INFORMATION ABOUT EMPLOYMENT IN DAS
SUMMARY
Dhahran Ahliyya Schools (DAS) is searching for qualified, enthusiastic faculty members who will participate in the school'sdrive for continuous improvement.
DAS is a not-for-profit, preK –12 school near the coast of the Arabian-Persian Gulf in Saudi Arabia. Founded in 1977 as an Arabic school, it has now achieved US accreditation (NCA) so it can move gradually toward becoming a dual-language school (Arabic and English). With more than 1760 students in a modern girls' school and boys' school side by side, DAS is now able to offer both a Saudi diploma and an American diploma.
The school's welcoming professional learning community aims to develop compassionate 21rst century citizens and to contribute to the development of education in the Arab world. Absolutely committed to continuous progress in student learning, the DAS strategy for achieving it is to involve all teachers in an ongoing program of individual and collaborative professional development. PD courses are based on current educational research in the US that has been translated and made available in both languages. Individual teacher's progress is supported, evaluated and rewarded with movement up the salary scale when student learning is enhanced through the use of improved strategies applied consistently and appropriately in the classroom.
DAS currently requires qualified English speaking teachers with at least two years of teaching experience for various openings.
Starting salaries for teachers hired from English-speaking countries for two year contracts are competitive, tax-free and paid in addition to fully furnished housing, medical insurance, annual re-patriation tickets and discounted tuition for up to three children registered at DAS.
For all applications, please send a full copy of the most recent CV, together with a covering letter and at least three letters of recommendation to the following email address:
[email protected]
SUMMARY
Dhahran Ahliyya Schools (DAS) is searching for qualified, enthusiastic faculty members who will participate in the school'sdrive for continuous improvement.
DAS is a not-for-profit, preK –12 school near the coast of the Arabian-Persian Gulf in Saudi Arabia. Founded in 1977 as an Arabic school, it has now achieved US accreditation (NCA) so it can move gradually toward becoming a dual-language school (Arabic and English). With more than 1760 students in a modern girls' school and boys' school side by side, DAS is now able to offer both a Saudi diploma and an American diploma.
The school's welcoming professional learning community aims to develop compassionate 21rst century citizens and to contribute to the development of education in the Arab world. Absolutely committed to continuous progress in student learning, the DAS strategy for achieving it is to involve all teachers in an ongoing program of individual and collaborative professional development. PD courses are based on current educational research in the US that has been translated and made available in both languages. Individual teacher's progress is supported, evaluated and rewarded with movement up the salary scale when student learning is enhanced through the use of improved strategies applied consistently and appropriately in the classroom.
DAS currently requires qualified English speaking teachers with at least two years of teaching experience for various openings.
Starting salaries for teachers hired from English-speaking countries for two year contracts are competitive, tax-free and paid in addition to fully furnished housing, medical insurance, annual re-patriation tickets and discounted tuition for up to three children registered at DAS.
For all applications, please send a full copy of the most recent CV, together with a covering letter and at least three letters of recommendation to the following email address:
[email protected]
"WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT DAS?" - "WHY DAS?"
· DAS is a highly respected school.
o DAS is a school with an excellent reputation among students, parents and teachers that has been built up through the past 33 years.
o DAS has achieved US accreditation (NCA) as well as Saudi government recognition.
o DAS has become a source for information on modern education in Arabic since it has translated and published more than sixty books for the training of teachers. (Discipline with Dignity, Cooperative Learning, Understanding by Design, Building Self Esteem, etc.)
· DAS students and graduates are highly respected.
o 98% of DAS graduates attend four-year colleges and universities.
o Most have gained entry to the best universities in Saudi Arabia and the Arab countries. Many have gone directly to Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Wellesley, Brown, Williams, Texas A &M, McGill, University of London and others. A few students have gone to the Far East and studied in China or Japan.
o DAS students have consistently won national and international competitions in robotics and science fairs.
o DAS teams have won awards in Model United Nations conferences in Singapore, Turkey, Berlin, London, Qatar, and other countries.
· DAS is committed to excellence and continuous progress.
o DAS is a not-for-profit institution founded solely for the purpose of providing excellence in education.
o The DAS motto is: “Every year, we will be better than we were in the year before!”
o The DAS strategy for achieving its vision of itself as a professional learning community is to involve all teachers in an ongoing program of reflection, support groups, coaching, training, and group planning.
o All teachers are learning through the school’s Plan for Continuous Progress in Learning (PCPL) which links the programs of professional development, performance assessment and compensation. These programs are based on recent and current international educational research.
o All employees are in the school without students for one month each summer for training, preparation, and academic committee work.
· DAS is stable and dependable.
o DAS has been housed in a beautiful building leased from Aramco, the national oil company, since 1985. It has just signed another Lease Agreement for 2010 – 2018.
o About 51% of the DAS staff has been working in the school for more than 5 years, including 13% who have been working in the school for 10-15 years and 20% for more than 15 years.
o The number of applicants for admission to the school increases each year. The number of students who applied in the spring of 2009-2010 for grades K-1 was 315 for a total of 123 places , whereas the number of students who applied for grades 2-11 was 454 for only 25 places.
o DAS pays salaries for twelve months of the year and has never been late in those payments a single time throughout its 33 years of operation.
