By Alyaa Malik
Within the grounds of the Diplomatic Quarter lies an oasis of knowledge for young minds: King Faisal School. It’s a place where they are molded to become learners, leaders, and diligent workers; the kind of men needed to carry Saudi Arabia into the future.
This academic institution was inaugurated back in September 1991 under the sponsorship of the King Faisal Foundation. The campus, which was initially meant to be a school for the US Embassy, is a huge property made of fourteen buildings, numerous sports fields and well-kept gardens. There’s a telescope situated in one of the nearby buildings, one of the largest in Saudi Arabia, and it is possibly even symbolic in inspiring the schoolchildren to reach for the stars.
The school is accredited by the International Baccalaureate© organization, which enforces a respected form of international education focused on developing one’s intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills that are necessary in today’s global society. In addition to that, educators have formatted their approach to consider the learning styles of boys, making the culture and environment of King Faisal School distinctive from most international schools in Riyadh. We met with the Secondary School Principal, Mr. Alan Morley, who told us more about the school’s activities, achievements and future plans.
Q: Can you tell us more about the King Faisal School curriculum?
Alan Morley (AM): We take pride in our International Baccalaureate (IB) Program, which prepares the kids to a broader, conceptual learning. We let them explore big ideas and ask them to figure out how to apply them in the real world; what problems can we solve by the application of these ideas. We constantly challenge the students to reflect and write about their experiences in order to encourage critical thinking. It is a rigorous and demanding program that doesn’t necessarily require being clever but one must rather have a good work ethic. The IB Program is focused on building a learner. We also have the Creativity, Action and Service (CAS) Program that allows students to engage in community-service projects.
Q: The IB Program sounds like a great program. What has been the feedback from past/present students on this program?
AM: Since it’s launch eight years ago, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. What they find as a learner, is self-mastery. The advantage of having an IB diploma means that once you have it, you are pretty much bulletproof. I can send you to any school without worrying about your capabilities. It is recognized overseas as an advantage diploma, even equivalent to the first year of university school in the US.
Q: What are the students like in KFS?
AM: The community in KFS is generally very internationally outward-looking. With our location being in the DQ, this gives us the international focus. Most of our students are well-traveled or have lived overseas with their parents, many of them being children of ambassadors.
Q: What can you tell us about the various activities that the school /students are involved in? Perhaps in the field of sports, academe and community service?
AM: Yes, we have a very broad sports program in the school. We offer football, handball, basketball, swimming and scuba diving. We have also established a liaison with the Saudi Archery Federation and the Saudi Cycling Federation to give our kids access to their elite programs. Given the extent of diabetes and obesity in the local population, it’s really important for us to develop strong fitness habits in our kids. This year, we re-joined the International School Sports League in Riyadh after a long time. We competed against 11 other schools and we won, for the first time in all three categories of the football league (Middle School, Junior Varsity and Varsity) No one has ever done that before and we are very proud of them for their achievements. For the academics, our students recently traveled to St. Petersburg in Russia to participate in the Model United Nations and one of our students won as best speaker. Last year, we also had a student win a gold medal at the International Mathematics Olympiad. We have the Wadi Trail Clean Up Drive as one of our community service projects and last year we held the first ever KFS Bazaar which was completely managed by the students themselves. It was a huge success with over 5,000 people in attendance and raising over 400,00 SAR that went to a charitable cause.
Q: What are your future plans for KFS going forward?
AM: Our aim is to to make it a more effective IB Program and broaden the children’s international mindedness. Constantly, we want to push kids to be better, to push beyond their limits. We want them to start becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable.
King Faisal School
Diplomatic Quarter
PO Box 94558
Riyadh 11614
Contact No.: +966-11-482-0802
Fax: +966-11-482-1521
Email: kfs@kfs.sch.sa
