School Awards

Celebrating and Rewarding Success

Children are rewarded in a number of different ways throughout the year.

Weekly, a High Performing Learner is selected from each class to reward hard work and effort in the classroom.

Every month we celebrate the successes of pupils in our Awards Assembly. Children who have excelled in areas of Art, Music, French, Arabic and PE are rewarded for their achievements. There are incentives such as Million Word Readers and class of the week and our Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 End of Year Awards Ceremonies where students receive recognition for their progress and attainment in all subjects.

Our Highlights

Children at GEMS Royal Dubai School make ‘Outstanding’ progress from their individual start points.
Attainment in the Foundation Stage is ‘Outstanding’ for Mathematics and Science.
By the end of FS2, 75% of children achieve a ‘Good Level of Development (GLD)’ compared to 72% in the UK.
By the end of Primary (Yr6), 75% of children attain levels above the UK benchmark in internal and external English assessments. 86% above in Maths and 82% above in Science.
GRDS children attain “Significantly Higher than Average” scores in international benchmark tests. For example, in the most recent TIMSS assessments, the Dubai average score was 550 but RDS scored 568 for Maths and 576 for Science.

TIMMS 2019

TIMSS 2019	Maths	Science
Global Average Scores	500	500
Dubai Private Schools Average	550	550
RDS Scores	568	576
“Significantly Higher than Average Scores”

International Benchmark Data

GL PTs	PTE (English)		PTM (Maths)		PTS (Science)
	Stanine 5+	Stanine 6+	Stanine 5+	Stanine 6+	Stanine 5+	Stanine 6+
May 2017	85%	60%	72%	55%	75%	53%
May 2018	88%	70%	86%	68%	83%	70%
May 2019	90%	79%	96%	81%	91%	75%
September 2020 (May 2020)	No end of Phase Data due to Remote Learning and Y6 students having graduated RDS at the time of the assessments
May 2021	94%	81%	86%	70%	91%	78%

Stanine 5+ = working at or above curriculum standards

Stanine 6+ = working above curriculum standards

Sheikha Fatima Awards

The Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Al Nahyan Award is presented to female students from GEMS schools all over the world for their outstanding academic performance, leadership skills, their significant contribution to social and environmental awareness, and their impressive general conduct. The award winners from the UAE receive a scholarship to cover a year's tuition fee at their respective school.

The distinguished Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Award for Excellence is awarded to one girl in every GEMS school each year. The criteria for this prestigious award are:

Outstanding academic success
Significant contributions to the UAE Vision and National Agenda
A high level of service to community and beyond, in addition, an understanding of her social responsibility
A high level of involvement in Innovation initiatives within and/or outside of their school community
Behaviour and actions that make her an exceptional role model and embody the GEMS 4 Core Values

GRDS Sheikha Fatima Award winner 2023-2024

This year’s Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Award for Excellence went to Adeena Rahman for her exceptional academic success and contributions to wider school life. Adeena is involved in many aspects of school life, she is truly an exemplary student. She received her Royal Jewels Awards in Year 5 for consistently demonstrating all 4 GEMS Jewels of Kindness and Respect. Her portfolio of evidence was outstanding including how she had been a role model to younger students at RDS and in her community. Adeena's innovation and creative ideas often extend beyond RDS. Not only representing the school in the Adam Burfield Innovation Awards in 2023 but across whole school events. Adeena took a leading role in the school SDG market place, sharing her innovative ideas to make RDS and the UAE more sustainable. In addition to everything above, Adeena has taken a leading role in driving the Simply Bottles Initiative at RDS- collecting plastic bottles, recycling them and turning them into t-shirts for staff to wear. She loves trying out new ECA's each term and is a proud member of the RDS Netball Squad, Dance Squad and Production. Adeena is consistently looking for a challenge, she is currently writing her first novel which we cannot wait to read.

Adeena's portfolio of evidence was outstanding including how she had been a role model to younger students at RDS and in her community.

Her innovation and creative ideas often extend beyond RDS.
Dervala Doran
Class Teacher