Deira International School

Introduction

Deira International School (DIS) is an Outstanding rated private international school located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Founded in 2005, it offers a British curriculum and follows the National Curriculum of England, from the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) through to IGCSE and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) in the final years.

The school has 2000 students of over 90 nationalities. DIS is part of the Al-Futtaim Education Foundation, which provides support and guidance, aligning with the UAE’s educational goals and standards. Its facilities are modern and well-equipped, catering to both academic and extra-curricular activities, including sports fields, science labs, and creative arts studios.

Our Wellbeing Journey

Previously, wellbeing check-ins with pupils were annual and incorporated a 20-question survey administered by an external provider. This survey, more suited to our KS2 students, returned results 1-3 months after completion. In addition to this, separate surveys were distributed to parents, gathering general insights into their child’s wellbeing to allow leadership to triangulate students’ wellbeing needs and develop action plans based on data.

Recognising that wellbeing is dynamic and can shift over time, we identified a need to collect data directly from all students across the whole school, enabling timely and tailored support. Access to immediate results from our surveys would provide an opportunity for staff to respond promptly and effectively to wellbeing needs. Having access to frequent and accurate data from all students across the school would allow us to adopt an adaptable and proactive approach to supporting and addressing the needs of the students - as and when they arise

The Introduction of BounceTogether

DIS partnered with BounceTogether in October 2022 to facilitate flexible data collection at multiple points in the year, with instant access to and analysis of results. As a child-friendly platform, BounceTogether enables students from FS1 to Year 6 to participate in the surveys. This data serves as a foundation for the school’s wellbeing program and provision.

BounceTogether surveys at DIS feature tailored questions carefully crafted by our Wellbeing Leader and Counsellor in consultation with Middle and Senior Leaders to assess students’ confidence, self-esteem, sense of safety both at school and home, emotional expression and regulation, friendships, conflict resolution skills, and engagement with our wellbeing programs and initiatives.

The ability to design and customise our own surveys allows us to adapt questions to our specific needs, translate them for English Language Learners, and ensure they are age-appropriate and accessible for our diverse student body.

Targeted Support and Provision

Once data is collected, an analysis is conducted at the whole-school level by the Wellbeing Lead and Counsellor. School-wide priorities are identified and incorporated into actionable plans. These priorities are addressed through school-wide awareness days, targeted lessons, year-group assemblies led by teaching teams and the Wellbeing Leader, parent workshops and training videos, staff professional development, and various wellbeing initiatives across the school. Provisions are put in place to ensure a proactive approach is adopted to address other areas of wellbeing, ensuring students received a ‘balanced diet’ of wellbeing provision.

Data is also analysed at the class and year-group levels. Class teachers review the data to identify students with ‘lower’ scores, initiating one-on-one conversations to explore areas where additional support can be provided through personalised interventions. After this analysis, year groups meet with the Wellbeing Lead and Counsellor to create a targeted curriculum for their cohort, focusing on impactful strategies to address identified needs. Many strategies used with students are researched and validated. These are then implemented through dedicated wellbeing lessons and supplementary provisions outside lessons.

Our data analyses reveal that wellbeing needs vary across different age groups; therefore, we avoid a “one-size-fits-all” approach in our provision. Recognising that wellbeing is not linear and may fluctuate over time, we strive to ensure that our programs are adaptive and responsive to the evolving needs of our students.

Identifying Recurring Themes in our Data

Having gathered student data over time since 2022, we have been able to identify recurring themes and areas for development in our wellbeing provision. Our data continuously indicated that emotional articulation and regulation, as well as conflict resolution were areas we needed to work on at Deira International School. This led to the introduction of our whole school initiatives of launching Zones of Regulation and Kelso’s Choices Wheel to Deira International School.

Zones of Regulation

Zones of Regulation was introduced to DIS in January 2023 following consistently low scores for emotional articulation and regulation. The framework designed to help children and adults develop emotional regulation skills by categorising feelings and states of alertness into four colour-coded “zones.” It is widely used in schools, therapy, and parenting to teach self-regulation strategies and help individuals understand their responses, support their articulation skills, build self-control, and improve social and emotional skills.

The launch of Zones of Regulation involved professional development for all staff, workshops for parents, and an official launch week for students. Students across the whole school were taught wellbeing lessons planned by the Wellbeing Lead and Counsellor to ensure consistency of learning material across the school.

Questions about Zones of Regulation were included in our BounceTogether surveys following the launch to measure its impact and adapt provision as necessary. Class and specialist teachers embed the use of Zones of Regulation both in and out of their lessons across the curriculum, ensuring that children are continually exposed to developing their regulation and articulation skills.

Sharing insights with parents and stakeholders

When it comes to measuring wellbeing, it is important that data is applicable and accurate, especially when we are looking to share insights with parents, key stakeholders, and advisors. BounceTogether offers the largest repository of research-based and fully validated wellbeing scales. With thousands of studies behind the measures, teacKelso’s Choices Wheel was introduced to DIS during Anti-Bullying Week in November 2022 following the collection of data informing us that conflict resolution skills needed to be developed in all students.

Kelso’s Choices Wheel is a conflict management program which encourages students to differentiate between a ‘big’ and ‘small’ problem, informing students to report any big problems straight away to an adult they trust, and provides appropriate ways to manage a small problem independently with 9 choices students can make.

Kelso’s Choices Wheel posters, following our student data and voice, is now displayed in every classroom across the school and in common areas such as corridors, life-size posters on playgrounds, and the library ensuring that children have the independence to resolve small conflicts independently and report big problems straight away.

Kelso’s Choices Wheel features in our wellbeing lessons and assemblies to continually build on skills. Questions in our BounceTogether continually evaluate the teaching and provision surrounding this and both teachers and leaders adapt provision according to student data. Since its launch, year 5 and 6 children now have their own age-appropriate version named ‘DIS Choice’ for students to access.

Measuring the Impact

The effective implementation of these initiatives at DIS has been reflected in our BounceTogether surveys, with a 40% increase across the school for levels of emotional articulation and regulation, and a 45% increase in conflict resolution skills. Being able to measure the impact of our initiatives through surveys ensures that our approaches are both targeted and effective and informs our future planning.

Annual school inspections by the KHDA identified that wellbeing is “central to the school’s mission”, commending our systems and procedures and recognising them as a “national exemplar”. As a new focus area of schools in the UAE, DIS’s wellbeing provision was rated as ‘outstanding’, placing the school in the top 1 out of 209 private schools in Dubai for our rigorous systems and provision.

Benchmarking our provision against international standards was an opportunity the Wellbeing Award for Schools provided us. Through the process of gaining the award, we were able to identify areas in our strategic vision to further adapt and streamline our wellbeing provision. During our final feedback, we celebrated our successes in being recognised as forward thinking and innovative with our measures and systems being innovative, forward thinking, and “instrumental in dismantling the stigma associated with expressing emotions and seeking help”. DIS was awarded the Wellbeing Award for Schools in February 2024.

Use BounceAI to find your perfect survey

Deira International School - Case Study