Hartland International School

Hartland International School, an educational institute by The Sobha Group, is a primary and secondary school in Dubai educating children till Year 13. With a desire to deliver the best educational experience, Hartland International School follows an enriched programme based on the National Curriculum of the UK. The school is also one of the reputable IB schools in Dubai as it offers IB related courses in higher grades,

Located off the Ras Al Khor Road and Al Ain Road, the school lies in The Sobha Residential Community at Mohammed Bin Rashid City near Meydan City. Today, the educational institute has 634 students from 57 different nationalities, with a majority of them holding British passports. The teaching force consists of 79 teachers and 30 teaching assistants and is predominantly British. With a teacher to student ratio of 1:8, substantial individual support is offered to each child. This, in turn, assists the school in understanding and fulfilling the needs of each child.

Besides individual support and attention, the school promises an excellent learning environment. This is evident from a meticulously planned campus with outstanding aesthetic and functional features. Not only this, the extra-curricular programme provides opportunities for students to excel in non-academic fields.

With exceptional facilities, including school transportation and canteen, Hartland International School is growing in popularity. This guide offers a comprehensive overview of the facilities, features, educational programme, admission and fee structure of Hartland International School.

Located at Mohammed Bin Rashid (MBR) City, the school is in proximity to many residential communities in Dubai.

• Meydan City
• Nad Al Sheba 1
• Business Bay

Meydan City is the nearest residential community to the school. Launched in 2007, the area has grown in popularity and has numerous residential options. Those living far from the school will find Meydan City and other aforementioned areas ideal for living.

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The Hartland International School’s campus is filled with outstanding facilities. The buildings represent modern-day architecture with glass façades. Their design features green quadrangles where children can play. Trees and greenery surround the entire campus, providing a relaxed and comfortable environment. This environment helps children grow in a creative yet peaceful environment.

Classes for the Foundation Stage to Year 3 are on the ground floor of the building. Classrooms are spacious, airy and colourful. Furniture in these classes is bright and appropriate for young children. All classrooms are open to external learning and play areas. Besides external play zones, students have access to a spacious soft play area. The school also has a junior library with over 8,500 books. The centre of the library has an Arabian Tower shaped model that keeps children informed of their local culture.

Classes for students in Years 4 and above lie on the upper storeys. The upper floors have specialised classrooms, including a science room, IT room, dance studio, food technology room, Blackbox room. Other facilities at Hartland International School include a canteen, an expansive auditorium with retractable seats and specialised rooms for music, languages and art.

The new secondary section for Years 7 and above on the second floor opens with a state of the art library, a new gym, recording studio, redesigned music rooms, technology labs and innovation breakout spaces.

Sports facilities include a sports hall, an adult and learning swimming pool and outdoor play areas.

The school is situated in Sobha Hartland MBR City, a sub-community of MBR City in Dubai. It is slightly off Ras Al Khor Road and Al Ain Road. Hartland International School location allows easy access for the nearby residential communities. Those looking to visit can access it through these popular roads in Dubai.

Hartland International School, Dubai follows a premium UK curriculum for its educational programme. It is an internationally recognised educational curriculum that leads to admissions in popular colleges and universities in the world. In the sixth form stage, students study a combination of specialised A level and BTEC courses. Some students can take four A level courses with some BTEC courses. The unique blend of two different curricula prepares children for higher education.

The teaching techniques used at this school encourage critical thinking and creativity. The educational institute further enriches the curriculum with values and traditions that help in broadening student knowledge and skills. This not only includes educational programs but also non-academic activities. This results in the development of skills necessary to compete in the 21st century. Nevertheless, the school has also enriched its curriculum with traditional values. Hartland International School aims to cultivate a culture with values such as empathy, honesty, kindness and compassion.

An alluring feature of Hartland International School is a low teacher to student ratio. With a teacher to student ratio of 1:8, students receive individual attention and support. Such a low teacher-to-student ratio helps the school in bridging the gap for each student and help them attain academic success.

