Arabic & Islamic Department

It is with great pleasure that I offer my greetings from the Arabic and Islamic Studies department at Victoria English School. May I convey how proud I am to have been Head of this department since the school’s inception in 1996. I have witnessed generations of students graduate and have had the pleasure of teaching many of them at some point in their educational life. It is a great honour to hear of students graduating from universities around the world and knowing I, along with my team of staff, have been part of their success story. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing a student achieve success in the workplace, and possibly one day even becoming your colleague. Comfort and peace of mind in the workplace is a large incentive, ultimately leading to success. I would like to thank all who have helped and supported me in my vocation until this day and I look forward to further collaboration in the future.

Weroud Zino
Head Of Arabic & Islamic Studies

Arabic and Islamic studies at VES:

Victoria English School is one of the few foreign language schools in the country that teaches Arabic to all students and Islamic Studies to Muslim students in accordance with the rules and regulations set by the Ministry of Education in the UAE

The methods we use to teach these two subjects in our school are outlined in the table below:

FS1	The Teacher offers an introduction to both Arabic and Islamic Studies giving one lesson each per week using verbal and art activities.
FS2	At this level we start to introduce sounds and letter shapes more intensely by splitting the Curriculum into 4 lessons per week. We use our own resources specially designed by us, to hone the skills needed by the child to fulfil the requirements at this level of learning.
Primary (Yr 1 – 6) & Secondary (7 To 12)	At this stage and those following, we strongly encourage unlimited support in the Arabic language especially to the Arab students, being as it is considered their first language, even though it can not be labelled as such because the first language in our school is English. Parents must be aware of this point and co-operate with the school in order to overcome any difficulties in the language at all stages.

The school offers its senior students a chance to sit examinations for Arabic and Islamic Studies. VES currently offers:

Arabic GCSE for non Arab students (second language level)
Arabic IGCSE for Arab students (first language level)
Arabic as AS / A for students in Years 12 & 13
GCSE Islamic Studies

Studying Arabic and Islamic Studies (for Muslims) requires an equivalency up to Year 12 according to the rules implemented by the Ministry of Education in the UAE.