Habitat School attempts to introduce a new model of schooling by merging the possibilities of nature, art, language, technology and much more.
Published: Thu 24 Mar 2016, 9:47 AM
Last updated: Thu 24 Mar 2016, 11:50 AM
Habitat School aims to create a model of schooling for the expatriate community by responding to specific issues and building on possibilities. Lack of social spaces, non-availability of time and space for a community, cultural issues with a number of unknown and unpredictable components and lack of proper research in making a specific syllabus, are some issues experienced by expatriates.
The availability of a global student and teacher base, which can be used as a source of exposure and learning, is the best possibility of schooling in the Middle East. This is a possibility that can be developed in extremely rewarding ways. Many parents who are willing to go the extra mile for giving holistic training for their students is another advantage schools here can work with, alongside a steady and growing domain of students.
Habitat School believes in a proactive response. It introduced the idea of integrated schooling for middle grade and lower-middle grade children. Integrated schooling is based on the notion that schools should be a one-stop solution for the needs of any child. With this idea, nature school - where farming is taught, language school- where various languages are taught, programming school - where students are initiated into hands-on programming, arts and sports school - where students are trained in various activities by specialist teachers - are built into the school system.
By making more space available besides for teaching and learning and by introducing day boarding for students, the school attempts to redefine itself as a social space occupied by the school community. Through its add-on course, "Wings", the school prepares its students to negotiate parent cultures and the culture of the foster country in a professionally useful, academically rigorous and emotionally fulfilling manner. Through schemes like "Habitat for Hope", the care of the school community towards its global fellow citizens and platforms like www.habitatexpressions.org, a free online portal for learning about nature and expressions, the school pushes its concept of new schooling in various ways.
Its three schools - International Indian School - Ajman, Habitat School Ajman and Habitat School Umm Al Quwain along with 11,000 students, are led by a young team including the Chairman and Managing Director, who work to plant this idea in the domain of education.
The recognition by parents, educational authorities and people at large has been best demonstrated by an award presented by Dubai Municipality for being the best school in supporting natural farming in the whole of the UAE, alongside its partners and enthusiasm in the press