education feature www.bahrainthismonth.com 29 April 2023 The Canadian School Bahrain (CSB), which opened its doors in 2019, has carved a unique space in the Kingdom’s highly-competitive education sector with its focus on fostering a lifelong love of learning through its British Columbia Canada curriculum. Bahrain This Month visited CSB’s state-of-the-art campus in Diyar Al Muharraq and spoke with Principal, Abby Saadeh, about the school’s goals and approach to education. FOSTERING A LOVE OF LEARNING AT CSB The Canadian School Bahrain offers a British Columbia Canada curriculum. This programme offers a balanced, inquiry-based approach, based on the Core Competencies which are Communication, Collaboration, Critical and Creative Thinking, and Personal and Social Responsibility. “Whilst the world is advancing at a rapid rate, education is doing so at a much slower pace than other industries,” argues Ms. Saadeh. “Any child can use the Internet to find the information they need, and while content and knowledge are important, it’s not the sole focus. Our objective is to improve competency so that our students graduate with skills, can problem solve, and think critically in any career they choose to pursue. “It is also cross-curricular, which means we’re not just teaching by subject, because the world doesn’t work in subjects and we’re trying to move away from a categorised education. We’ve adapted so that any topic can be taught at any time.” One of the school’s main founding goals was to ensure that it catered to the Bahraini community in the area whilst offering high-level education. Approximately 70 percent of CSB’s students are Bahraini, with the rest being from neighbouring Middle Eastern countries mixed with some from North America, Europe and the Far East. For this reason, it has a blended and integrated approach with both Arabic and English programmes. The school offers Arabic Language Studies, Islamic Studies, and Bahraini Citizenship and Social Studies to complement hands-on holistic learning. This is the first academic year since CSB opened in 2019 that hasn’t been affected in some way by COVID-19, and Ms. Saadeh believes that the school is now flourishing at its intended capacity. “We did adapt to the challenges of the pandemic, but I must say it’s great to be running at full capacity and using our outstanding facilities which we couldn’t use before, such as the library, swimming pool, gymnasium, art room, music room and more. “The school currently operates from PreSchool to Grade 8, and this September we’ll be opening up Grade 9. Within the next five years, we’ll be adding year-onyear up to a full high school capacity, right through to Grade 12.” CSB’s graduation programme is currently under development and all students who graduate will receive their British Columbia Dogwood Diploma. This is the same as any pupil in Canada would receive upon finishing high school and it opens doors to any university in the world. Furthermore, assessment methods such as exams are treated differently at CSB than traditional approaches, whilst the use of technology is also managed circumstantially. Ms. Saadeh explains: “We use assessment for learning and so instead of taking the result on the paper as the important factor, we take it as a whole and see areas where students can improve. We then adapt to each student based on their assessment and build their learning from that. “Moreover, technology is only used in meaningful ways. For example, if it can enhance students’ abilities or skills then it will be used in the classroom, but if it’s simply replacing books with tablets, it isn’t a significant use.”
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