Educating With Kindness at Hawar International School
In this exclusive interview, we speak with Julia Knight, Vice Principal for Whole School Improvement at Hawar International School about creating opportunities for students to succeed in life.
We are facilitators of tomorrow's leaders, we are duty-bound to serve our communities and to ensure the highest standards are upheld. As a leader, I always try to understand the community first, the students, the staff and the parents. I find out about aspirations and our alumni to see the calibre of young people in our classrooms – that way, we can meet the challenges and rise to the opportunities.
A full complement of learning opportunities tailored to our students' futures, we are an inclusive school that supports all learners. Children of all ages require school to be a place where they feel safe, feel they can make mistakes, learn from them, and move forward confidently, whatever situation they find themselves in.
Back when the school was first established, Hawar was proudly pioneering SEN support for learners. Now as we move forward, the challenges are to be up to date with pedagogy that inspires, inclusive education is the way forward for society and Bahrain has championed inclusive education for many years. An inclusive school is where kindness permeates the classrooms and this in turn helps our children to be excellent citizens beyond the school gate.
We also offer the very first immersive Arabic and English Kindergarten programme for our youngest learners in the Kingdom. Our Kindergarten splits the curriculum 50/50 with a truly play-based approach – the children also experience Choose Day every Tuesday where they get to explore thematic learning and lead their learning.
In my lifetime as an educator, I have seen chalkboards become smart boards, the telly on wheels become YouTube; the internet has revolutionized every industry. AI is now here and we are on a precipice of creative change. 54% of children use AI to do their homework (AIPRM) which tells me two things: homework as we know it is redundant and as adults, we need to focus on teaching our children the skills needed to use AI, such as critical thinking, analytical reasoning and interpretation because we need our young people to understand the many pitfalls as well the uplifts that AI can bring to society.
We have so many! It's very hard to pinpoint one over another and success looks different to and for everybody. However, we have some karate champions among our girls; we have a world-class chess player; an unbelievably talented photographer who has written a book about the moon and a podcaster who won an award for his podcast series. Last year, our school celebrated the highest scores for our IBDP programme in Bahrain. We also have three students selected for the Crown Prince Scholarship – an amazing achievement and testament to our amazing school community.
This is a tough question! What we remember about school is never Maths on a Monday period 1 is it? Well, not for an English teacher anyway! My best memories are of school plays and drama productions and reading in the garden during summer – my school was in Greenwich, London and we had a beautiful garden that overlooked the Thames. My English teacher was so inspirational, that I decided to follow in her footsteps.
Hawar International School serves the Riffa community and we are proud that our parents and alumni go on to serve Bahrain in ministry, military and medical careers. We offer a curriculum rooted in Arabic and Islamic values and culture, combining it with a forward-facing British curriculum that offers different pathways to success in an inclusive environment.
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