Dhahran British Grammar School

Quality British Education in Saudi Arabia

Professional Development

The International Schools Group is one of those rare and refreshing organizations that recognises that teachers, like their pupils, are life long learners. Teachers are actively encouraged to not only attend relevant courses but to share their own knowledge with colleagues within the school, the ISG group and other schools in the community.

Reflection on the Last School Year


Before outlining some initiatives for the 07-08 school year it is worthwhile to reflect on the highlights of last year to see the range of activities that our staff members are typically involved in over a school year.

Last year a number of opportunities took place for staff to continue as life-long learners.  Building on our links forged over several years, teachers from the two American schools on the campus and BISAK were also invited to attend Professional Development sessions on a regular basis.

  • A Teacher’s Support Group met three times. After the initial meeting the topics covered have reflected the needs and experiences of the group.

  • The school nurses were active in offering First Aid workshops throughout the year.

  • There have been individual sessions on Trampolining, the Dalton Technique, Arabic Culture, Dealing with Self-Harming and the IB Diploma from a Teacher’s Perspective.  (This last session was repeated due to strong interest)

  • November 2006 saw the second bi-annual ISG educators’ conference which hosted an inspirational guest speaker and gave all staff the opportunity to attend workshops.  Five DBGS teachers gave presentations. 

  • The TOYC (Teachers of Young Children) group met twice and held a very successful conference hosted on the Dhahran Campus.  TOYC has been strongly supported by our staff and five DBGS teachers presented.

  • Mr Darlington:      Primary PE - Visited 6 Schools to gain updated understanding of UK

PE Programme

  • Mr Stott :             How science Works Course (UK)

  • MrDarlington:      2-day PE Conference (Doha)

  • Mrs Little:            2-day Art Course (Dubai)

  • Mrs Chapman       Tara Conference - Living & Working Through Literacy (Bahrain)

  • Mr Snieder:      3-day Modern Foreign Language school visit to the British International School of Jeddah

  • Various staff members are pursuing on-line courses to further their qualifications or have attended other courses within and out of Kingdom.

  • The Professional Development Coordinator and headteacher attended the ECIS Conference in Nice in 2006 to receive specific CIS training.

  • The headteacher attended the BSME (British Schools of the Middle East) Conference in Oman and appointed the BSME country representative for Saudi Arabia. The headteacher chaired a meeting of British International Schools operating within Saudi in Jeddah in June 2007.

  • Dr. Gerry Percy, Director of Accreditation Services, CIS conducted a one-day training session in May for all teachers.  The training session took place after an intensive four-day preliminary visit when Dr Percy reviewed the school prior to awarding the school Candidate Status for CIS Accreditation.

2007 - 2008

The 2007-08 school year will be dominated by the CIS Self Study process leading to a full Team Visit in October/November 2008. You may already have seen the CIS information on the DBGS web site about the reasons for the school pursuing the CIS self study process.

In the early part of the current school year two staff members have already attended courses in Dubai:

  • Mr Power (Deputy Headteacher) :       Paul Ginnis Training Course on Learning to Learn

  • Mrs Snieder Year 1 Teacher):       Paul Ginnis Training Course on Learning to Learn

Mrs Snieder and Mr Power will be presenting the information in turn to DBGS staff.

The Professional Development sessions planned so far this year are:

  • Building Learning Power

  • Learning to Learn

  • NESA Administrators’ Conference (Deputy Headteacher)

  • CIS Curriculum and other committees throughout the year

  • British Schools of the Middle East Conference (Headteacher)

Nick Hardcastle is currently running a climbing instructors course for teachers across the campus.

Other professional development opportunities will be added as we go through the school year