Outstanding Schools Middle East Agenda 2022

Registration and the Conference will take place on Level 4 at the Conrad Hotel, Dubai.

In this keynote presentation, Professor John Hattie and John Almarode will share updates and recent findings from their meta-analyses, particularly on the impact of the pandemic on teaching and learning.

Professor Hattie and John Almarode will provide a realistic view of the future of education, and how schools must adapt their provision to ensure that wellbeing remains at the heart of the learning process.

In this keynote presentation, Andrea Downie draws together 16 years of diverse education experience working within every system and sector and combines this with five years of research to engage with and inspire delegates in the following:

• Our global well-being challenges and where we are going wrong in schools despite best intentions.
• The evolution of the education system towards being deeply relevant and enabling all students to be connected, enable personal growth and thrive.

• Explore the current landscape and trends in the international school sector, and discuss key areas of growth and innovation in school management and leadership that have emerged in the past two years across the Middle East
• From Vision to Action: how to create and implement a strong, proactive and future-focused vision to drive growth and school improvement
• Examine the styles of leadership that international schools need to effectively lead their teams, affect organisational change, and drive forward school improvement

Please note that spaces for roundtable discussions are subject to availability

Delegates are invited to attend this interactive roundtable discussion. This session is delegate-led and focuses on how to develop and sustain effective Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) across your schools.

Key discussion points include:

• What are PLCs and how to build cohesive and dynamic learning communities that genuinely enable collaboration and innovation?
• How can schools harness the power of PLCs to drive forward impactful professional development resulting in self-efficacy?
• What is the impact of PLCs on student learning and how can schools foster a culture of life-long learning within different education contexts?

Delegates are invited to attend this interactive roundtable discussion. This session is delegate-led and focuses on the role of the powerful role that Middle Leaders play in schools.

Key discussion points include:

• Learn how best to continuously develop a strong middle leadership that feels empowered
• Explore the model of distributed leadership: how to create more opportunities to further develop and enhance the capacity of your workforce
• Build a strengths-based school: how to create comprehensive strategies that focus on developing a systematic strengths development process for educators

Delegates are invited to attend this interactive roundtable discussion. This session is delegate-led and focuses on how senior leaders can meaningfully embed sustainable, environmentally conscious values within their school’s strategic goals.

• Taking a personalised, adaptive and holistic approach to teacher education and talent development to successfully harness and enable professional growth of all staff, advance whole-school improvement, and improve long-term retention
• Discuss how school leaders can and should enable the personal and professional development of all staff, and ensure that professional development activities support teacher voice, engagement, and autonomy
• Understand how to give frequent, valuable and impactful feedback, and encourage staff to take ownership of their own learning, and strengthen the quality of the teaching workforce
• Explore cost-effective solutions to CPD challenges, such as access to high-quality professional development, cost, and time constraints

• In international education, new faculty can be hired up to 9 months before their expected start dates. Schools are therefore challenged to onboard new staff at the same time as managing the current academic year and continuing with the recruitment search.
• Lack of quality connections with the new institution, poor onboarding documentation, late paperwork, and intermittent communication can lead to a percentage of newly hired employees never making it to the start date.
• Beyond the first hurdles of onboarding, in depth orientation to the school’s values and systems along with immediate training opportunities are key issues tied to the longevity of a teacher’s tenure within a school.
• This session will walk through methods for organizing the first steps in onboarding documentation, how to welcome staff to a new country, culture, and school environment, as well as discuss crucial opportunities for professional development – all of which lead to longer retention of staff.

• Explore the changing trends and patterns in international recruitment – what are the key lessons learned and how can this inform future recruitment, retention, and professional development strategies for diverse and multicultural school settings
• How can schools promote diversity in their recruitment of leadership and faculty, by adopting innovative, equitable, and inclusive hiring practices and structures
• Recruiting for long-term retention – what do schools leaders need to consider during the hiring process, and what should ‘the right’ candidate look like?
• Discuss the ‘glocalisation’ of recruitment – how can local recruits enable schools to improve retention and ensure long-term teacher growth and development

• Putting wellbeing at the heart of the school’s mission and vision: how to create a culture of happiness, wellbeing, and social and emotional support across the school
• Share practical guidance and toolkits that are can be applied in an international context to improve staff wellbeing, without having an impact on planning and execution time
• Highlighting the importance of social and emotional learning PD to boost wellbeing and cultivate empathy in order to enhance positivity and productivity across the board
• Explore different ways of genuinely enabling teacher voice and active participation in leadership decisions-making to improve wellbeing, satisfaction and self-confidence

Registration and the Conference will take place on Level 4 at the Conrad Hotel, Dubai.

