Canadian School of Bahrain
The Canadian School Bahrain, located in Diyar Al-Muharraq, is a not-for-profit, private international school offering the British Columbia (BC), Canada Curriculum as well as courses from the Arabic Curriculum such as Arabic Language, Bahrain Social Studies and Citizenship and Islamic Studies.
The school is dedicated to developing students who are confident in their culture, empowering them to achieve academic excellence through nurturing moral values of integrity, responsibility, respect and courage.
British Columbia’s education system is among the most respected in the world with outstanding teachers, skilled administrators, motivated and engaged students, committed parents and dedicated education partners.
The curriculum brings together two features that most educators agree are essential for 21st-century learning: a concept-based approach to learning, and a focus on the development of competencies, to foster deeper, more transferable learning. This integrated curriculum will be taught by British Columbia-certified teachers working together with the Arabic-certified teachers.
British Columbia has become a favoured educational programme because:
- It is ranked third globally among the best systems in the world.
- It is ranked as the highest performing English language curriculum by the international Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
- Students from the BC curriculum perform among the best in Canada and the world in national and international assessments.
- The curriculum paves the way for high school students to successfully gain admission to post-secondary programmes in the US, Canada and across the globe.
- Quality assurance and accountability measures are in place to ensure that British Columbia education consistently offers a quality learning experience to all students.
Essential learning, literacy and numeracy foundations and core competencies are the base of the new curriculum. All three contribute to deeper learning.
Core Competencies
The core competencies are the intellectual, personal and social skills that all students need to develop for success in life beyond school. BC has identified three core competencies as essential for all learners:
- Communication
- Creative and critical thinking
- Positive personal and cultural identity and personal awareness and responsibility
The core competencies are directly related to students becoming educated citizens.
Literacy and Numeracy Foundations
Literacy is the ability to understand, critically analyse and create a variety of forms of communication, including oral, written, visual, digital and multimedia, to accomplish one’s goals. Literacy helps students apply reading, writing, speaking and listening skills across a variety of subject areas.
Numeracy is the ability to understand and apply mathematical concepts, processes and skills to solve problems and make decisions in a variety of situations, including real-life scenarios. Numeracy assessment looks at learning which has taken place throughout the student’s education, not only in mathematics but across various subjects.
Literacy and numeracy are fundamental to all learning. While they are commonly associated with language learning and mathematics, literacy and numeracy are applied in all areas of learning.
Curriculum Model – Concept-based, Competency-driven
The new curriculum brings together two features that most educators agree are essential for 21st-century learning: a concept-based approach to learning, and a focus on the development of competencies, to foster deeper, more transferable learning.
These approaches complement each other because of their common focus on the active engagement of students. Deeper learning is better achieved through “doing” than through passive listening or reading. Similarly, both concept-based learning and the development of competencies engage students in authentic tasks that connect learning to the real world.
Susan Penner, The British Columbia Offshore School Representative, says: “The BC curriculum has been modernised to respond to this demanding world. To develop new models, the Ministry of Education consulted with experts both locally and internationally. They agree that to prepare students for the future, the curriculum must be student-centred and flexible, and maintain a focus on literacy and numeracy, while supporting deeper learning through concept-based and competency-driven approaches.
“Additionally, every student will continue to be connected to the basics of reading, writing and maths. These critical skills are the foundation of BC’s education system and are a key component of developing an educated citizen.”
2019-2020 Grades
This year, the school will have classes from Nursery up to Grade 3 and will expand one new grade every year all the way up to high school.
