Levels of improvement

What changes when a school moves one step.

Each standard is described in Growth's own planning language, from Weak to Outstanding. The windows below are planning estimates. They are not ADEK published durations, and they are not a promise about an inspection.

The open-data extract stores one overall judgement, not a score on these six standards. Use this page to see what the playbook says the next step looks like. A school's own scores appear on its deep-dive page only after a self-assessment.

Standard 1

Students' achievement

This standard is about what students know, how far they move from their starting points, and whether they learn with independence. In Abu Dhabi private schools the reference is the authorised curriculum, including Arabic and Islamic education for the students who study them. Growth's notes below are planning language for school teams. They are not the official descriptor text.

Open the full standard

Weak → Acceptable

What the next level looks like

Planning estimate: the first 90 days for safeguarding and any Weak practice, then the rest of that term so the basic standard is visible. This is Growth's planning window, not an ADEK published duration. Individual playbook actions name shorter windows, such as a month or six weeks.

1.1 · Attainment
Most students reach a basic standard, with clear soft spots by subject, phase, or group. Gaps in Arabic, mathematics, or the language of instruction are discussed, but they are not yet a tracked plan with owners.
Name the attainment gaps in writing
Within a month, publish a one-page attainment map for Arabic, mathematics, and the language of instruction: which year groups and which student groups are below the curriculum standard, and who owns each gap. Stop adding new initiatives until this map exists.
Department toolkit
1.2 · Progress
Most students make expected gains in some subjects. Progress for students of determination, or for those new to the language of instruction, is inconsistent and depends on the individual teacher.
Fix starting points before new tests
Choose one baseline per phase that teachers actually use: a moderated writing sample, a number sense check, and a reading record. Store it where the next teacher can find it. Do not buy another platform until this exists.
Department toolkit
1.3 · Learning skills
Students complete tasks and sometimes talk about them. Independence shows in stronger classes and fades when the work gets harder or the teacher is new.
Put the learning aim in student language
For four weeks, every core lesson opens with what students will be able to do, and ends with two students showing that thing. Collect the aims. If they all say 'complete the worksheet', rewrite them.
Department toolkit

Acceptable → Good

What the next level looks like

Planning estimate: about one school year of the same review, repeated, rather than a new initiative each month. This is Growth's planning window, not an ADEK published duration.

1.1 · Attainment
Most students meet curriculum expectations and a growing share go beyond them. The subjects and groups that are not there yet are named, owned, and reviewed on a calendar rather than remembered after an inspection.
Make the basic standard non-negotiable
Agree the minimum work students must produce each term in the three core areas, moderate a sample across classes, and reteach where the sample misses the standard. Review the same classes six weeks later rather than moving on.
Department toolkit
1.2 · Progress
Most students, including lower-attaining groups, make better than expected progress over time. Teachers can show the work that moved, not only a percentage in a spreadsheet.
Review progress for the groups that stall
Each half term, look only at students who made little gain. Agree a six-week response in class, not only an after-school club, and record whether the work got harder or merely longer.
Department toolkit
1.3 · Learning skills
Most students explain their reasoning, use sources, and improve a first attempt. They connect ideas across subjects when the teacher sets that up.
Teach one improvement move
Choose a single routine, such as revising a paragraph against a checklist, and use it in every grade for a month. Look for students doing it without being walked through each line.
Department toolkit

Good → Very Good

What the next level looks like

Planning estimate: more than one year. The playbook sets a term goal for the share of work above the standard, then asks the school to hold it. This is Growth's planning window, not an ADEK published duration.

