Why choose us

Our small class size model contributes to the warm, nurturing environment of our secondary school, with class sizes no more than 16 in Years 7, 8 and 9, and even smaller in Years 10 and 11 and Post 16 (Years 12-13), where we’re often able to offer one-to-one teaching in some subjects.

All of our teachers have degrees in the subject they teach, with all earning their teaching qualifications from universities in the UK and Ireland.

All of our teachers are at the forefront of educational research and we have been following a progressive teaching approach called ‘Adaptive Teaching’ for the last four years, which has recently been adopted by the education authorities as ‘adaptive teaching’.   

The traditional style of teaching is the ‘differentiation by task’ method, where there are three separate tasks for three different abilities, whereby if a child enters a class as a ‘lower ability child’, it’s very difficult to move up. We've always taught to the highest standard in every class and all of our students move through those levels. We’re proud that as a result of this, for the last four years, Star students have achieved the highest mark on the English as a Second Language examination.

At Star, we pitch all our lessons and set standards to the highest level. We provide bespoke support for every student, at every level, to ensure all students can achieve the highest marks available. We believe this is the most equitable form of education, where every child can achieve as well as their peers.

We don’t simply give predicted grades based on previous attainments or records - we closely monitor their progress to ensure they’re always learning to their full potential and provide a current and projected grade for students to see how their current levels will impact them later in life - through this, we create ‘attainment mobility’.  We know from extensive research that if we can raise the attainment of a child to a point where they're competing for the best places at universities or jobs, then their life chances improve significantly.

Research has shown that students’ resilience and self confidence dramatically improves when they're in an environment that offers a high level of challenge, but also support to help them navigate those challenges.  It’s important that we encourage and reward progress, not just good grades.

This is something some parents have grappled with in the past, as understandably, most parents have been educated in the ‘old way’, and education has developed significantly since then.  

Rather than send a child home with a worksheet whereby they have to answer questions (which is more rote learning rather than the attainment of real knowledge and understanding), we ask our students to do research on the key facts on a topic at home themselves.  Then in class the next day, we are able to build upon their existing knowledge levels and teach at a much higher level.  A good example of this is learning about reptiles; students would research the key facts about reptiles at home and then in the following lessons, we would analyse why reptiles are suited to live in Dubai. What would happen if temperatures suddenly plummeted? What would happen to the reptile population, where do you think they would go, and why?  It’s an enquiry-based teaching approach, where we spend more of our lesson time (about 80%) on critical thinking - it’s a research and revision model of learning.

This is something some parents have grappled with in the past, as understandably, most parents have been educated in the ‘old way’, and education has developed significantly since then.  
 
Rather than send a child home with a worksheet whereby they have to answer questions (which is more rote learning rather than the attainment of real knowledge and understanding), we ask our students to do research on the key facts on a topic at home themselves.  Then in class the next day, we are able to build upon their existing knowledge levels and teach at a much higher level.  A good example of this is learning about reptiles; students would research the key facts about reptiles at home and then in the following lessons, we would analyse why reptiles are suited to live in Dubai. What would happen if temperatures suddenly plummeted? What would happen to the reptile population, where do you think they would go, and why?  It’s an enquiry-based teaching approach, where we spend more of our lesson time (about 80%) on critical thinking - it’s a research and revision model of learning.

There is no disruption, all students are engaged, and the corridors and classrooms are very calm in terms of how students conduct themselves.  Mutual respect for everyone - teachers, staff, children and support workers - is prevalent throughout the school.