Reality: What a concept!
MUSCAT: The above expression belongs to Robin Williams. For us as a group, however, it is more about turning our concept into reality. As you might know, ABQ currently consists of three different schools, Azzan Bin Qais International School, Seeb International School and Sohar International School.
Each of the schools have developed their own identity, and we will continue to encourage these individualities. However, we have for the past six months worked on developing a common framework for all our schools. This consists of our vision, mission and motto, our philosophical statements, and our goals and values, as well as all our policies, procedures, regulations and guidelines.
The main purposes of this conceptual development is to provide a common structure, cultivate consistency in our services, improve communication, create a recognizable system for all our stakeholders, develop a scheme for identifying best practices, and making us all more conscious about our purpose, which ultimately results in the provision of a product of a much higher quality.
It allows us to identify and implement the best practices to the benefit of all our students and other stakeholders. Increased interaction between the schools also allows for the exchange of ideas between teachers, as well as students. Recently, our AS physics and biology students from Seeb and Azzan Bin Qais traveled to Sohar to do a full day of lab experiments together. Secondary mathematics and science teachers from all three schools met in Seeb International School to practice exam assessment and sharing views on marking exam papers. They have formed groups on social media, ensuring they can contact each other if they need help or advice.
Because each of the three schools is best at something, learning from each other ensures continuous improvement in all our schools. We are constantly identifying and mapping these practices, with the aim of implementing them in all schools continuously. Amidst of all this increased collaboration, we also seek to maintain a healthy competition between the three schools, encouraging all three to spur each other on.
We believe that the sum of all this is a rise in innovation and creativity, both of which we have identified as essential parts of our conceptual development. However, none of this is done in one day, it is rather a process of steady and continuous improvement. Because, to borrow the words of Adam Lashinsky, “Innovation, like creativity, is an amorphous concept. It’s the holy grail of business, but achieving it - even merely explaining it - is lightning-in-abottle difficult.”