In this keynote presentation, Professor John Hattie and John Almarode will share updates and recent findings from their meta-analyses, particularly on the impact of the pandemic on teaching and learning.

Professor Hattie and John Almarode will provide a realistic view of the future of education, and how schools must adapt their provision to ensure that wellbeing remains at the heart of the learning process.

In this keynote presentation, Andrea Downie draws together 16 years of diverse education experience working within every system and sector and combines this with five years of research to engage with and inspire delegates in the following:

• Our global well-being challenges and where we are going wrong in schools despite best intentions.
• The evolution of the education system towards being deeply relevant and enabling all students to be connected, enable personal growth and thrive.

• Explore the current landscape and trends in the international school sector, and discuss key areas of growth and innovation in school management and leadership that have emerged in the past two years across the Middle East
• From Vision to Action: how to create and implement a strong, proactive and future-focused vision to drive growth and school improvement
• Examine the styles of leadership that international schools need to effectively lead their teams, affect organisational change, and drive forward school improvement

Please note that spaces for roundtable discussions are subject to availability

Delegates are invited to attend this interactive roundtable discussion. This session is delegate-led and focuses on the role of Character Education creating well-rounded learners.

Key discussion points include:

• What are the principles of character education and how can it help develop foundations for strong academic achievement and overall student wellness
• How does it feed into the traditional whole- school aims around progression, attainment and behaviour
• How schools can effectively cultivate and character within their pupils

This interactive roundtable introduces a basic overview of the restorative approach in education, with time for meaningful group discussions, allowing you to explore how restorative concepts can influence your leadership style for the better.

Key discussion points include:

• How might restorative practices improve community health?
• How could restorative practices enhance your particular school’s vision and mission?
• How might the restorative model inform your own leadership style in your organisation?

This interactive roundtable focuses on how school leaders can create a safe environment and maintain child safeguarding standards through comprehensive prevention and intervention strategies.

Key discussion points include:

• How to develop and implement a robust safeguarding strategy which includes developing and embedding clear reporting and monitoring processes for all alerts, as well as teacher professional development and safer recruitment strategies
• How to navigate cultural stigmas and restrictions around safeguarding, and how can schools effectively tackle and address instances of child neglect, self-harm, etc.

• Putting wellbeing first: highlighting the necessary requirements and tools for schools to prioritise, uphold, and embed wellbeing and happiness across the whole-school strategy to tackle mental health and anxiety disorders in children
• Explore the most effective and evidence-informed ways of integrating SEL in the classroom
• Understand what best practice looks like including trauma-informed interventions, comprehensive frameworks, and programmes that enable students to understand and manage their emotions, set positive goals and maintain healthy relationships
• Discuss the cultural challenges and complexities around mental wellbeing and evaluating different approaches to effectively nurture emotional intelligence and resilience in students and staff alike

• Expand school understanding of wellbeing beyond that of welfare, intervention and prevents towards potentiality
• How to create a whole-school inclusive wellbeing programme that incorporates this potentiality to support a more progressive, inclusive and forward thinking programme
• Use data and analytics to develop targeted support to allow every student to embrace the challenge and pain of self-development

• What strategies and approaches work in delivering effective and safe support provision to meet the complex learning needs of SEN students in the classroom and online, in terms of identification, differentiation, and assessment?
• How can schools strengthen relationships with parents and care-givers to improve learning support inside and outside the classroom given cultural stigmas and complexities around learning needs
• How can technology be best utilised and maximised, as a tool to effectively identify learning needs and intervene appropriately, providing a more inclusive teaching and learning experience for those who thrive in an unconventional classroom?
• What are the key areas of professional development that teachers and leaders need to focus on to strengthen the impact of the support and inclusion departments within their schools?

Daniel Sobel and his team have worked with 10,000+ schools in narrowing attainment gaps and maximising inclusion for all. Along the way, Daniel has spotted common mistakes, themes and worked out simple solutions to overcome these. This talk has been delivered all over the world to school leaders and met with laughter, tears and always hearty applause. This talk is based on his bestselling books and over 90 articles. Attendees will be given many practical suggestions for including the most challenging and vulnerable children in his inimitable, refreshing, and entertaining style.