1.1 · Attainment
A large majority attain above curriculum expectations. Differences between boys and girls, or between Emirati and other students, are small or clearly closing. External results, where they exist, match the work in lessons.
Raise the share working above the standard
Pick two subjects where attainment is solid and set a term goal for the share of students exceeding expectations. Give teachers released time to plan the harder tasks, and check that the higher work appears in ordinary books, not only in extension groups.
Department toolkit
1.2 · Progress
Progress is strong in almost all subjects and phases. Students who need a different path still move forward against an ambitious but honest target.
Check that progress is real in books
Pair the progress numbers with the same students' books from the start and end of term. If the numbers rose and the work did not, correct the measure before celebrating it.
Department toolkit
1.3 · Learning skills
Students routinely find a way forward, challenge a peer with respect, and use technology or texts to learn rather than to finish faster.
Ask for transfer, not another poster
Set one task a month that uses a skill from another subject, and keep the student explanation of how they used it. That explanation is the evidence, not the display.
Department toolkit

Very Good → Outstanding

What the next level looks like

Planning estimate: several years of the same result. Outstanding descriptors in the playbook say that several years of results tell the same story. This is Growth's planning window, not an ADEK published duration. The playbook has no separate action card for a Very Good starting point.

1.1 · Attainment
High attainment holds across subjects and phases, including for students who started further back. Several years of results tell the same story, and teacher judgements survive a look at the actual work.
1.2 · Progress
Sustained, visible progress is the norm, including from low starting points. The school can explain a dip when one happens, and the next term's work shows the response.
1.3 · Learning skills
Learning skills are a habit across phases. Students start inquiries, critique their own work against a clear standard, and bring that habit into unfamiliar tasks.

Standard 2

Students' personal and social development, and their innovation skills

This standard covers how students conduct themselves, how they understand Islamic values and Emirati and wider cultures, and whether they contribute and innovate in real tasks. Attendance and a calm corridor matter, and so does what students do when nobody is watching the display board.

Open the full standard

Weak → Acceptable

What the next level looks like

2.1 · Personal development
Most students attend and behave well enough for lessons to proceed. A minority need frequent correction, and the school's records of follow-up are patchy.
Publish one attendance and conduct routine
Agree who calls on day one of absence, what lateness means, and how a conduct incident is logged and told to parents. Run it for a month before designing a new behaviour policy.
Department toolkit
2.2 · Understanding of Islamic values and awareness of Emirati and world cultures
Provision meets the timetable, and students know the main observances. Links to the rest of the school are occasional, and understanding is stronger in some phases than others.
Check the entitlement first
Confirm who must study Islamic education and Arabic, for how long, and with which staff. Fix gaps in the timetable before designing a cultural festival.
Department toolkit
2.3 · Social responsibility and innovation skills
There is a programme of activities and some student roles. Impact is local and short, and the same students are chosen each time.
Give ten students a real brief
Replace one showcase event with a brief students must plan: a problem, a deadline, and a way to know it worked. Keep the staff role as coaching.
Department toolkit

Acceptable → Good

What the next level looks like

Planning estimate: about one school year of the same review, repeated, rather than a new initiative each month. This is Growth's planning window, not an ADEK published duration.

2.1 · Personal development
Attendance is strong, students are self-managing in ordinary lessons, and incidents are recorded and closed. Students talk about effort and respect as part of the work, not as a special assembly.
Close the loop on repeat incidents
Each fortnight, list students with repeat notes. Assign one adult and one action, and record the outcome. A list without an outcome is not a system.
Department toolkit
2.2 · Understanding of Islamic values and awareness of Emirati and world cultures
Students speak with understanding about Islamic values and Emirati heritage, and they meet people and ideas from other cultures with respect. The work shows up in more than one subject.
Move one value into school life
Choose a value already taught in Islamic education or moral education and ask two other departments to use it in a real decision this term, such as how teams are chosen or how charity is handled.
Department toolkit
2.3 · Social responsibility and innovation skills
A wide range of students plan contributions and can say what changed because of them. Projects involve a first version and an improvement.
Widen who gets the role
List who led activities last term. If it is a small circle, reserve the next three roles for students who have not led before, and support them.
Department toolkit

