Article November 16, 2023
King’s InterHigh wins the 2023 Top Schools Award for Best Online School in the UAE
Just two years after the launch of our Middle East timetable, we are delighted to announce that King’s InterHigh has been awarded the title of The Best Online School and Home Learning Community in the United Arab Emirates 2023-24 at the Top School Awards.
About the award
Each year, the Top School Awards honour the institutions whose forward-thinking approaches, community building, and academic excellence make the greatest impact on young lives in the Middle East. Judged by Schools Compared, the UAE’s leading education portal, the rigorous evaluation process includes everything from observing lessons to interviewing students, with a heavy focus on what matters most to families.
The Best Online School award is a welcomed recognition of everything our educators and staff do to create the best possible learning experience for students, and we’re incredibly proud to have met the Top School Awards’ gold standard for excellence in education.
“[King’s InterHigh] was the only school operating in the region that had no negative feedback in any of our surveys.”
Our Middle East timetable
Since King’s InterHigh was founded in 2005, our school has welcomed students from all over the world — including families across the Middle East.
We are always looking for ways to give every learner the best experience, and that includes making sure our education is accessible from anywhere in the world. As such, we were delighted to launch our very first international timetable in 2021. Running on the GMT+4 time zone (Gulf Standard Time), our Middle East timetable brings students the same education quality, nurturing environment, and pathways to success King’s InterHigh is known for, all at a time more suited to international learners.
We are pleased to say our Middle East timetable has been incredibly well received by our families over the past two years — and now by the Top School Awards too.
Pioneering online learning
At King’s InterHigh, we’re committed to pioneering better education. Reporting on our award, Schools Compared highlighted how technologies and innovations help take our learning experience to the next level.
Last year, for example, King’s InterHigh became the first school in the world to offer the International Baccalaureate® Diploma Programme entirely online.
“Its impact on online education from this innovation [the online IB] alone, in breaking down one supposedly unbridgeable advantage of bricks and mortar schooling over its online counterparts, is significant.”
This year, we were also selected by Pearson Edexcel as the first school to make IGCSE examinations available online — an incredible milestone for widening education access. Leading organisations like these continue to trust our expertise, working with us to co-create programmes that will benefit students for decades to come.
Inside our classrooms, meanwhile, we use cutting-edge teaching tools and methodologies to make learning even better for our students and help them achieve their full potential. Starting this year, King’s InterHigh learners have access to AI-powered personal learning pathways that complement their daily, expert-taught live lessons. Virtual reality has been another gamechanger, allowing students to explore immersive environments (from Anne Frank’s annex to the inside of a volcano) in ways never possible before.
“In future years (and not so far off ones) we are likely to see all these schools at the cutting-edge testing grounds of what AI-driven learning will look like as AI teachers deliver one-to-one genuinely personalised learning simply not possible in bricks and mortar schools... The stakes are high in the pioneering, hugely creditable spirit and investment of King’s InterHigh at work here.”
The best academic quality
Behind our platforms and innovations, our talented teachers are the heart of our education. Academic quality has been central to King’s InterHigh since our founding 18 years ago, with our education team working tirelessly to design and deliver learning that guides students to success.
“The quality of lessons and their delivery is exceptional. Investment in (very) high quality teachers, and ensuring that no second of any live lesson is wasted, means that the average return on lessons is significant... All subject expertise is in-house and learning materials self-generated.”
Lessons at King’s InterHigh are live and interactive, with class recordings available round-the-clock. We have always handpicked our teachers for their qualifications, their experience, and their passion for better education, and that shows in their work. Each class sees teachers seamlessly blend traditional methods with online media and activities for well-rounded and effective learning. Small class sizes, meanwhile, give our educators the opportunity to provide every student with the individual attention they need and deserve.
As innovation paves new paths for our learners, King’s InterHigh’s teachers light the way forward, which is why we’re so glad to see them share this award win.
A true community
Spread across the world geographically, from London to Dubai, King’s InterHigh students are tight knit together. Receiving the award for The Best Online School and Home Learning Community in the United Arab Emirates is a welcomed reflection of our community bond, which we believe is one of the most important aspects of our school.
Our digital halls are home to students from all backgrounds and strengths. In any of our virtual classrooms, you may find academically advanced learners, talented athletes and actors, expats and international students, and numerous pupils who are thriving at King’s InterHigh after leaving a mainstream environment that didn’t fit them.
“It’s worth noting that for many students who are gifted in any number of areas, and who have extended needs to ensure that their potential is met, simply cannot secure an education that fits, without some compromises, from bricks and mortar schools. Online schools buy these students valuable time that is lost in attending rigidly timetabled traditional schools.”
We cherish and celebrate this diversity through regular online community events, from food festivals to art shows. Outside of classes, students can also join a huge range of co-curricular clubs with their classmates; when in need of support, they’ll always find a caring ear, wellbeing programmes, or services for special educational needs.
Rather than forcing square pegs into round holes, our learning embraces uniqueness. Our goal is to nurture the potential within each individual student, and this combination of personalisation and community is one of the strengths our families commend again and again.
Looking to the future
“This award is the most interesting of all the awards this year,” Schools Compared wrote in their view of King’s InterHigh, “because it points to, and raises questions about, the future shape of education.”’
At King’s InterHigh, we see ourselves as the future of learning, thriving here and now. It’s an honour to be part of the force driving positive change in education across the Middle East and the world, and we hope this recognition from Schools Compared continues to inspire others to create learning experiences that embrace every unique student.
At the Top School Awards ceremony, Tahoora Khalil Urehman (Head of Middle East) stated, “I am honoured to receive this award on behalf of King’s InterHigh. Thank you to the Top Schools Awards team and to our Inspired Online community. An award like this demonstrates how we can make a positive impact in the region and the world through excellent online teaching and learning. ”
Ashley Harrold, CEO of Inspired Online Schools, meanwhile, says, “Huge congratulations to the staff, students and families who all share in this wonderful achievement. This award is a testament to how online schools are re-shaping education and providing new opportunities and pathways.”
Discover our Middle East timetable at King’s InterHigh
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