Registration and the Conference will take place on Level 4 at the Conrad Hotel, Dubai.

In this keynote presentation, Raya Bidshahri will provide insights about the following:

• Frameworks from true innovation in education
• Going beyond EdTech when innovating how and what we learn
• Managing change and innovation as school leaders
• Case studies and models of schools that reinvent education globally
• Accreditation, recognition, and quality control when innovating in schools

In this keynote presentation, Professor Douglas Fisher will highlight how learning works and what this means for our schools and classrooms.

• Over the past twenty years, the science of learning has provided many insights into how learning works. This body of research provides well-established principles and practices that when translated into classroom practices, have the potential to enhance and accelerate student learning.
• This How Learning Works session provides an easily accessible look at the process for translating research about how learning works into classroom practices that enhance and accelerate your students’ learning.
• Furthermore, these promising principles and practices provide a starting point for us in building the capacity in learners to see themselves as their own teachers.
• Helping learners understand how learning works and explicitly teaching them strategies allows them to take ownership of their own learning.

• Understand how the demand for education and the changing student profile are redefining the purpose of international education, and how international schools must continue to meet the complex and varied needs of their diverse communities
• Discuss the key priorities and responsibilities for international schools to contribute to a strong education system which places emphasis on diversity, equity, inclusion and justice
• Understand the responsibility of schools to create sustainable and nurturing environments in which students and staff alike develop global competency skills to thrive in a complex and uncertain world

Please note that spaces for roundtable discussions are subject to availability

Delegates are invited to attend this interactive roundtable discussion. This delegate-led session focuses on how school leaders can use effective communication strategies to meaningfully engage with all stakeholders to drive the school’s vision and mission forward.

Key discussion points include:

• Best practice around communication methods that can help school leaders effectively navigate and manage changing expectations from various stakeholders (parents, students, faculty, board, etc)
• Discuss how to best develop, maintain and maximise strong relationships with key stakeholders to ensure the strategic success of your school
• Consider the need to develop stakeholder engagement strategies and understand what channels of communication might work better in engaging different groups

Delegates are invited to attend this interactive roundtable discussion. This session is delegate-led and focuses on how to effectively utilise the data you collect in your school and turn this data into something that is presented in a visually appealing format.

 Key discussion points include:

• Data literacy; What do I need to know with regards to data as a school leader?
• Ensuring the data you collect is able to be visualised and analysed in a clear and concise manner
• The role of storytelling in school improvement

Using data from the Unifrog platform, this session will take a look at how Higher Education choices made by international school students in the Middle East are changing over time, and how they compare to student choices in other parts of the world.

Using this information, delegates will discuss how schools can support their students to make the best choices and create strong applications. This session will also offer some recommendations for improving student Higher Education outcomes at your school.

• How can school leaders make an informed decision around the right technology to adopt, and how do educational institutions ensure that technology is inclusive for everyone – educators and learners alike?
• How to ensure that the adoption of technology provides the best value for money and meets the needs of all stakeholders?
• How can schools effectively measure the impact of their digital strategies?

• Explore GEMS Wellington International School’s journey introducing robotics and future-focused technology into the curriculum across the school
• Helping school leaders support tech-passionate teachers and encourage risk-taking
• Discussing student enterprise and how it plays an integral role in championing educational technology across the school
• Sharing guidance on how to embed robotics into the curriculum with a limited budget, and how to grow its impact

• Understand the vital and unique role that international school leaders play in mobilising and driving the global sustainability and climate change agenda forward
• Explore key aspects around campus transformation that leaders need to consider before rethinking learning spaces to provide an immersive, future-focused and sustainable learning environment
• Share guidance and advice for school leaders on how to embed and incorporate sustainability in the school’s values, mission, and strategic goals; whilst also producing a generation of sustainably minded, environmentally conscious learners

In this presentation, Philippa Wraithmell, Author of ‘The Digital Ecosystem’, explores the key steps to developing your own sustainable digital strategy based on your specific school context.

Key learning points include:

• How to blend your school’s core values and ethos with the reality of today’s digital world
• Finding solutions to common challenges such as building digital governance, tightening up safeguarding, as well as supporting teaching and learning
• Developing the confidence to build and develop your digital pedagogy and systems

Registration and the Conference will take place on Level 4 at the Conrad Hotel, Dubai.

