American School of Creative Science (ASCS), Al Barsha

Update: Beam Education has shut down American School of Creative Science in September 2020. Students of this school are relocated to the American School of Creative Science Nad Al Sheba.

Founded in 2016, the American School of Creative Science (ASCS) Al Barsha was a dual American-Arabic School in Dubai. This private and co-educational school provided education from Kindergarten to Grade 8 until 2022. Afterwards, the school decided to shut down its Al Barsha campus due to logistics and financial issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The campus of the American School of Creative Science Barsha has a magnificent building. It is based on modern architectural design and has all the required amenities. The entire campus has access to high-speed internet and technological support. The following are the main highlights of ASCS Al Barsha:

CLASSROOMS AND CORRIDORS

Students spend most of their time in classrooms. To ensure a comfortable environment conducive for learning, they are designed to meet the requirements of students. Classrooms are spacious, airy and bright. All the classrooms open to the garden where children can play. They are equipped with fast-processing computers, interactive whiteboards and other ICT devices to aid learning. Most of the classrooms and corridors are decorated with students’ artworks. All these facilities ensure an optimised learning environment.

LIBRARY

There exists a spacious school library with a wide range of academic and non-academic resources. Students in their leisure time can visit the campus and read books, journals, newspapers and fictional books in a comfortable environment. Computers are also available in the library to access online resources.

ICT ROOM

Technology is an important part of the curriculum at ASCS. From a very young age, the school trains the children to use computers to accelerate their learning. There is a spacious ICT lab equipped with the latest computers and high-speed internet connections. These computers support modern software that allows students to complete their projects.

INNOVATIVE KITCHEN LAB

A striking feature of ASCS Al Barsha is the innovative kitchen lab. This lab is used to polish aesthetic and non-academic skills. Here, they learn basic culinary skills and hygiene.

QURAN CLASSROOM

Another feature of this campus, which is not available in most international schools in Dubai, is the Quran Classroom. These classrooms are used to teach, recite and memorise the Quran.

WHY ROOM AND CREATIVE PLAY ROOM

This campus also has a why room and creative classroom. In the Why Room, the school drives the curiousness and inquisitive nature of the children. Here, they learn and explore concepts about engineering, science and tinkering.

Whereas, the creative playroom focuses on building strong imagination and artistic skills among students.

The syllabus of American School of Creative Science Barsha is based on the US National Curriculum. For subjects such as Arts, English, mathematics, history and geography, California common core state standards are followed. Whereas, it adopts Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for science. The blend of two different standards of education ensures that they cater to all the specific needs of students for each subject. Besides the aforementioned standards, the school also follows the guidelines of the Ministry of Education (MOE) curriculum for Islamic Education and Arabic.

It uses personalised teaching strategies, including a hands-on approach for complex subjects. The curriculum fosters self-confidence, self-awareness and independent learning skills. These are the skills necessary to combat modern-day challenges.

The American School of Creative Science Dubai Al Barsha curriculum strikes a balance between academic and non-academic activities. The extra-curricular activity programme at school is extensive and ensures that no child is left behind.

The Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) is a governmental entity that regulates the education sector in Dubai. Established in 2006, it aims to improve the quality of education offered by the educational institutes. KHDA inspects school annually and rates them based on a 6-point scale: outstanding, very good, good, acceptable, weak and very weak.

The school was first inspected for the academic year 2018-2019 and was rated as an acceptable school. For a newly established school, the rating is satisfactory, and improvements are expected in the upcoming years.

The strengths of American School of Creative Science Al Barsha Dubai are as follows:

• A strong understanding of Islamic values among students.
• A highly attractive and secure campus that ensures a clean and hygienic environment for students.
• The warm and welcoming ethos of the American School of Creative Science Barsha
• An enhanced learning environment for students and teachers, especially for the learning of Islamic education.

KHDA recommended the school to:

• Improve the students’ attainment across all phases, especially in English and mathematics.
• Improve teaching standards by developing a deeper understanding of agreed teaching approaches.
• Ensure all the key areas of the school are in the focus of the dedicated team of leaders.
• Improve the self-evaluation process by the effective use of assessment data and taking new initiatives.

There is a spacious and hygienic school canteen offering a wide range of food options. Here, students can purchase a range of hot and cold food items and beverages at affordable prices. The school has a pre-set menu that contains a range of appetisers, sandwiches and wraps, pastries, salad, sweets and beverages. To know more, view the canteen’s menu at ASCS Al Barsha.

ASCS Al Barsha also offers a safe and reliable commute to students. They have their transportation department that has a well-maintained fleet of buses. They comply with the regulations laid by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA).