Good → Very Good

What the next level looks like

2.1 · Personal development
Students show initiative in conduct and attendance is high across groups. They support peers and rarely need an adult to settle a routine problem.
Hand a routine to students
Choose one daily routine students can run, such as late arrivals or peer welcome, with a staff sponsor. Review whether it reduced adult intervention after four weeks.
Department toolkit
2.2 · Understanding of Islamic values and awareness of Emirati and world cultures
Understanding is secure and thoughtful. Students explain why a value matters in school life, and cultural work is accurate rather than decorative.
Replace decoration with explanation
Audit displays and assemblies: keep those where students can explain the meaning, retire those that are only visual. Add one accurate encounter with another culture led by students.
Department toolkit
2.3 · Social responsibility and innovation skills
Student-led activity is regular and reaches beyond the school. Innovation projects show a real constraint, a test, and a revision.
Require a second version
For the next innovation or enterprise task, students submit what they changed after a test. The change is the outcome you keep.
Department toolkit

Very Good → Outstanding

What the next level looks like

2.1 · Personal development
Personal responsibility is the culture of the school. Students lead routines, look after younger students, and the record of serious incidents is both low and honestly kept.
2.2 · Understanding of Islamic values and awareness of Emirati and world cultures
Students live the values in leadership, charity, and daily courtesy, and they bring a curious, well-informed view of the wider world. Staff model the same respect.
2.3 · Social responsibility and innovation skills
Social responsibility and innovation are how students work, not a club. They initiate, measure, and hand work on to the next group.

Standard 3

Teaching and assessment

This standard looks at whether teaching helps students learn, and whether assessment tells the truth in time to act. A polished lesson for a visitor is weaker evidence than ordinary lessons that match the work in books.

Open the full standard

Weak → Acceptable

What the next level looks like

3.1 · Teaching for effective learning
Teaching enables most students to make steady progress. The best lessons are unevenly spread, and some teachers do not adapt when the class has not understood.
Agree what a lesson must make visible
For the next month, every core-subject lesson plan names the task students will do by minute twenty and how the teacher will know who cannot do it. Leaders look at that, not at the decoration of the plan.
Department toolkit
3.2 · Assessment
Teachers assess and record. Feedback is sometimes useful and sometimes a tick. Moderation is occasional, so grades differ between classes for the same work.
Moderate one task before the next report
Pick one writing or mathematics task. Teachers mark three scripts together and agree what each grade looks like. Use that agreement in the next report. Do not add a new assessment platform this term.
Department toolkit

Acceptable → Good

What the next level looks like

Planning estimate: about one school year of the same review, repeated, rather than a new initiative each month. This is Growth's planning window, not an ADEK published duration.

3.1 · Teaching for effective learning
Most teaching is well planned, demanding, and responsive. Teachers use what they see in the lesson to change the next step, and subject knowledge is secure.
Coach the five lessons that stall
Identify five teachers or classes where learning stalls. Give each a two-week focus, such as checking understanding before moving on, and watch the same class again. Keep the note short and specific.
Department toolkit
3.2 · Assessment
Assessment is planned, moderated in key tasks, and used to regroup or reteach. Students can say what to improve and most then do it.
Make feedback demand a response
Change the routine so feedback names one change and students do that change in the next lesson. Sample ten books a fortnight to see whether the change happened.
Department toolkit

Good → Very Good

What the next level looks like

3.1 · Teaching for effective learning
Teaching is skilled across almost all staff. Questioning makes students think, and time is rarely wasted. Students with different starting points are all stretched.
Spread one precise technique
Film or co-plan one technique that already works in the school, such as a hinge question, and ask every department to use it for two weeks. Collect what students answered, not a reflection form.
Department toolkit
3.2 · Assessment
Assessment is sharp and trusted. Teachers adjust lessons from it quickly, and students assess their own work against a standard that means something.
Use assessment to reteach within the week
After each common check, spend part of the next lesson on the error most students made. Record the error and the reteach. A spreadsheet update alone is not use of assessment.
Department toolkit

Very Good → Outstanding

What the next level looks like

3.1 · Teaching for effective learning
Teaching consistently produces high-quality learning. Teachers are precise about misconceptions, and their practice is shared because it works, not because it was nominated.
3.2 · Assessment
Assessment is precise across the school and directly tied to high achievement. Students and parents receive an honest picture, including when the news is mixed.

