GEMS World Academy - Abu Dhabi

Dear Parent,

Welcome to GEMS World Academy – Abu Dhabi (WAA), our premium IB and British curriculum school offering a trailblazing ‘world of pathways’. We provide learners and their families with a hyper-personalised, future-proofed education – one that delivers high performance for all. Our state-of-the-art building and campus enable our world-class leaders and teachers to provide learning experiences that are truly among the best in Abu Dhabi and the UAE.

Through our dynamic, diverse and inclusive approach to education, with our IB World School provision underpinned by the National Curriculum for England, we strive to unlock the potential of all learners in our care. Our focus is on creating a nurturing, supportive environment that ensures all students feel safe, happy and valued, in which they are consistently engaged, challenged and inspired, allowing them to develop into responsible global citizens and critical thinkers.

WAA’s rich curriculum and exceptional teaching and learning practices across the IB Primary Years and Middle Years Programmes sustain students’ interest and curiosity. Our teachers focus on the development of the whole child as an inquirer, both in the classroom and the world beyond. They prepare learners for the intellectual challenges of further education and future careers, ensuring outstanding progress and high levels of performance for all.

WAA’s secondary provision is where students benefit from our unique blended model, offering a choice of International Baccalaureate, National Curriculum for England/IGCSE, vocational and technical qualifications – a real first in the Emirate. This ‘world of pathways’ enables genuine personalisation with outcomes that are highly valued by universities and employers globally.

Through our agile, digitally driven, innovative provision and blue-sky thinking, we are able to enhance the learning of all our students, while celebrating their successes and those of our teachers and families. Our education provision is centred around the ‘8 Cs’: Community, Collaboration, Character, Critical Thinking, Civic, Creativity, Curiosity, and Cultural Fluency. Through these, our learners are instilled with the values, attitudes and attributes of hard work, empathy and agility, coupled with advanced cognitive performance characteristics resulting in high-level problem solving and entrepreneurship. Our aim is for all WAA students to graduate as young people who can think for themselves and are socially confident.

With a keen focus on social enterprise, excellence and success, our approach is to enable children and young adults to not only learn about their world, but also accomplish the unthinkable, preparing them for jobs that may not yet exist today. We want our students to go on to contribute to the development of a cohesive society centred on health, well-being and happiness. They are the future leaders of their generation, filled with passion and purpose, and we can’t wait to see what great things they will accomplish.

I invite you to visit GEMS World Academy – Abu Dhabi and look forward to welcoming you as a valued partner and member of our wonderful school community.

Kelvin Hornsby

Principal/CEO, GEMS World Academy – Abu Dhabi