The areas covered by the buses and their respective transportation charges are as follows:

• Dubai Internet City, Al Barsha (South), Al Barsha 2, Al Quoz, Umm Suqeim 3 – AED 5,900
• Al Sufouh, Motor City, Dubai Sports City, Al Barsha 1, Knowledge Village, Al Safa 2, Arabian Ranches, Dubai Media City, International Media Production Zone, Jumeirah, Jumeirah Village Triangle, Emirates Hills, Al Wasl, Downtown Dubai, Jumeirah Beach Residence, Meadows, China Village – AED 6,500
• The Garden, Al Karama, Al Raffa, Jumeirah Islands, Umm Hurair, Za’abeel, Green Community Village, Discovery Gardens, Deira, Jebel Ali, Dubai Investment Park, Al Satwa, Al Bada’a, Dubai Festival City, Dubai Silicon Oasis, Nad Al Sheba, Al Rashidiya, Nadd al Hamar – AED 7,000
• Hor Al Anz, Al Twar, Al Nahda, Al Mizhar, Al Mamzar, Academic City, Muhaisnah, Al Qusais, Oud Al Muteena, Al Warqaa, Mirdif and Khawaneej – AED 7,500

Please note that the aforementioned rates are for two-way trips. The transportation fee needs to be paid separately before 1st September of each academic year.

As most of the schools in Dubai, the American School of Creative Science Al Barsha is a day-only school and does not offer any boarding or residence facilities to its students.

The student body at the ASCS Al Barsha arranges several activities for students, especially during holidays. One remarkable holiday camp at this school is the spring camp that happens each year. In this camp, students participate in a range of structured activities. Multiple camps occur during summer break with different timings, charges and policies. Contact the student body of this school for more information.

Several sports facilities are available at the campus that helps the students remain fit and engaged in healthy physical activities. For students in kindergarten and junior grades, it has an indoor and outdoor playground. These playgrounds have safe floorings and other playing equipment suitable for young learners. There is an indoor swimming pool properly maintained by the staff throughout the academic year. Formal swimming lessons are given from Grade 3 onwards.

Students interested in indoor sports will certainly enjoy the multi-purpose hall that has incredible sporting opportunities. With a spacious seating capacity, it is used for volleyball, netball, badminton, basketball, martial arts, table tennis and other popular indoor sports. There is also an outdoor grass-based football pitch surrounded by athletic tracks.

Extra-curricular activities are an important part of the American School of Creative Science Al Barsha curriculum. These activities target the all-round development of children, resulting in the development of skills that help them in the future. Therefore, it arranges several extra-curricular activities for students. These activities include:

• Field trips
• Sports competitions
• Cultural activities
• Spelling competitions
• Maths competitions
• Quran memorisation competition
• Science fairs
• Cooking competitions
• Art fairs

The school also arranges educational field trips for students. Some noteworthy field trips include visits to:

• Saqr Park
• OliOli
• Bassata desert village
• Al-Ain Safari
• Dubai Miracle Garden

For KG1 and KG2, their normal school timings are till 12:30, however, the school offers after school care so they can stay still 2:30 and will have a full schedule with activities planned till then. Other grades have after school activities on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The school gives paramount importance to the overall health of its students. To ensure that students maintain a healthy lifestyle and have access to medical needs in case of emergencies, ASCS Al Barha campus has a medical centre. It is equipped with the necessary amenities and experienced health staff. Besides medical interventions and government-initiated health programmes, the medical staff actively participate in students’ awareness of health-related issues.

There are several modes of communication between parents and teacher/school at ASCS Al Barsha. School portal is the most commonly used mode of communication at this school. Parents are given the credentials to log into the portal where they can access important information such as child’s attendance records, academic performance, event notifications and much more.

Another source of communication at this school is the parent-teacher meeting. It happens in each term where parents and teachers have the opportunity to discuss the progress made by the child. In such meetings, teachers and parents share advice to help students learn effectively.

The official website of ASCS Al Barsha is another source of information for parents. Here, the school regularly updates parents and the wider community with new information. Other options include social media platforms and WhatsApp groups (for each grade).

To contact the school, kindly fill the online contact us form. One of their respondents contacts the enquirer with answers to their questions. Other sources of contacts are:

• American School of Creative Science Al Barsha Address: Al Khail Road, Al Barsha South, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
• Telephone number: +971 4 5108000
• Official Website
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram

Note that the cover image belongs to American School of Creative Science (ASCS) Al Barsha.