DESCRIPTION

GEMS Education is renowned for exceptional academic performance and for producing well-rounded individuals equipped with essential life skills and a deep appreciation for global values. Integrating worldwide expertise, passionate teachers and fully engaged parents, GEMS offers children inspirational learning and growth opportunities that are enhanced by accessibility to a vital network of students and teachers around the world.
Founded by two teachers in 1959, GEMS Education has become the world’s largest provider of award-winning education, fostering excellence in positive and nurturing environments that focus on the holistic needs of children.

GEMS American Academy-Qatar empowers students to fully develop the necessary intellectual, emotional, social, creative and physical skills through an enriched American curriculum, in a nurturing environment.

GEMS American Academy-Qatar will deliver a top level American curriculum based on the United States Common Core State Standards and others, combined with a range of athletics and other life enhancing activities, delivered in quality facilities by excellent educators, using the most current and future thinking teaching methodologies available. Our curriculum will be founded on the GEMS core values, because we firmly believe that education must be concerned with student development. Students will learn to make decisions independently, solve problems effectively, and interact positively and with tolerance, irrespective of the society they are placed in.

Our Mission

At GEMS American Academy, we empower students to fully develop the necessary intellectual, emotional, social, creative and physical skills through an enriched American curriculum. Academic excellence will be delivered by highly qualified and talented teachers that combine academic rigor with a range of life enhancing activities that build a nurturing international learning community. 

CURRICULUM

Our program of study is based on U.S. curriculum and national standards, and modeled on the American system of education, but we also embrace the cultural diversity our international student community offers.

Pre-K

GAAQ employs highly trained teachers with expertise in early childhood education, learning goals tied to K–12 standards, low child/staff ratios, and small class sizes. Our Pre-K syllabus is based on the Creative Curriculum, a program that incorporates the latest research and best practices while meeting the needs of all types of learners.

The Creative Curriculum contains important developmental strands: social, emotional, physical, cognitive, and language. These strands are integrated and taught within themed units throughout the year, using interest centers based around drama, science, literature, art, creative play, music, building blocks, gross motor/outdoor play, and other free-play choices. Other daily activities to promote developmental skills in all areas include discussions of themes, songs and poems, show and tell, stories, games, and assembly performances. Students are encouraged to express themselves and share their experiences.

Our modern facilities and cheerful classrooms open onto outdoor spaces and are equipped with wonderful opportunities for exploration and discovery that enable children to develop confidence, creativity, and lifelong critical thinking skills.

Kindergarten 1 (KG1)

The KG1 program has been adapted from the U.S. Creative Curriculum for Preschool to accommodate the international nature of our students and families. The program has all the elements of the American standards with the addition of Health, Arabic and Islamic Studies, History of Qatar, ICT, and the creative Arts (Music, Art, and Performance). The play-based day in KG1 allows children to work at their own pace while having opportunities to develop relationships in a variety of learning environments.

 Download our Parent Guide: Parent Guide for KG 1

Kindergarten 2 (KG2)

The KG2 program follows U.S. curriculum standards for Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science. Students also have components of Social Studies, Health, Arabic and Islamic Studies, History of Qatar, ICT, and the creative Arts (Music, Art, and Performance). Subjects are taught through a combination of direct instruction and play-based activities (group, pairs, and individual) that allows students to connect their learning experiences and develop higher-order thinking skills in a personal, meaningful way.

Curriculum Standards (Grades 1 to 9)

Language Arts integrates skills that include reading, writing, spelling, speaking, and listening. The development of these skills is supported through appropriate fiction and non-fiction works to gain a rich understanding of language and communication.

The study of Mathematics includes basic computation, problem solving, and real-life applications, with computers and technology integrated appropriately. The Math program is supplemented by the use of manipulative materials to provide concrete experiences that lead to conceptual understanding and the development of higher-order thinking skills.

Through our Science program, students are encouraged to develop and exhibit an understanding of key scientific concepts and principles. As they develop their capacity for scientific thinking and processing, they will also be developing skills such as questioning, predicting, and making connections between their lives and the world around them. Students study life, physical, earth, and space science supported by an engineering component.

In Social Studies, students are prepared to become responsible, participatory citizens in a global society. The program takes advantage of the school’s setting in Qatar and its international character by using instructional materials that integrate Arabic, Islamic, and global studies. The Social Studies curriculum covers four strands: Civics, Economics, Geography, and History.

The Kindergarten program will be based on the Creative Curriculum for Pre School program (delivered in US Head start schools) centered around five important developmental strands: social, emotional, physical, cognitive, and language presented in developmental continuums. These strands are integrated and taught within four themed units throughout the year using interest centers based around drama, cooking, science, literature, art, creative play, music, building blocks, gross motor/outdoor play and other free play choices.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Grade 1 - 5

The curriculum for students in Grades 1 through 5 will emphasize basic skills in all subject areas and introduces higher level skills to challenge students and stimulate their interests. The curriculum fosters the concept that learning will be enjoyable and rewarding throughout the students' lives.
In Grades KII - 5 a continuous progress approach will be used in the core curricular areas of reading, writing, mathematics, science and social studies. In addition to the core subjects, students will receive instruction in physical education, music, art, Arabic language for native and non-native speakers, Islamic education for Muslims, library science, and instructional technology. Our curriculum will be essentially traditional, but the instructional program will make a variety of provisions to support individual learning differences.

Admission

Enquiries are currently open for students from Pre-KG to Grade 5 and can be made via the online student enquiry form. We are accepting enquiries for Pre KG to Grade 9 for September 2014 intake. 

GEMS Core Values

We know academic performance is important because academic qualifications are the passport to accessing a good university but we believe a values-based education is of equal importance. GEMS values-driven education is expressed through our four core values which are woven into every curricula offered by GEMS Schools and are at the core of our DNA. They are not symbolic, we live and breathe them. They are: Leading Through Innovation, Pursuing Excellence, Growing by Learning, Global Citizenship. Through our values we encourage independent learning, empowering students to take on responsibility. Students learn to celebrate diversity in a spirit of understanding and tolerance and develop a positive regard and awareness of other people.
Through our partnership with the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, we engage students of different faiths in a meaningful dialogue that is designed to encourage young people to recognize the similarities between faiths and more importantly to respect and deal with the differences between diverse and sometimes conflicting worldviews. By learning about those of differing social, cultural and religious perspectives, young people build their awareness of the role of faith in their lives and in the lives of others.