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The Dubai English Speaking School - Case Study

"We use BounceTogether to measure and monitor wellbeing across several key categories, keep insights in one place and save countless hours of time" - Sarah Curran

Background

For over 60 years, Dubai English Speaking School (DESS) has occupied a prestigious position at the forefront of education in Dubai. As well as offering a British Education to over 1000 children between the ages of 3 and 11, the DESS curriculum focuses heavily on pastoral care.

This helps to nurture well-rounded, self-confident students who are equipped with the skills they need to achieve academically and manage their next steps beyond the classroom.

Wellbeing at the heart of the curriculum

For the last four years, the school has taken part in the Dubai Student Wellbeing Census, a project run by the KHDA in partnership with the Government of South Australia, to find out how students feel and think about their own wellbeing, happiness, quality of life, and engagement.

Previously, we have used several different programmes, both digital and paper-based, to measure the non-academic factors that influence learning and flag up the challenges children face. Whilst these surveys have provided valuable insights, the data has largely focused on school life, leaving teachers keen to develop a deeper understanding of life outside of the classroom.
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At DESS we value the importance of measuring curriculum outcomes, but we also want to see more! We want to see how our children feel and see what is going on in their lives beyond the school gate.
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Making measurement more efficient

Teachers have previously spent a lot of time collecting, collating and analysing data. Even when this data has been analysed by an external agency there are often time delays involved, meaning findings are not as timely or relevant as they need to be.

Time delays in collecting and evaluating Year Six wellbeing data can limit the school's ability to put interventions in place and support children through the transition phase. Results of previous surveys and measures have also been anonymised as standard, meaning that despite offering a valuable overview of whole-school trends, it can be difficult for teachers to use insights to run more targeted interventions.
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Time delays in analysis of survey results have previously limited our ability to put reactive strategies in place to any issues that arise over the course of an academic year.
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A breakthrough for measuring what matters

As a leadership team, we were looking for a more effective and robust system to measure the wellbeing of their community when we came across BounceTogether.

With no need to manually upload, mark or evaluate survey results, teachers working with BounceTogether can devote more time analysing insights and using them to inform decisions relating to wellbeing interventions. Shifting teacher time away from administrative tasks and marking ensures a much more effective use of their professional expertise.
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Starting to work with BounceTogether marked a breakthrough for our school wellbeing strategy! We can use their surveys to measure and monitor wellbeing across several key categories quickly, keep insights in one place and save countless hours of time that would usually be spend on administrative tasks.
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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, teachers can use insights to back their professional judgments and support conversations with parents or external agencies.
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Using validated scales has given us the confidence to ask questions without overstepping the mark or worrying about how children or parents will respond.
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Sharing insights with parents and stakeholders

With BounceTogether, we can assign a survey to a class or cohort and have results back instantly. These are presented in a format that is easy for us to analyse meaning that we can put more timely actions in place. This has allowed us to be more reactive to the needs of different school cohorts. Due to the pandemic, one cohort had not been split since arriving at DESS.

Now in Year Three, we noticed they were struggling with social skills and relationships. Using BounceTogether to survey this specific area allowed us to explore their challenges and intervene straight away. We have also been able to be proactive in our approach to supporting year 6 students transitioning from primary to secondary and build a thorough picture of how we can best support these pupils before they leave
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Going forward, we plan to further embed Bounce Together into our day-to-day teaching and curriculum to help us measure what matters in school and support our students in becoming well-rounded and confident learners for the future.
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Going forward, we plan to further embed Bounce Together into our day-to-day teaching and curriculum to help us measure what matters in school and support our students in becoming well-rounded and confident learners for the future.
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