ADMISSIONS POLICY

1. Introduction

Al Salam Private School is dedicated to the positive growth of its students in all areas of life. At Al Salam, we believe that every child is special. 

Our aim is to have a school community that reflects the diverse society in the UAE.

The Admissions Policy outlines the procedures required for a student to be enrolled at Al Salam. Students will be considered for admission into age-appropriate classes. The Al Salam Assessment policy for admission is described in the policy.

1.1 Application Process

All New Admission applicants are expected to:

• Submit a formal application (Online) - All documents required as part of the application process must be submitted prior to an assessment.
• Prior reports will be considered, if satisfactory, the child will be invited to sit for an entrance evaluation/test.
• Meet the Department Head along with both Parents.
• Complete the data information questionnaire, admission form, medical form, etc. and submit all necessary documents.

Age Criteria

Al Salam School places students in age-appropriate year group levels in accordance with the KHDA guidelines on age requirement for admission, which has been in effect since the School Year 2014-2015.

As per the KHDA guidelines, here is an age-year table to help you understand where your child should be in.

Please note that Al Salam’s assessment and admission criteria apply in addition to the age-grade table provided below. Once the child passed the evaluation and interview, the school will need to complete the admission formalities with KHDA.

Enrolling for 2019-2020 Academic Year: Year Group Equivalency

We,  at Al Salam Private School, are keen to ensure the best performance and self-independence for our children, based on this point, we believe that children below 3  years old (by  the beginning of the academic year), will be enrolled in our Pre-K class which is designed to focus on their communication, language, physical and emotional  development.

1.2 Entrance Assessment/Evaluation

The charges below are applicable for entrance tests and are non-refundable regardless of whether admission is granted.

• FS1 and FS2: AED 500
• Year 1 to 3: AED 500
• Year 4 to 8: AED 500

1.3 Required documentation

The KHDA requires all parents to submit the following documents to the school prior to admission:

• Copy of student’s Passport
• Copy of student’s UAE residency visa
• Copy of Emirates National ID Card for both Parents and Child (both sides)
• Five recent passport size photographs of the student
• Copies of any health and/ or psychological assessments conducted with the student
• Vaccination Card
• Signed school-parent contract
• Any other relevant information regarding your child must be included in the Registration Form, i.e. (complete medical form, photograph waiver, registration agreement, and accident release form and student information sheet).

2. Admissions to Foundation Stage (FS)

• Preference will be given to children who have attended Nursery prior to their application into FS1/FS2.
• Preference will be given to siblings of students currently enrolled in Al Salam School.
• FS children will undergo an interview, this interview is play-based with lots of opportunities for conversation and observation of the child’s readiness to attend school.

3. Admissions to Year 1 and Year 2

• Students will take an English, Maths and Arabic written assessment and an Arabic online test.
• A certificate of good conduct is required from the previous school.
• Where the child does not meet the expected curriculum level in Arabic, the school may choose to admit the child contingent on parents agreeing to Arabic Learning Support. This will allow for a modified curriculum and targeted support to be provided and comes at and is charged extra to the regular school fees.
• Note: Based on the assessment, parents may be asked to provide a diagnostic assessment to assess the extent of additional support that may be required for admission of the child.

4. Admissions Year 3 to Year 8

• Students will take the CAT4 assessment in five core areas: Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning and Spatial Reasoning (measures of developed ability). They will also conduct an English and Arabic written assessment and an Arabic online test.
• A certificate of good conduct is required from the previous school.
• Where the child does not meet the expected curriculum level in Arabic, the school may choose to admit the child contingent on parents agreeing to Arabic Learning Support. This will allow for a modified curriculum and targeted support to be provided and comes at and is charged extra to the regular school fees.
• Any request to have siblings/ cousins in the same class section, will not be accommodated.
• Note: Based on the assessment, parents may be asked to provide a diagnostic assessment to assess the extent of additional support that may be required for admission of the child.

5. Priority Admissions

• Children already enrolled in Salam nursery for a minimum of 2 terms are offered FIRST PRIORITY for enrollment for the following year.
• Preference will be given to siblings of students currently enrolled in Al Salam School.
• Students applying from British curriculum or International schools in Dubai are given priority over 12 Year school systems.
• Students of Determination will receive “sibling priority” for admission to the school.

6. Admission of children experiencing Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) “Students of Determination”  

Al Salam School follows the directives and policies of the Federal and Dubai Governments which outline the schools’ responsibilities with regard to Students of Determination.

The Federal Law no:29/ 2006, article 12 of the second chapter on education, states that ”Special needs do not constitute in themselves an impediment in seeking affiliation or enrolment or admission to any educational institution, whether public or private”

KHDA: Inclusive Education Policy Framework 2017,

Special Educational Need and Disability (SEND) “A need which occurs when a student identified with an impairment requires the school to make specific modifications or provide specific supports to prevent, remove or reduce any potential disability from occurring and to ensure that the student can access education on an equitable basis and within a common learning environment with same-aged peers.”