Standard 4

Curriculum

This standard asks whether the curriculum is designed and taught as a coherent journey, and whether it is adapted so that different students can still meet a demanding version of it. Licensing a curriculum is not the same as implementing it.

Open the full standard

Weak → Acceptable

What the next level looks like

4.1 · Curriculum design and implementation
The licensed curriculum is in place and broadly followed. Continuity between years is uneven, and enrichment or UAE links are added on rather than planned.
Write the year map that is actually taught
For each phase, list the units in the order they are taught this year and mark any statutory gap, including Arabic for the right groups. This document replaces decorative curriculum posters.
Department toolkit
4.2 · Curriculum adaptation
Some adaptation exists, often through support staff. It is stronger on paper than in the tasks students actually do, and the most able are rarely extended.
Write the access route for named students
For each student with a support plan, state the curriculum they are studying and the one change the class teacher will make this month. Share it with the teacher before the assistant.
Department toolkit

Acceptable → Good

What the next level looks like

Planning estimate: about one school year of the same review, repeated, rather than a new initiative each month. This is Growth's planning window, not an ADEK published duration.

4.1 · Curriculum design and implementation
The curriculum is coherent, compliant, and interesting enough to hold students. Teachers know what came before and what comes next. Implementation matches the written plan in most classes.
Stitch two years together
Pick the join where students most often arrive unready, such as Grade 3 to 4 or the move into examination classes. Teachers of both years agree the five things students must bring with them, and check those in week two.
Department toolkit
4.2 · Curriculum adaptation
Teachers adapt tasks so that students with different needs can succeed at real curriculum content. Plans are reviewed, and higher-attaining students have harder thinking, not more of the same.
Check the task, not the seating
Once a fortnight, look at the work of three students who have plans and three who are high-attaining. If the work is the same worksheet or a colouring sheet, change the task with the teacher that week.
Department toolkit

Good → Very Good

What the next level looks like

4.1 · Curriculum design and implementation
Design is thoughtful and implementation is consistent. Cross-subject links help students use knowledge, and review keeps the curriculum honest against results.
Plan UAE content as content
Choose three units this term where UAE geography, history, or civic life is the substance of the lesson in a non-Arabic subject. Keep the student work, not only the photograph of a display.
Department toolkit
4.2 · Curriculum adaptation
Adaptation is skilled and does not lower expectation. Students move back toward the common curriculum where they can, and extension work deepens understanding.
Plan extension as harder thinking
In one subject, replace 'extra questions of the same type' with a task that asks students to explain, compare, or apply. Keep both versions so the difference is visible.
Department toolkit

Very Good → Outstanding

What the next level looks like

4.1 · Curriculum design and implementation
The curriculum is a reason students achieve highly. It is regularly refined from evidence, fully meets requirements, and is understood by teachers new to the school.
4.2 · Curriculum adaptation
The curriculum flexes without fracturing. Almost every teacher can adapt in the moment, and the record shows students making progress on ambitious targets.

Standard 5

The protection, care, guidance and support of students

This standard is about whether students are safe, known, and supported. Safeguarding failures are not balanced out by strong academic results. Guidance includes the practical help students need to make the next step in school life.

Open the full standard

Weak → Acceptable

What the next level looks like

5.1 · Health, safety, and safeguarding
Arrangements meet the basic requirements and most staff know the route for a concern. Records and training are uneven, and some practical checks are late.
Make the reporting route unmistakable
This week, name the safeguarding lead and the deputy, put the route on one card for every adult, and log every concern from the last term that has no outcome. Do not wait for a new policy draft.
Department toolkit
5.2 · Care and support
There is a system of care and it works for many students. Support outside class is stronger than the change inside class, and older students get advice that is broad rather than specific.
Give every student a named adult
Make sure each student, especially in higher year groups, has an adult who would notice a change. Write the list. In the first month, that adult speaks to any student flagged by attendance or wellbeing.
Department toolkit

Acceptable → Good

What the next level looks like

Planning estimate: about one school year of the same review, repeated, rather than a new initiative each month. This is Growth's planning window, not an ADEK published duration.

