British curriculum based Victory Heights Primary School (VHPS) currently takes students from KG to grade 6 and serves 525 students from 37 nationalities. The school is located very much in new Dubai, in Dubai Sports City.

The school opened in September 2013.

VHPS follows the Early Years Foundation Stage for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, and children are drawn predominantly from the United Kingdom (56%), Australia (5.4%) and South Africa (5.2%). The school has an almost equal mix of male and female students.

The school currently employs 23 teachers, including five Arabic teachers, 23 teacher learning assistants and 14 specialist teachers.

All teachers have a degree and PGCE Postgraduate Certificate in Education.

Average class sizes are around 25, the KHDA’s recommended size. The maximum class size in terms of student numbers at the school is also 25. VHPS has a dedicated language support teacher offering EAL for the 10% of students do not have English as a first language.

VHPS also employs a learning enhancement teacher and three learning enhancement assistants. The school does not charge for special needs support, except when there is a cost for children needing speech and language therapy, occupational therapy or neuro-developmental therapy. In these cases children are referred to clinics within Dubai according to parental preference.

Staff retention is good. The school had a 10% teacher turnover last year which by Dubai standards is low – however, given this is a relatively new school to some degree this is to be expected.

Victory Heights Primary has grown strongly and healthily since its opening in September 2013. The school opened with 220 children and is currently home to 525. The school is selective on intake, and streams students according to academic ability.

Student numbers have grown mainly in the Foundation Stage age group, and VHPS will be adding another Foundation stage 1 class in the 2015/2016 academic year, and two more Foundation stage 2 classes to keep up with high demand and to accommodate sibling places which it could not offer previously.

While demand exists across Dubai for foundation stage places, VHPS’ success in recruiting new students is largely down to word of mouth. This is a school students and their parents both appreciate and enjoy. In fact, its community came out strongly in support of the school after it received an Acceptable rating by the KHDA, a ranking many felt did not do the school justice.

Victory Heights Primary School has done a lot to make the schools physical presence children centred – “from the bright colours, sunlit spaces, playful elements and whimsical touches, the design is meant to reflect a children’s village.” The layout of the school is striking in that so much of the space is given over to teaching and learning areas and so little to wide corridors, plush waiting areas for parents and staff facilities. The focus is very clearly on the children and their achievements, which are displayed throughout the school.

The foundation block has been designed to be completely separate and self-contained from the rest of the primary school. Each of the FS1 and FS2 year groups currently have their own wing, where classrooms open out to a spacious and well-equipped, central indoor activity area.

The central indoor activity areas, in turn, lead out to a shaded outdoor play area, separate from the rest of the school’s playgrounds and specially designed for children of this age. The expansion of the school in September will take place by utilising the neighbouring Wonder Years Nursery (a sister concern which provides direct entry to Foundation 1 currently) for Foundation Stage 1, in order to be able to use the current Foundation Stage classrooms for FS2. A second Wonder Years Nursery opened around the corner from the school late last year and will continue to offer the same direct entry to the school.

The cluster design is repeated throughout Key Stages 1 and 2. Each year group from Year 1 to Year 6, forms its own wing where classrooms for that year group lead out to a spacious and well equipped, shared indoor activity area lit with a skylight.

All classrooms have interactive smart boards to enhance the learning process; these offer ways to support and consolidate day-to-day skills and allow controlled Internet access through interactive educational websites.

The school’s indoor sports facilities include a very impressive indoor, competition-length swimming pool and Junior Gymnasium for PE lessons. VHPS’s outdoor facilities include several separate, shaded play areas (some dedicated for Foundation Stage use and another dedicated to Key Stages 1 and 2). In addition, it has a playing field used for football, rugby, and hockey.

The school has an outdoor multi-purpose court for tennis, basketball and netball.

In 2015/2016 the school opens phase two which will include a much bigger multi-purpose gym with a built in stage, a library, a science lab, and a canteen.

Victory Heights also offers a full range of extra curricular activities, running from Sunday to Thursday across all key stages. All children are entitled to two ECA per week, per term. An external provider provides the majority of Sports activities whilst Arts and other activities are led by teaching staff.

The school has just signed a sister school partnership with St. Dunstan’s College in London and hopes that in the near future this will give it the opportunity to set up a Rotary Youth exchange programme to share best practice, build awareness, understanding and empathy between staff and students – and to provide the opportunity for both schools to have first-hand experience of a different culture.