DESCRIPTION

Qatar Academy is part of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, a private, chartered, non-profit organization founded on 1996 by His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the father Emir.

Vision

Empowering students to achieve academic excellence and be responsible citizens.

Mission

Qatar Academy offers a rigorous program encompassing an international English-medium education, strong Arabic and Islamic Studies. The QA community supports and challenges students to be critical thinkers, and active and contributing members of society, through learning experiences serving the needs, interests and learning styles of each student.

Curriculum

The Creative Curriculum

The  three Early Education Centers (EEC) follows the Creative Curriculum, a research-based program developed and published by Teaching Strategies. It is a balanced curriculum, designed to enable children to grow in physical, social-emotional, cognitive and language development. 
Birth to age three is the most important period of development and a period in which children are very vulnerable. Initially, they are totally dependent on adults to meet their every need. When care and experiences are nurturing and consistent, children flourish.
There are five central components that make up the framework from which teachers will be working:

• Partnering with families.

• Knowledge of the development of infants, toddlers, and two- and three-year-olds.

• Creating a responsive environment.

• Learning needs of children.

• Caring and teaching.

These five central components encompass a variety of routines and experiences. Routines provide opportunities for children to build positive and trusting relationships. The welcoming and departure routine, in conjunction with diapering, toileting, feeding, dressing and soothing children to sleep, helps children feel secure. Through these secure feelings, children begin to form secure attachments and gain independence. Routines are also used to help children make sense of their world, develop language and guide their curiosity. 
For each of these areas of learning, the EEC provides children with support as they work to develop skills that are just beyond their current levels. As children acquire the necessary skills, less and less support is offered and children ultimately accomplish tasks independently.

Accreditation

The three  Early Education Centers will seek accreditation by the National Association of Education for Young Children (www.naeyc.org– NAEYC). Ensuring the quality of children’s experiences in early childhood programs and promoting positive child outcomes is at the heart of NAEYC accreditation standards and criteria.

Facilities

The Early Childhood Center is a state of the art facility. It is resourced with the most up-to-the-minute, innovative, and exciting resources, which have been sourced from all over the world. The facility invites creativity, promotes enquiry, and enables children to enjoy learning.

Classrooms

EEC classrooms are built with safety as a top priority. The staff is able to attend to the needs of every child, keeping them safe and secure, both physically and emotionally.
The large light-filled rooms accommodate changing tables, high chairs, cots or sleeping beds. Children’s restrooms are attached to the classrooms of the older children.
The classrooms are equipped with a wide and varied collection of resources that stimulate exploration and discovery by the children and can be updated regularly to create fresh ideas and new perspectives.

Sensory Room (Sensortorium)

This innovative facility provides opportunities for children to participate in a variety of sensory experiences. The equipment, along with our well-trained and experienced teachers, gives children an opportunity to interact with light, colour, texture and sound. As children explore their senses in the many different and changing environments in the sensory room, they become more confident socially and emotionally while having fun at the same time.

Studio (Exploratorium)

From the moment they are born, children gain an understanding of the world around them by looking, touching exploring, and being curious. As children learn, they enjoy communicating their growing knowledge in a number of ways.  In the Exploratorium, children have the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and explore further ideas by drawing, painting, building, sculpting, and creating collages. This is a room where innovative exploration is encouraged and messes are welcome.

Indoor Play Area

Qatar’s desert climate will not restrict the growth and development of children attending the Early Education Center. As temperatures rise, the children spend more time inside.
The indoor play area is large, light and inviting. It is equipped with an ever-changing collection of innovative, European-inspired equipment, which provides for the physical and social development of each child.
It is an area where children are easily supervised and adults can join in with the exploration of objects and experiences.

Outdoor Adventure Area

Play is children’s work. As they play, they explore, they ask questions of themselves and they find the answers. In the outdoor adventure area, children challenge their minds and their bodies.
The outdoor area provides opportunities to: 
explore and investigate.

• push and pull.

• collect, fill and tip.

• build up and knock down.

• develop large objects of art.

• observe insects and other creepy crawlies.

• take risks and seek challenges.

Outdoor Pavillion

Whether it’s a teddy bear’s picnic, quiet story-time, or making music with a variety of instruments, the Outdoor Pavilion is the place to go. Children can lounge on soft cushions, reading or creating musical sounds together. Surrounded by plants grown by the children, the pavilion is an inviting place where children feel safe and secure as they explore music, books, or meet socially with a teacher.