Hartland International School educates children from kindergarten to sixth-form, consisting of students aged 3 to 18 years old. The following are the years offered at Hartland International School:

The educational programme at this school revolves around the National Curriculum of the UK. The experienced teaching staff stay committed to continually improving the quality of education which results in delivering updated knowledge to students. The following is the curriculum for all stages at Hartland International School:

Foundation Stage Curriculum

The education programme designed for the foundation stage offers education in a fun, caring and stimulating environment. For this purpose, it follows the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework. EYFS is a popular framework used by many international schools to develop necessary skills among young learners. It targets the following learning areas:

• Expressive arts and design
• Physical Development
• Knowledge and understanding the world
• Physical development
• Mathematics
• Communication and language
• Literacy

Along with children’s natural curiosity and enthusiasm, the aforementioned seven areas of learning help them build a range of skills. To help young learners understand concepts, the school uses the ‘play and learn’ method. In this method, the school uses its indoor and outdoor play areas to great effect. Foundation Stage curriculum also includes specialised subjects, such as Arabic, moral education and social studies.

Primary Stage Curriculum

In the primary stage, the school introduces students to a formalised and structured educational programme based on the National Curriculum of the UK. In KS1, class and specialised teachers challenge students to expand their thinking capabilities across all areas of the curriculum. The contextual style of teaching further supports learning, ensuring that students can relate the learned concepts to real-life situations.

From the primary stage, the school focuses on building proficiency in speaking multiple languages. It considers learning multiple languages as necessary to be an active part of the international community. Besides Arabic and English, students also learn French, German, Mandarin and Spanish from Year 2 onwards. Students also get to explore their imagination by engaging in extensive performance and creative art activities.

Specialist subjects in KS1 include:

In KS2, students experience a more challenging and academically rigorous academic programme. Besides the specialised subjects taught in KS1, KS2 also includes Humanities and Drama. The school prepares students for the secondary stage by building independent learning skills. Students also understand their goals, which helps them in identifying areas for growth. Here, a personalised approach to learning is followed that helps bridge the student’s weak points for secondary education.

Secondary Stage Curriculum

The secondary stage curriculum focuses on holistic and all-round education, combining academic syllabus with enrichment opportunities. It focuses on building independent learning skills, confidence and resilience to help students succeed in after-school life. Based on the UK national curriculum KS3 syllabus for Years 7, 8 and 9 focuses on extending the knowledge gained at the primary level.

The KS4 curriculum offers 20 option courses that are taught by an experienced pool of specialist teachers. Students also participate in enrichment activities such as debating competitions, the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme and Model United Nations.

The core subjects taught for IGCSE examinations in Year 10 and Year 11 are:

The options available to students in this stage are:

Sixth-Form Stage Curriculum

In the sixth form stage, the school continues to follow the British educational programme for post-16 grades. Students prepare for A levels certification that they achieve after finishing Year 13. The curriculum for the sixth-form stage includes specialised A-Level subjects along with some BTEC courses from the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum.

With an ambition to maintain the quality of the private education sector in Dubai, the government of Dubai has established the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA). KHDA evaluates the school and offers judgement based on a six-point scale: outstanding, very good, good, acceptable, weak and very weak.

In its latest inspection for 2019-20, KHDA rated Hartland International School as ‘very good’. The school was first inspected in 2017 and maintained good rating for two consecutive years.

It is a rare feat for a newly established school to attain the third-best rating by the KHDA. In its report, KHDA enlisted the following strengths of Hartland International School:

• Strong progress made by students in English, mathematics and science across all phases of education
• A dynamic curriculum that meets the needs of students
• Strong leadership and their relationship with parents and the wider community
• The positive role of leaders and teachers in the continuous progress made by students
• Focus on students’ health, welfare and safety

Nevertheless, KHDA recommended the the school must accelerate students’ progress in Islamic education and Arabic via assessment information. The school needs to appoint fully qualified teachers for Islamic Education. It also needs to improve the impact of the governing body on monitoring the performance of the school.

The academic year at Hartland International School has three terms: winter term, spring term and summer term. The academic year starts at the end of August and ends at the beginning of July. The important events mentioned in the Hartland International School calendar include:

• The winter term starts in the last week of August and ends in the second week of December. This is followed by the winter holidays that end in the last week of December.
• The spring term starts in the first week of January and ends in the fourth week of March. Students then go on a spring break that ends in the first week of April.
• The summer term starts in the second week of April and ends in the first week of July.

Bear in mind that the holidays and dates of other academic and non-academic activities may vary depending on moon sighting. For more information, view the academic calendar for Hartland International School.

