ABU DHABI // More than 4,300 teachers in Abu Dhabi’s public schools have finished training to prepare them to implement the education council’s New School Model.

The model has already been implemented up to grade 5, but will apply to grade 6 for the first time this year.

Grade 6 core subjects – Arabic, English, maths and science – will now be taught in six lessons of 45 minutes each, every week, and integrated social studies will be introduced as a new subject.

The Abu Dhabi Education Council provided training in several subjects including English, maths, science, Arabic-learning outcomes, art and music.

As part of the training programme, more than 380 heads of faculty received professional-development training, designed to support them in training the teachers at their schools.

They were provided with resources and materials that would enable them to train 700 Arabic-medium teachers in kindergarten, 700 Arabic-language teachers in grade 1 to grade 3 and 1,800 English-medium teachers in the same classes.

“It is essential for our English-medium teachers and Arabic-medium teachers to work together to support the primary goals of the New School Model, which are increased numeracy and Arabic and English literacy for all students,” said Dr Karima Al Mazroui, the council’s curriculum division manager.

“This training will help to ensure that Arabic-medium teachers and English-medium teachers receive the same essential messages about the New School Model.”

wissa@thenational.ae