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Principal Joseph Moyster aims to share his wealth of experience in the kingdom’s recently-opened Capital School by reinforcing family values and offering an alternative place of learning to the island’s well-established British-curriculum schools.
Following the achievements of the Capital School Dubai, its owner Adel Al Safar decided to bring its successful formula to Bahrain and appointed the 60-year-old father-of-two to lead the enterprise.
The school’s ethos is to nurture students with high aspirations allowing them to succeed and become the creative thinkers they need to be in order to contribute as global citizens of the future.
Mr Moyster boasts 29 years of experience, often gained in challenging environments and turning under-achieving schools in the UK into flourishing educational beacons. He said: “I was first appointed as a principal of a primary school at the age of 29 and had to take over the whole school with very limited experience. It came as a great surprise and delight. It was a little school just outside Liverpool with 100 pupils.
“Following that I started helping schools in challenging circumstances that were failing or where head teachers needed extra support. I would be called upon by bigger schools in more challenging areas, particularly in the inner-cities.
“Children give you so much back, far more than you ever give them. It’s so good to see them develop and grow.”
Before the opening of the Capital School Bahrain, Mr Moyster and his team worked relentlessly to ensure that its facilities, located in Al Ahli Sports Complex in Zinj, would provide students with a safe and friendly environment, along with great athletic facilities.
The three-storey building currently features 24 classrooms, offering places in Foundation Stage (FS) for children aged three and four as well as Years 1 and 2 for children aged between five and seven.
The rooms for the early-years are beautifully decorated with cushy mats on the floors featuring a map of a small town, shelves full of educational and fairytale books, hand puppets and an assortment of toys.
The class sizes contain around 20 students in Foundation Stage and 25 students throughout the rest of the school. The school also boasts access to Al Ahli Club’s state-of-the-art sports facilities including a football pitch, hall and swimming pool.
Mr Moyster believes balance is essential to the development of a child. He said: “We offer the English National Curriculum and The Early Years and Foundation Stage programme, as well as Arabic and Islamic studies in line with the Ministry of Education.
“Our teaching approaches reflect the very best of current UK and international teaching practice and our curriculum and learning environments are stimulating and purposeful in design.
“We endeavour to create an atmosphere of warmth and care because we believe that a happy child learns well. Also, the location is superb; it’s off the road, away from the busy main street and very secure indeed. It has good access for parents coming in and good parking.
“We have the use of excellent sports facilities which is another part of the school that I really want to develop because I’m a great believer in offering a balanced curriculum.
“It’s not just about the academics. While academics are very important to me, it’s about getting that balance of arts, music and sport. That’s what brings an added dimension to a child’s development.”
For the past few months, the school has been inundated with registrations and plans are already underway to open classes to cater from FS1 to Year 6 in September, with a possible two form entries in certain year groups to meet demand.
Last week, the school was advertising to recruit additional staff members including Foundation Stage I & II and Arabic/Islamic teachers, as well as non-teaching classroom assistants.
According to early years’ co-ordinator, Lyn Barrie, there has been intense interest in the school following several ‘Meet the Principal and Staff’ events. She said: “The general word out there is very positive.”
Plans are also in place to open a secondary co-educational school starting in September 2016, teaching Years 7 to 9 English National Curriculum and IGCSE.
* For more details, contact 17008880 or email info@capitalschoolbahrain.com
