The Arbor School is an international, ecological school, based on the British curriculum and offers places in Foundation Stage 1 through to Year 10. Ecoliteracy, sustainability and environmental justice are at the heart of the Arbor School curriculum, and is aimed at cultivating within students and ethos of ecological understanding and environmental mindfulness that drives innovative, creative problem solving for a more sustainable world.
Our vision
Enough for all, forever
Our mission
The Arbor School aims to foster a positive, caring and compassionate school environment, in which learners can shine in many different ways. Arbor students shall become innovative and capable leaders, with a strong set of ethical values, anchored by a deep sense of global environmental justice and sustainability.
What Makes this School Unique?
The Arbor School has a unique vision of what education could and should be – experiential, authentic and inspired by the natural beauty, human ingenuity and profound ecological and social challenges of the globe. We are a learning community uniquely committed to understanding and restoring the health of ecological and human communities as interconnected parts of a whole, committed to building a bespoke learning experience for each child; personal and personalised.
At the Arbor School, we emphasize the integration of the concepts of eco-literacy, sustainability and global environmental justice into every aspect of school life, from curriculum and activities to staffing and facilities.
Through project-based, experiential and outdoor learning, our students will engage with their local environment in meaningful ways. In-house specialists work with teaching staff to ensure that our curricula and activities are always enriched with awareness of the environmental and broader ethical knowledge and values essential to the well-being of our students, and of the world they will inherit.
Why Choose this Curriculum?
The school follows the National Curriculum for England, enriched with innovative teaching in the form of project-based, experiential and outdoor learning to enable our students to fully benefit from the school’s ethos.
Ecoliteracy, sustainability and environmental justice are at the heart of the Arbor School curriculum. The aim is to cultivate within our students an ethos of ecological understanding and environmental mindfulness that drives innovative, creative problem solving for a more sustainable world.
Ecoliteracy is more than content or subject matter, it is the way we make sense of the world through our thoughts, values, and actions. It is the way we chart a meaningful and sustainable path that respects the environment as the common ground on which all human social and economic interests and activities play out.
After School and Co-curricular Activities
Co-curricular activities are given great importance at The Arbor School, where every child is given opportunity to take part in five activities per week. These are made up of three free clubs and two paid activities led by our external provider of ECAs, ISM Sports. Sibling Club is also available in FS1 and FS2.
In addition to the provision of music, the Arbor School is proud to continue working with The Centre for Musical Arts to bring instrumental music lessons to students of the school during the school day.
The Arbor School was rated GOOD by KHDA in its first inspection in May 2022.
The Arbor Student
At the Arbor School, students are encouraged to develop a mind-set of experimentation, imagination and curiosity with a special focus on ecological mindfulness and ethical values such as compassion, resilience, and innovation.
They learn not only to read the world around them, but also to integrate this knowledge of place and environment, letting interaction with nature guide their thoughts, actions and words to create a more beautiful, sustainable and just society.
The Arbor Teacher
A teacher at the Arbor school is many things, but at their core is a deep sense of care and responsibility for the welfare and happiness of our children. This is coupled with a commitment to ensure that each child’s journey whilst at the Arbor School is full of wonder, excitement, curiosity, and is a carefully sequenced progression from the known to the unknown as we explore, discover and inquire with our ever-expanding foundation of knowledge.
Our ‘living classrooms’ include six climate-controlled biodomes; three large geodesic domes that sit at the heart of the Arbor School Bio Park, two of which function as a full tropical ecosystem available for Ecoliteracy teaching for all years.
The third dome is our Eco Exploratorium originally conceived as a Maker Space, this dome has been reimagined as a hub of specialist Ecoliteracy teaching and learning. It serves as one of two classrooms available for Ecoliteracy teaching for Middle Years students and is used by students in all phases and year groups. The school’s three mini biodomes are dedicated to everything from reading spaces to plant nurseries.
*The Arbor School has two further specialist teaching spaces; the Reflection Garden, a unique space in the centre of our school that brings in natural light and creates an outdoor space indoors for meetings, classes and events, and the Learning Garden, a community space dedicated to sustainable agriculture and outdoor learning. Here students grow herbs, flowers, fruits, and vegetables organically and sustainably.
Students regularly visit all our specialist learning spaces for art, science exploration, maths, geography, history and nearly every other subject. They learn how to make compost, use tools safely, grow and harvest different plants in the arid local landscape.
For school events, students can make the most of a 350-seater auditorium. One will also find a black-box theatre, a dining hall, an internal atrium and libraries. Other facilities, including a photography darkroom, a kiln room, a senior art studio, a senior library, a Sixth Form common room and a senior science laboratory.
The Arbor School has maintained some top-tiered physical education and sports facilities, including two swimming pools – a 25-metre main pool with six lanes and a learner’s pool for FS and primary students. One can find two indoor basketball courts, a multi-purpose sports hall, a gymnasium, outdoor and indoor play areas, an interactive dance studio and a full-sized football pitch.
