Rosary School Sharjah - Halwan
History
Our Beginning
Established in Sharjah in 1976, Rosary School Halwan began as a small building holding just 75 students across 11 classrooms. The school now boasts over 2,000 students in 80 classrooms, but has stayed true to its mission to create an innovative education system that prepares students of all ages to thrive in a competitive, global society. Rosary School Halwan strives to offer excellent services and high-quality teaching in order to produce students who will influence the world for the better using their knowledge and strong morals.
Rosary School Halwan grounds its educational methodology in three key approaches: Innovation, to help develop a knowledgeable, pioneering global society; Creative, ensuring the school is infused with art; and Perfect, offering a tradition of excellence to all parents and students. The school motto perhaps best sums up Rosary School Halwan’s educational methodology:
At the heart of the school ethos are its values, which inform every aspect of school life. Firstly, Citizenship and Responsibilities focuses on strengthening the national identity and each individual’s sense of social responsibility. Secondly, Principles and Values of Islam centres on developing and reinforcing the importance of dialogue, tolerance, moderation, peace, and volunteerism. Finally, Commitment and Transparency ensures that all staff at Rosary School Halwan are committed to professionalism and transparency in performance.
Academic Achievement
Rosary School Halwan offers parents a strong focus on the academic progress and achievement of each student, and explains that the school “is filled with enthusiastic students willing to learn in an environment where they are challenged and have their expectations raised to achieve demanding targets”. To support students in this, Rosary School Halwan prizes communication with parents and the wider community “to create a positive and inclusive environment for high quality learning and teaching where everyone is valued and respected”.
Rosary School Halwan is co-educational throughout; however, girls will have the option to continue their studies at the Rosary School Muweilah branch, which has an all-girls Secondary section. Boys, on the other hand, will need to find a different school to undertake their Secondary studies.
Our Curriculum
Rosary School Halwan is a Cambridge curriculum school, offering both the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and Cambridge Primary. The school explains that while its curriculum is based on the Cambridge curriculum, their model “goes significantly beyond the minimum expectations in a diverse range of subjects”.
According to Rosary School Halwan, a child’s “early years [sic] experience should be happy, active, exciting, fun and secure; and support their development, care and learning needs”. To this end, Rosary School Halwan uses the popular EYFS approach, which helps children to learn new skills, acquire new knowledge, and demonstrate their understanding through seven key areas of learning and development (these seven areas are split into three prime areas and four specific areas).
The three prime areas are: Communication and Language; Physical Development; and Personal, Social, and Emotional Development. These prime areas will then help students to develop skills in the four specific areas: Literacy; Mathematics; Understanding the World; and Expressive Arts and Design. At Rosary School Halwan, children interact with these seven areas through.
In FS1, “qualified and experienced teachers work closely with children to focus on the acquisition of the [EYFS] skills . . . they do so through the use of meaningful, relevant and interesting projects”. Each topic usually lasts around six weeks, and these topics can be chosen based on student interest or currently relevant areas. Then, in FS2, the curriculum is “focused upon supporting students to enjoy learning whilst gaining the necessary core skills in their personal and social development and acquiring the essential communicative and expressive skills to access the Cambridge Primary Curriculum”.
Another crucial part of the curriculum is the integration of the Ministry of Education (MOE) required subjects. All children learn Arabic either as native or non-native speakers, and specialised “qualified early years [sic] practitioners who are native speakers of Arabic work with the children to develop the children’s speaking, listening, reading and writing skills”. The MOE Arabic curriculum actually begins in Grade 1, but Rosary School Halwan offers curriculum content and lessons in the EYFS years that focus on developing core Arabic skills in preparation for the government curriculum.
Moving onto the Cambridge Primary curriculum, Rosary School Halwan aims to offer an active and creative learning journey so that young learners can become confident, responsible, reflective, innovative, and engaged. The Cambridge Primary curriculum first and foremost focuses on developing the core skills of English, Mathematics, and Science, using clear learning objectives with a flexible approach.
At this stage, in addition to the core subjects, students also take French, Music, and ICT, alongside the MOE-required subjects of Social Studies, Arabic, and Islamic Studies. In particular, “Rosary School also strives to promote the National Agenda and to ensure that the Emirate cultures and values are visible across the curriculum, alongside a desire to celebrate all cultures within the school”.
Beyond everyday classes, students also have a wide number of opportunities to take advantage of, to support a holistic educational approach. Examples include the Rosary Science Fair, Anti-Bullying Week, and Arabic competitions. The school website is currently adding a new section for Extra-Curricular Activities, including competitions, clubs, and trips, although this has not yet been finished.
In terms of enrichment, Rosary School Halwan has some unique approaches that make it different from other schools. For example, the school has a mosque where students attend their Islamic lessons; here, they can not only learn to pray, but they are given “real life experiences in the proper etiquettes they need to observe while in a mosque”. In addition, the school newsletter is used to excellent effect – it informs parents what topics their children will next be tackling in school, including the activities, key vocabulary, and other areas of learning, so that help can be offered at home.
Finally, Rosary School Halwan runs a Show and Tell project, a wonderful initiative for young learners where they get to present on a topic of their choice. Students are then evaluated based on their body language, eye contact, voice, delivery, and visuals. This assists in building confidence in the English language, and also teaches students to use gestures, eye contact, loud voice, clear pronunciation, and intonation. And of course, it gives students the chance to discuss something they are passionate about in front of their classmates while developing valuable skills.