M.A.Ed.
Giles Pruett is an educator through and through. After completing his A-Level studies in the UK, he trained and competed as a professional tennis player for five years until moving back into full-time study to complete his Bachelor of Education at Bedford, reading Geography and Sport Science. He immediately returned to his home city of Bath and subsequently started his teaching career as Director of Rugby, Boarding Housemaster and Geography teacher in the independent community of Prior Park College. After completing a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership and Management at Bath University in 2012, gaining a distinction level, Giles transferred into the international education community, joining Jumeirah College in Dubai as Vice-Principal, where he remained for four years, before becoming Secondary Principal and Deputy Head of School at GEMS World Academy, helping them to become the highest rated full IB programme school in the city.
Giles is also a qualified corporate coach with a specific interest in building impactful professional learning communities by empowering others. He has developed pastoral structures to support learning and development in three previous leadership positions, ensuring that educational outcomes have been met and exceeded. Giles has experienced and driven inspection outcomes as a Senior Leader within several different frameworks, including Ofsted, HMI, CSCI, DSIB, CIS, BSO, COBIS, working as a Lead Reviewer within the GEMS organization and as Lead Evaluator for the Council of International Schools. His core inspection specialisms fall under the domains of teaching and learning, safeguarding, child protection and leadership and management.
Giles brings a wealth of experience in coaching, school operations, pastoral care and strategic school leadership and has been instrumental in developing an Apple Distinguished Teaching Programme, Entrepreneurship and Innovation curriculum alongside the design and construction of a new Senior School Learning Centre and Entrepreneurship Hub. He has a keen interest in this strand of education, recently completing a diploma from the Penn Graduate school of Education.
Above all else, Giles is a committed father to three wonderful girls and a husband to Joanna, who is also an educator and former British Olympic Modern Pentathlete. Together they share a passion for working with children, striving to bring learning to life and making a difference.
BA Primary Education with QTS (Hons)
Joining as a founding teacher, Mary has embarked upon a developmental journey into leadership which led firstly to Key Stage 2 Lead. Within this role, Mary successfully oversaw the improvement of student outcomes across Key Stage 2. Further to this, Mary also showed a particular passion for English, driving forward areas across the school including reading and writing.
Through continued exposure to whole school improvement and strategic planning, Mary’s passion for leadership continued to grow which led to being successfully appointed as Arcadia’s Head of Teaching and Learning. Within this role, Mary will be responsible for whole school improvement using outcomes from lesson observations and assessment data. Using information of this nature, Mary will develop the curriculum, ensure our staff have continual and relevant development and ultimately ensure that our students are engaged within a wholesome and efficient learning programme.
Using her previous experience as a teacher, Mary’s approach was based on a rigorous structure intertwined with a current, stimulating, exciting and challenging curriculum which ultimately instils children with the open minds, knowledge and ability to view the world critically and believe that they can make a positive contribution to society. This will inform her guidance and development to teachers across the school.
Mary was drawn to The Arcadia School as an institution that promotes strong values for providing children with a joyful experience full of modern approaches to education, combining innovative teaching methods and advanced technological provision.
We aspire to be an inclusive, world-class all-through school of choice for parents in Dubai, where every student is happy, positive and thriving academically, socially and emotionally.
Admission Enquiry
Students entering the academic year 2024-2025, will be eligible for the Governors' Scholarship and will be subsidised 15% of their tuition fee for their entire tenure at Arcadia School. This includes deposits paid in 2024-2025 academic year for future enrolment years.
For students joining Foundation Stage 1 classes in 2024-2025, the tuition fee will be subsidised 25% for that year only and thereafter will be subsidised at 15% for the remainder of the student's time at Arcadia School.
Admission Enquiry
Oracy is the ability to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language. In school, oracy is a powerful tool for learning; by teaching students to become more effective speakers and listeners we empower them to better understand themselves, each other and the world around them. Inspired by the work of the Voice 21 organisation in the UK, students across Key Stages 2 and 3 are encouraged to develop their ideas through a high quality oracy-style education. They develop and deepen their subject knowledge and understanding through talk in the classroom, which has been planned, designed, modelled, scaffolded and structured to enable them to learn the skills needed to talk effectively.
Exclusively licensed in Dubai to Arcadia School by Springside Chestnut Hill Academy in Philadelphia, the CEL program prioritizes the development of four key traits that comprise the entrepreneurial mindset: opportunity seeking, creative problem solving, resiliency and resourcefulness. Equipped with this mindset, our students take on interesting challenges that connect with their passions and graduate with a competitive advantage. To instill this mindset in every student, CEL is integrated into the secondary school experience at Arcadia. Project-based challenges in the classroom provide an opportunity for students to build this way of thinking while practicing entrepreneurial skills in the areas of business, design, and technology.
After the success of the Arcadia School in being recognized as an Apple Distinguished School for innovation, Arcadia School is also part of the Apple ecosystem and is vying for the same status. Apple Distinguished Schools are defined by Apple as the "centers of leadership and educational excellence that demonstrate Apple's vision for learning with technology" and Apple believes that they are some of the most innovative schools in the world! This means that innovation is at the heart of our school's DNA with our students using the latest iPad technology to innovate within and outside the classroom. This is in turn backed by a number of applications that are iPad friendly and allow our teachers to give instant feedback to our students as we prepare them to become global innovators.
The Junior MBA programme is a 12-week programme designed to deliver an MBA style curriculum to primary school students. The essence of the programme is to deliver MBA modules to children aged from 6-11 years old with four learning goals:
The Junior MBA programme was the creation of its founding teacher, Dr. Navin Valrani, Arcadia Education's award-winning CEO, who was not only educated in the finest business schools in the world but who has also successfully led a number of companies across a variety of industries.
An all-inclusive enrichment programme, at no extra cost, delivered during the extended school day (8am to 4pm for all Y1 to Y8 students). The programme is based on three key areas:
At Arcadia we acknowledge that children learn best through first hand experience in relation to themselves, their senses and the world around them. For this reason, we have designed the Early Years Explorers (EYE) programme.
This approach is based on the concept that powerful learning is built upon harnessing children's natural curiosity in ways that help them to develop new skills and understanding in context with their environment.
The programme provides a firm foundation for transition to the National Curriculum for England, which children move to in Year 1.
Giles Pruett was born and raised in the United Kingdom and developed his passion for learning at an early age through his commitment to sport and coaching.
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Joining as a founding teacher, Mary has embarked upon a developmental journey into leadership which led firstly to Key Stage 2 Lead.
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