage culture, it manages you The unique talent of leaders is their ability to understand and work with culture; and that it is an act of leadership to destroy culture when it is viewed as dysfunctional’. Toby Greany and Peter Earley even went as far as warning: ‘To neglect a considered and structured response to culture is perilous to the point of being foolhardy’. In a school context, with the enormous array of responsibilities within the headteacher’s job description, it would seem

something of a challenging statement that their only real responsibility is to manage the culture of the school.

Organisations such as Credit Suisse and HSBC have worked to construct cultural models against which all actions can be judged. However, this is far less common or known in an education sector which has traditionally rejected such initiatives for exactly the reason of being ‘too corporate’. However, as I hope to show, this is an approach which can fundamentally impact the leadership of a school. To accept this, there needs to be an understanding of what is meant by the term culture. Again, previous authors provide a number of answers. ‘Culture is the values, norms, beliefs and customs that an individual holds in common with members of their group’. Or that ‘Culture is to the organisation what personality is to the individual – a hidden yet unifying theme that provides meaning, direction and mobilization.’ Certainly, one of the challenges of dealing with organisational culture is that it is difficult to precisely measure, but when one considers it in terms of both values and personality, I believe its potential power becomes clearer.

Culture is also recognised to exist in an organisation at various levels. Edward Hall referenced this as a Cultural Iceberg. At its most obvious and visible, culture manifests in the behaviours and practices that exist across an organisation. Within a school context this can be the more obvious elements such as school events, policies, calendar of events but also lies in the less formal practices. For example, it could be in the way in which members of the SLT interact with staff. Are they visible around the school? Do they have open door policies in terms of meeting with staff, students and parents? How transparent are the school policies?

But beneath this lie the less visible, less tangible elements which underpin the observable behaviours. This could include the vision and mission statements of the school. It also includes the assumptions upon which these statements have been made. For example, does the school value inclusion, equity and diversity? Is the school selective or non-selective? Does the school exist as a for profit organization or not for profit? These values, and the extent to which they are prioritised, will inevitably impact the behaviours which go to make the culture visible to others.

In addition, if an organisation’s culture is to be managed and effectively embedded, then these elements must be identified and considered if to be successful.

Drucker’s suggestion is that management of organisational culture is more impactful that any strategic interventions. This has certainly been our experience over the last two years. Simon Sinek, the bestselling author of ‘Start with Why’, ‘Leaders Eat Last’, ‘Together is Better’ and ‘The Infinite Game’, has helped and inspired organisations worldwide to reach new heights. In the second article in this series I will outline Sinek’s perspectives and explain how they are equally appropriate, and impactful, for the leadership of a school culture.