Hartland International School follows an inclusive admission policy that encourages parents of different backgrounds to enrol their children in a highly diverse school. The school encourages parents to book a tour and see the facilities by themselves.

If interested, you can start the admission process by filling out the enquiry form or emailing admissions@hartlandinternational.com. The school representative will contact you and answer your queries. Once satisfied, fill out the online application form on the website to register your child. Parents are advised to fill out the form with the correct information as the school reserve the right to cancel admission upon false information. Moreover, check out the contact details before submission as the school will contact you on the provided contact information.

An application fee of AED 525 (inclusive of VAT) and the following documents are required with the application form:

• A copy of the candidate’s Emirates ID, passport and UAE visa
• A copy of parents’ Emirates ID, passport and UAE visa
• Two passport size photographs
• Previous school reports

After submitting the documents, the school will ask you to bring your child for an assessment. The assessment is based on age-appropriate activities. If a seat is offered, you will have to sign and return the acceptance agreement, pay AED 2,500 as admission fee and provide all the remaining documents.

Parents also have to submit transfer certificates and health certificates as per the requirements of the Ministry of Education. Here are the requirements for an acceptable transfer certificate:

• Students applying from Canada (except Quebec), North America, Western Europe and Australia need a transfer certificate signed the by head principal and has a school stamp.
• Those applying from the Middle East (except UAE), South and Central America, Asia, former Russian States, Eastern Europe, Africa and New Zealand needs a transfer certificate with a signature by the principal and a school stamp. Furthermore, the certificate requires attestation by the Ministry of Education (previous country), UAE Embassy (previous country) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the UAE.
• If applying from any other emirate in the UAE then the transfer certificate must be in Arabic, have the principal signature and school stamp and be attested by the Ministry of Education.
• Those applying from other schools in Abu Dhabi do not need any attestation. The certificate must be in Arabic and have the principal signature and school stamp.

The age-grade guideline is as follows:

This is based on the age of the students on 31st August (for schools beginning in September). Source: Hartland International School

* This is to cater to students transferring from systems that admit students of a younger age)

For more information, read the admission process at Hartland International School.

The fees charged by Hartland International School is as follows:

The school also offers sibling discounts of 10% on the admission of the second and third child and 20% on the admission of the fourth child.

Besides tuition fees, other charges are:

• Application fee – AED 525 (non-refundable and non-transferable)
• Admission fee – AED 2,500 (deductible from the tuition fee for the first semester)

For further information about payment methods, bank details and withdrawal policy, visit the fees section of Hartland International School.

Despite being a for-profit school, the school’s management offers a comprehensive scholarship programme. The educational institute introduced a scholarship programme from Year 3 onwards. Scholarships are available in the following fields:

• Creative excellence
• Physical excellence
• Academic excellence
• Community, global citizenship, civic duty and cultural sensitivity excellence

The scholarship programme includes a 100% deduction of fees for the first year and a 50% deduction of fees for the next two years. 4 students from Years 3 to 6 and Years 7 to 10 receive scholarships each year. For further information, view the scholarships at Hartland International School.

Hartland International School, Dubai offers healthy food options to its students. They have outsourced their canteen service to a reliable catering company that offers a variety of hot and cold food items. Besides meals, the school provides fresh fruits during snack time. The entire menu at the canteen is free from added salt and sugar.

Students can also bring packed lunches from their homes and can eat them in a spacious dining hall. The bright and vibrant environment of the dining hall allows students to socialise with peers and practise table manners.

To provide comfortable, reliable and stress-free rides for its students, Hartland International School has contracted RTA’s Dubai Taxi Corporation (DTC). It is a subsidiary of RTA offering a range of transport services to the public and clients in Dubai. Out of its many services, they also offer school transport services to many schools in Dubai. The attractive features of their bus service include:

• Well-maintained buses
• Constant monitoring of school buses via CCTV cameras
• Smart mobile application
• SMS and email service informing parents about the safe arrival of their children
• GPS tracker
• Use of low emission fuel

The covered areas are:

• Al Karama / Bur Dubai / Oud Metha
• Al Safa / Jumeirah / Umm Suqeim
• Al Warqa / Ras Al Khor / Mirdif
• Business Bay
• DIFC / Sheikh Zayed Road / WTC / Downtown Dubai / Burj Khalifa
• Dubai Marina
• Falcon City / Arabian Ranches
• JBR
• Meydan
• Meydan South / Dubai Silicon Oasis
• Palm Jumeirah
• Springs / JVC
• The Greens / The Meadows / Tecom / Al Barsha

For more information, contact Mr Deepesh Rajeev on 04 2224222 or 04 4079474 or send an email to deepesh.rajeev@dtc.gov.ae.