5.1 · Health, safety, and safeguarding
Day-to-day protection is effective. Staff are trained, concerns are recorded and reviewed, and the site, transport, and clinic are checked on a schedule that is kept.
Close training and site gaps
List staff without current training and the site checks that slipped. Finish both within a month. Walk the arrival, break, and dismissal with the lead and write down what changed.
Department toolkit
5.2 · Care and support
Staff know the students they teach, support is coordinated, and students receive useful guidance. Monitoring shows whether help made a difference.
Bring support back into the lesson
For five students receiving extra help, write the change the class teacher will make and review the classwork after three weeks. If only the withdrawal group improved, redesign the help.
Department toolkit

Good → Very Good

What the next level looks like

5.1 · Health, safety, and safeguarding
Safeguarding is proactive. Students know how to get help, patterns are spotted early, and leaders test the system rather than assuming it works.
Test the route, then read the pattern
Once a term, ask a sample of staff and students what they would do with a concern, and compare that with the log. Look for repeated places, times, or year groups and change supervision there.
Department toolkit
5.2 · Care and support
Care is personal and effective. Students, including those who struggle, are known well, and guidance is timely and followed through.
Time the next-step guidance
Publish a calendar for subject choices, phase transfer, or leaving guidance, and check that students who need more help get it first. Keep a note of the advice and the decision.
Department toolkit

Very Good → Outstanding

What the next level looks like

5.1 · Health, safety, and safeguarding
A culture of protection is visible in ordinary decisions. Records are thorough, students feel safe and say so with reasons, and reviews lead to changes that last.
5.2 · Care and support
The school is unusually attentive without being intrusive. Support is precise, students thrive, and the approach is shared so it does not depend on one kind adult.

Standard 6

Leadership and management

This standard is about whether leaders know the school, set a direction people can follow, and run the organisation so that teaching and care improve. Governance, staffing, partnerships, and the building belong here because they decide whether plans survive contact with a Tuesday morning.

Open the full standard

Weak → Acceptable

What the next level looks like

6.1 · The effectiveness of leadership
Leaders keep the school running and improvements are real but uneven. Some middle leaders drive their areas; others wait to be told.
Cut the priority list to three
Write three priorities that a teacher can remember, each with an owner and a student-level sign of progress. Stop other initiatives that compete with them for the next term.
Department toolkit
6.2 · Self-evaluation and improvement planning
There is an evaluation and a plan. Some actions happen. Evidence is thinner than the judgements, and reviews slip.
Rewrite the plan as a term sheet
Turn the improvement plan into one page per priority: evidence now, action, owner, date, and what student work will look like if it works. Archive the longer document.
Department toolkit
6.3 · Partnerships with parents and the community
Regular communication exists and most parents are satisfied enough. Reporting is clearer in some phases, and the school listens more than it changes.
Set a response time and keep it
Tell parents how quickly the school replies, in Arabic and English, and track a month of messages against that promise. Fix the channel that fails rather than opening another app.
Department toolkit
6.4 · Governance
Governors meet and receive reports. Challenge is polite and occasional. They know the headlines more than the evidence.
Put three questions on every agenda
Every meeting asks: are students safe, where is achievement weakest, and does the budget match those facts? Minute the answer and the action. Cancel purely ceremonial items until this sticks.
Department toolkit
6.5 · Management, staffing, facilities and resources
The school runs in an orderly way. Recruitment and buildings meet basic needs. Professional development exists but is loosely tied to the improvement plan.
Match people to the timetable gaps
List classes without a suitably qualified teacher and cover arrangements that have lasted more than two weeks. Decide a fix or an honest interim for each before the next parent report.
Department toolkit

Acceptable → Good

What the next level looks like

Planning estimate: about one school year of the same review, repeated, rather than a new initiative each month. This is Growth's planning window, not an ADEK published duration.