In this keynote presentation, Raya Bidshahri will provide insights about the following:

• Frameworks from true innovation in education
• Going beyond EdTech when innovating how and what we learn
• Managing change and innovation as school leaders
• Case studies and models of schools that reinvent education globally
• Accreditation, recognition, and quality control when innovating in schools

In this keynote presentation, Professor Douglas Fisher will highlight how learning works and what this means for our schools and classrooms.

• Over the past twenty years, the science of learning has provided many insights into how learning works. This body of research provides well-established principles and practices that when translated into classroom practices, have the potential to enhance and accelerate student learning.
• This How Learning Works session provides an easily accessible look at the process for translating research about how learning works into classroom practices that enhance and accelerate your students’ learning.
• Furthermore, these promising principles and practices provide a starting point for us in building the capacity in learners to see themselves as their own teachers.
• Helping learners understand how learning works and explicitly teaching them strategies allows them to take ownership of their own learning.

• Understand how the demand for education and the changing student profile are redefining the purpose of international education, and how international schools must continue to meet the complex and varied needs of their diverse communities
• Discuss the key priorities and responsibilities for international schools to contribute to a strong education system which places emphasis on diversity, equity, inclusion and justice
• Understand the responsibility of schools to create sustainable and nurturing environments in which students and staff alike develop global competency skills to thrive in a complex and uncertain world

Please note that spaces for roundtable discussions are subject to availability

Delegates are invited to attend this interactive roundtable discussion. This session is delegate-led and focuses on how schools can incorporate different approaches to learning that will nurture and develop well-rounded learners for the 21^st century.

Key discussion points include:

• What it means to be a global citizen today and how to maximise teaching and learning to develop truly global and internationally minded learners
• How to facilitate meaningful global citizenship and service learning, and how to create school cultures that effectively nurture global, critical, and inclusive mindsets
• What is the role of service learning and how to prioritise the delivery of experiential learning during difficult times

Delegates are invited to attend this interactive roundtable discussion. This session is delegate-led and focuses on how schools can continue to build strong relationships with parents and carers to improve student outcomes.

Key discussion points include:

• How to create and sustain long-term relationships with parents beyond the pandemic and outside of a hybrid/online learning environment?
• How to engage the hard-to-reach parents?
• How to have meaningful conversations with challenging parents?

This session will explore the White Rose Maths approach to teaching and learning in mathematics with a focus on the Secondary phase. Our secondary Scheme of Learning helps you teach for deep and lasting understanding by changing mindsets and building confidence as well as skills. We have spent years researching and refining our offer to ensure it delivers world-class content and has an impact.

We will explain the “small step” structure of the schemes, demonstrating how key concepts are interleaved throughout to strengthen learning and how teaching is supported through the use of key representations, questioning and embedding of reasoning and problem-solving at every stage.

• Discuss how to develop a comprehensive and sustainable school-wide assessment plan that supports assessment for learning in an authentic, reliable and responsive way, which will enable them to navigate the complex and changing work environment
• Optimising and maximising alternative assessment practices that equip students with the necessary growth mindset and relevant skills to thrive in tertiary education and then in the workplace
• How can schools champion forward-focused feedback and reporting to enable deeper and more meaningful learning to take place with the right challenge, pace and depth
• How can school adapt their curriculum to enhance careers provision, and work with employers to nurture and develop the appropriate skills required for today’s workplace?

• Introduction to Elklan and their work in Dubai
• The impact of Elklan’s training methods on those working with children in schools
• How Elklan’s training for practitioners benefitted the children they work with
• Statistics and feedback from their training courses

• Explore how current teaching and learning research can be embedded within international school’s curriculum design
• Examine the changing purpose of the school curriculum
• Consider how creativity and student agency fit into effective curriculum design and how to nurture this among students to ensure high-quality, academically rigorous learning continues to take place
• Understand the most effective cognitive strategies to foster critical thinking, problem solving and self-directed learning in your students and explore the role curriculum design has in this
• Establish the role of school leaders in ensuring that high-quality and effective practices in curriculum planning, instruction, and assessment empower students as creative agents of their own learning

• Benefits of multilingualism in international learning environments; and sharing the most effective and creative strategies that can help multilingual learners thrive inside and outside the classroom
• Discuss the importance of effectively supporting bi- and multi-lingual learners through the development and implementation of culturally responsive teaching practices
• Highlighting the importance of teacher professional development in effectively delivering instruction and assessment to EAL students, particularly within the context of DEIJ