Ras Al Khaimah English Speaking School

Ras Al Khaimah English Speaking School in the United Arab Emirates was founded in 1975. The school is co-educational and covers the student ages from Playgroup to year 12/13. In the primary years (KG1 to Grade 6) the curriculum is the Primary Years Progamme (PYP) of the International Baccalaureate and the primary section is divided into Lower Primary (PG - Year 2) and Upper Primary (Year 3 - Year 6). The PYP is now in the fourth year of operation and the school has recently undertaken an authorization visit and is now fully authorised.

The Secondary School is divided into three sections - Years 7, 8 and 9, based on a modified International curriculum - Years 10 and 11, offering I/GCSE and Years 12 and 13, offering both the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme and the AS/A2 levels.

The school is enjoying significant support for the Ras Al Khaimah community and this is reflected in demand for student places, particularly in the Primary Years. Currently there are 850 primary students and 350 secondary students. As of 2010 the IB2 students had their first MUN meeting in Doha, Qatar The MUN Program, under the inspirational leadership of Mr. Ross Burgmann has gone from strength to strength in the past two years and the demand for students to participate has grown considerably.

Although the school did vow to be an all-IDP school, AS students have been double or triple the number of IB students, due to AS being traditionally the "easier" course. However, the more academically able students tend to gravitate to the more demanding IBDP course. For example, a student has been interviewed for a place at Oxford University in the UK - examples of the high academic standards available to the students. Although, it needs to be noted that the current crop of eight A2 students will do very well in their final examinations and expect to be accepted into excellent universities.

The school has a number of extra curricular activities, including a football team, which participates in a league and a cup, a basketball team, a volleyball team, and finally a group of students who create the annual yearbook. Recently, students have had remarkable success in the Young Entrepreneurs Competition under the splendid guidance of the Business Studies teacher, Simone Rai. In 2009 the students took out second place in this UAE-wide competition and shared a prize of 50,000 dirham between them.

The International Award (Duke of Edinburgh in some countries) has recently been revived under the enthusiastic guidance of Tracey Coffey and currently has 42 students in the program.

External links

• Official web site