Currently, the school does not offer any boarding facility to its students.

Exciting holiday camps are offered to keep students entertained. The school collaborated with Kids DXB to offer holiday camps during winter, spring and midterm breaks. KIDS DXB is a popular sports coaching and holiday camp service provider in Dubai, which is an automatic choice for many schools. From sports training to creative thinking, they offer a wide range of opportunities for their students. The activities involved in holiday camps include:

The purpose-built and modern campus of Hartland International School offers a plethora of sports opportunities. The sports facilities at the campus include:

Those looking to play competitive sports can join school teams for different sports. These teams compete against other school teams in the UAE.

The school considers extra-curricular activities as essential to the personal and social development of students. The enrichment programme ensures a wider education for all. Students can take part in a wide range of co-curricular activities that help in building the skills necessary to compete in today’s world. Following are the range of enrichment activities offered at Hartland International School:

Performing arts

With the changing global perspectives, it offers extensive performing arts activities. The specialist teachers provide training on dance, arts, music and other forms of performance arts. The school further supports the progress of students in performing arts by collaborating with the Sylvia Young Theatre School London and other popular schools in Dubai.

Sports

Hartland International School, Dubai considers student fitness as imperative for academic and non-academic success. Therefore, the school offers plenty of sports opportunities. Students actively participate in netball, football, rugby, swimming, karate, basketball, gymnastics, tennis, taekwondo and golf.

Languages

The enrichment programme also emphasises building strong linguistic skills among students. Besides world languages as cold subjects, the school also offers training in French, German, Spanish and Mandarin. For this purpose, the school teamed up with the Chinese Language Institute (CLI) to develop and improve the Mandarin-speaking skill of its students.

Community service

Community service is one of the core values of the Hartland International School and ensures students understand the importance of contributing to the world. Students have the option of the following clubs to contribute to society:

• Random act of kindness club
• Rights and responsibilities club
• Environmental club

Innovation

As an important part of the UAE Vision for 2021 and the National Agenda, the school offers several activities including design and technology, computational thinking and information and communication technology (ICT). By participating in innovation enrichment opportunities, students equip themselves with skills to be an active part of the fast-paced world.

Hartland International School continuously strives to improve its students’ experiences. They consider learning beyond the classroom walls as an opportunity to expand their horizons. This is why several field trips are arranged throughout the year. Most of these trips include visits to local museums, recreation spots and historical landscapes. Besides local visits, the school also offers overseas trips to students in Year 7 and above.

Currently, the school only offers after school care in the form of enrichment programs. Students are provided with transportation after these enrichment programs.

The school has a medical centre with a full-time nurse where students can receive any medical attention. Moreover, the school works closely with local clinics to deal with medical emergencies. External agencies are also used to provide occupational, speech and language therapies to students.

The school offers pastoral care and has a cohesive team that supports the learning of children for this purpose.

Effective partnership between parents and school is essential for the success of the school. Hartland International School, Nad Al Sheba understands the importance of a good relationship with parents. Brand Ambassador Programme, an initiative by Hartland International School, rewards parents for recommending Hartland International School to family members and colleagues. Additionally, parents also have representation in the school’s governing body. Hartland International School Dubai website is another source of information for parents. Here, they have access to information such as admission, fees, curriculum, news and much more.

Parent-teacher meetings, events organised by schools and WhatsApp groups are the other sources of communication between teachers and parents. Parent executives also assist them in obtaining day-to-day information. They also regularly update their social media pages. To see the pictures of the latest happenings, check Hartland International School Instagram and other social media accounts.

• Hartland International School address: Hartland International School, Sobha Hartland, Mohammed Bin Rashid (MBR) City, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Telephone Number

• For general enquiries: +971 4 407 9444

Email Addresses

• For general information: information@hartlandinternational.com
• For job-related enquiries: careers@hartlandinternational.com

Official Website and Social Media

• Official Website
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• YouTube

Note that the cover image belongs to Hartland International School.