6.1 · The effectiveness of leadership
Leaders set a small number of priorities and follow them through. Middle leaders are accountable for teaching in their areas. Staff understand what will be different this year.
Give middle leaders one decision
Name the decision each head of subject or phase will take this term about teaching, and the evidence they will bring back. Meet them on that evidence, not on a general update.
Department toolkit
6.2 · Self-evaluation and improvement planning
Leaders' judgements mostly match the evidence. The plan is short enough to manage, reviewed on time, and changed when an action fails.
Hold the review even if the news is mixed
Put three review dates in the calendar now. At each one, mark actions as done, not done, or changed. A review that only celebrates will not move an Acceptable judgement.
Department toolkit
6.3 · Partnerships with parents and the community
Parents are partners in the important decisions about their children. The school acts on patterns in their feedback, and community links have a purpose students can name.
Act on one pattern in feedback
Read the last term's parent comments, name the most common practical issue, change one thing, and tell parents what you changed.
Department toolkit
6.4 · Governance
Governors understand performance, including weaknesses, and their questions change what leaders do. Statutory duties are met and minuted.
Send evidence, not only slides
Before the next meeting, governors receive one page of student-level evidence on the main weakness. The minute should record a question that could not have been asked from the headline alone.
Department toolkit
6.5 · Management, staffing, facilities and resources
Staff are suitably qualified and deployed. The premises are safe and fit for the curriculum. Management systems, including timetabling and resources, support teaching.
Remove one barrier in the building
Ask teachers which room or resource most often stops the planned curriculum. Fix or timetable around the top item this term, and record the student work that became possible.
Department toolkit

Good → Very Good

What the next level looks like

6.1 · The effectiveness of leadership
Leadership is purposeful at more than one level. Professional culture is strong, and improvement is visible in student work, not only in plans.
Check priorities against student work
Once a month, leaders look at work from the priority area and say whether the priority is still the right one. Change it if the work says the problem has moved.
Department toolkit
6.2 · Self-evaluation and improvement planning
Self-evaluation is sharp, including about weaknesses. Planning is systematic and the school can show improvement that followed from it.
Invite a contradiction
Before the next self-evaluation, ask two middle leaders to bring evidence that disagrees with a leader's judgement. Record what you changed in the text because of it.
Department toolkit
6.3 · Partnerships with parents and the community
Communication is timely, two-way, and useful. Parents and community partners contribute to learning in ways the school can point to.
Invite parents into the learning
For one subject, give families a short, specific way to see the work and the next step, in the language they use. Measure whether students in that class talk about it at home by asking them.
Department toolkit
6.4 · Governance
Governance is well informed and systematic. The board influences direction and checks that resources follow the priorities.
Tie one budget line to a priority
Governors choose one priority and the spending that serves it, and review mid-year whether the spend happened and whether the student evidence moved.
Department toolkit
6.5 · Management, staffing, facilities and resources
Deployment is thoughtful, development improves teaching, and the environment is high quality and well used.
Point development at the priority
Cancel generic training that does not serve the three priorities. Replace it with practice on the priority, and look for the change in lesson visits six weeks later.
Department toolkit

Very Good → Outstanding

What the next level looks like

6.1 · The effectiveness of leadership
Leaders have created a school that keeps improving when individuals change. Judgements are accurate, and the effect on students is sustained.
6.2 · Self-evaluation and improvement planning
The school is precise about itself and uses that knowledge continuously. Improvement is sustained and does not depend on a single document written for visitors.
6.3 · Partnerships with parents and the community
Partnerships are a strength. Parents trust the school's honesty, including about difficulties, and the community relationship has a lasting benefit for students.
6.4 · Governance
Governance is a sustained strength. The board combines support and challenge, plans succession, and can show decisions that improved students' experience.
6.5 · Management, staffing, facilities and resources
Management and resources are a reason the school succeeds. Staff grow, the building serves learning, and systems keep working when key people are away.

Students' achievement

Open the full standard

Students' personal and social development, and their innovation skills

Open the full standard

Leadership and management

Open the full standard