Al Salam School will not deny enrolment on the basis of a prospective student having a disability or additional needs.

6.1  Admissions procedure for children with additional needs

All admission assessments are conducted by the inclusion team. This helps in early identification of students with additional needs or support at the time of admission. Children being assessed for a place who are deemed to have a need for support must be referred to the Inclusion Support Team and agreed by them before a decision is given to parents.

1. During the admission assessment if it is observed that the student will require additional support, whether academic, speech/language, emotional / behavioural or medical, the case will be referred to the Head of Inclusion for a decision about whether a conditional offer letter has to be issued along with the level of support that the student will need.

2. Families disclosing an additional need when requesting placement for their child will be referred to the Head of Inclusion to assess  the needs of the student and plan the required support that will be required.

In cases where the admission assessment suggests that the student has a high level of need and will require a 100% support from the Inclusion team, that includes hiring of an Individual Learning Support Assistant, the case will be referred to the Inclusion Support Team. The school’s current resources and capacity to provide support will be assessed and a decision for admission will be made accordingly.

6.2  Eligibility for admission depends on the following:

Al Salam reserves the right not to admit a child requiring additional support if one or more of the following criteria are not met.

Decisions about admission of SEND students are taken by the Inclusion Support Team.

• The availability of a complete and honest history of the student from all relevant sources.
• The level of accessibility and support that the school can provide in order to meet the specific needs of the child.
• If the school feels that the student can function as a member of a mainstream class with the necessary support provided.
• The school will make all efforts to provide appropriate facilities and resources to meet the student’s special needs. However, where the needs are over and above the support generally available in school, the family is willing to bear the cost for any additional support that is provided for the student by the school.
• The availability of a place in the year and class appropriate to the student of determination, which still allows a balance of abilities within the class and keeping adult class support to four adults or less.  

We have a sibling priority program and students of determination  are accepted onto this scheme.

Parents have a vital role to play in supporting their student’s education and at Al Salam school we work in partnership with parents to ensure that their student feels confident and happy in school whilst also being appropriately challenged to reach their full potential.

The school is committed to promoting high standards of education and aims to help all students to reach their best potential by conducting an assessment of needs once the child is admitted.  This is  achieved by:

• Teacher observation (structured and unstructured environment)
• Head of Inclusion’s observations where appropriate
• Parent partnership with the school about their child: the Information given by  parents
• School assessments (class tests and school examinations)
• Baseline assessments
• Informal assessments (checklist, personal interaction, GL assessments )
• Following recommendations from Medical, Therapy and Psycho-educational reports

7. Appeals procedures

Appeals procedures for Admissions can be submitted for the attention of the Board of Governors assuming all the criteria for admission have been met.

Appeals regarding Students of Determination are first submitted to the Inclusion Support Team, only being referred to the Governing Board if unresolved.

8. Monitoring the Success of the Admissions Policy

The success of the policy will result in fully subscribed cohorts in each year and:

• Ensuring modified curriculum provision for those students needing additional support.
• Parent engagement is consistent e.g. Parent-School contracts signed, Parents’ day attendance.

9. Management of the Policy

The Governing Body will oversee the policy, ensure its implementation and review its content on an annual basis.

The Principal will report on Admissions and School Roll numbers at each Full Governing Body meeting.  The Admissions department will provide regular updates to the Principal to ensure compliance.

Appendix 1 Fee Structure 2019-2020

Fee Schedule

TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

The KHDA rules, according to their School Fee Framework, allow private schools to charge parents a holding deposit (re-registration fee) to secure a place once offered and can be up to 10% of annual fees and 30 % for new admissions

Al Salam is offering a sibling discount where 10% will be applied on the 4th child where 4 siblings are registered with us.

The re-registration fee is deductible from the total school fees as it is a part of the first term school fees.

As per the UAE National Agenda, benchmark assessments are required to be administered by the school in all year levels from 1-6. The school has selected GL education as our provider of assessments and tests administered during the year include a Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT4) and Progress tests in Maths, Science and English. These cost of these tests are to be borne by the parents.

• Uniforms, Bus transport, After School Activities, Trips and Late collection fees are NOT included in the above fees and are charged separately.
• In the case of a child leaving the school during the academic year, a refund will be calculated according to the KHDA guidelines.
• Cheques are payments made. The school will not hold cheques for any reason.
• In the case of a cheque being returned by the bank for ANY REASON, AED 250 will be charged and cash only will be accepted in place of the returned cheque.

• The school will not accept responsibility for any returned cheque. Please keep a record of your cheques issued and make sure that the amount of the cheque is covered by your account balance.

• In the case of a cheque retrieved by parents for any reason, an amount of AED 50 will be charged. Parents must inform the Accounts Office one week in advance of collection of the cheque.

• Fees paid by a company - if not paid on time, should be paid for by parents and refunded when paid by the company.

 Disclaimer:

Please note that school fees for the upcoming academic year are subject to change in accordance with Article 51 the Bylaw of Federal Law No. (28) of 1999 Concerning Private Education and applicable regulations.