· The area of the school includes a very diverse, international population with tens of thousands of Western and Eastern expatriates living peacefully through several generations.
o The cost of living is the lowest in the Arabian Gulf.
The weather in the Eastern Province is beautiful and comfortable for about six months of the year, including much of the school year. For the other six months, everything is air conditioned and schools are on vacation during 8 weeks of the worst weather.
o DAS is 15 minutes from the beaches and good fishing spots in the Arabian-Persian Gulf, 30 minutes from the desert, and 2-3 hours from excellent areas for camping when the desert blooms in rainy seasons.
o DAS is one hour’s drive across the causeway from Bahrain, one hour’s flight from Dubai, less than two hour’s flight from Mecca and two and a half hour’s flight from Beirut and Cairo.
o Dhahran, Dammam and AlKhobar, rapidly growing together into one urban area, have a wide range of restaurants with cuisines of many different nationalities in addition to the most of the major fast food chains now known around the world.
o There are multiple large, modern, fully air-conditioned malls with a wide range of imported products, with the highest end, middle and economical level goods. There are also traditional markets with handicrafts from the area and elsewhere.
o Foreign foods and products are readily available in modern supermarkets, primarily from the US, UK and Europe as well as from South Asia and the Far East.
o Good hospitals, medical services and an international array of medicines are available through the medical
· DAS is a highly respected school.
o DAS is a school with an excellent reputation among students, parents and teachers that has been built up through the past 33 years.
o DAS has achieved US accreditation (NCA) as well as Saudi government recognition.
o DAS has become a source for information on modern education in Arabic since it has translated and published more than sixty books for the training of teachers. (Discipline with Dignity, Cooperative Learning, Understanding by Design, Building Self Esteem, etc.)
· DAS students and graduates are highly respected.
o 98% of DAS graduates attend four-year colleges and universities.
o Most have gained entry to the best universities in Saudi Arabia and the Arab countries. Many have gone directly to Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Wellesley, Brown, Williams, Texas A &M, McGill, University of London and others. A few students have gone to the Far East and studied in China or Japan.
o DAS students have consistently won national and international competitions in robotics and science fairs.
o DAS teams have won awards in Model United Nations conferences in Singapore, Turkey, Berlin, London, Qatar, and other countries.
· DAS is committed to excellence and continuous progress.
o DAS is a not-for-profit institution founded solely for the purpose of providing excellence in education.
o The DAS motto is: “Every year, we will be better than we were in the year before!”
o The DAS strategy for achieving its vision of itself as a professional learning community is to involve all teachers in an ongoing program of reflection, support groups, coaching, training, and group planning.
o All teachers are learning through the school’s Plan for Continuous Progress in Learning (PCPL) which links the programs of professional development, performance assessment and compensation. These programs are based on recent and current international educational research.
o All employees are in the school without students for one month each summer for training, preparation, and academic committee work.
· DAS is stable and dependable.
o DAS has been housed in a beautiful building leased from Aramco, the national oil company, since 1985. It has just signed another Lease Agreement for 2010 – 2018.
o About 51% of the DAS staff has been working in the school for more than 5 years, including 13% who have been working in the school for 10-15 years and 20% for more than 15 years.
o The number of applicants for admission to the school increases each year. The number of students who applied in the spring of 2009-2010 for grades K-1 was 315 for a total of 123 places , whereas the number of students who applied for grades 2-11 was 454 for only 25 places.
o DAS pays salaries for twelve months of the year and has never been late in those payments a single time throughout its 33 years of operation.
· The area of the school includes a very diverse, international population with tens of thousands of Western and Eastern expatriates living peacefully through several generations.
o The cost of living is the lowest in the Arabian Gulf.
The weather in the Eastern Province is beautiful and comfortable for about six months of the year, including much of the school year. For the other six months, everything is air conditioned and schools are on vacation during 8 weeks of the worst weather.
o DAS is 15 minutes from the beaches and good fishing spots in the Arabian-Persian Gulf, 30 minutes from the desert, and 2-3 hours from excellent areas for camping when the desert blooms in rainy seasons.
o DAS is one hour’s drive across the causeway from Bahrain, one hour’s flight from Dubai, less than two hour’s flight from Mecca and two and a half hour’s flight from Beirut and Cairo.
o Dhahran, Dammam and AlKhobar, rapidly growing together into one urban area, have a wide range of restaurants with cuisines of many different nationalities in addition to the most of the major fast food chains now known around the world.
o There are multiple large, modern, fully air-conditioned malls with a wide range of imported products, with the highest end, middle and economical level goods. There are also traditional markets with handicrafts from the area and elsewhere.
o Foreign foods and products are readily available in modern supermarkets, primarily from the US, UK and Europe as well as from South Asia and the Far East.
o Good hospitals, medical services and an international array of medicines are available through the medical
WHAT IS EXPECTED OF DAS TEACHERS?
1. The teacher is expected to take responsibility for the learning, development, and well-being of DAS students, whether inside the classroom or outside it, regardless of their background, nationality, tribal heritage, religion, race, social position, strengths or weaknesses.
2. The teacher is expected to interact with students in a positive way, accepting and encouraging them as whole, unique persons with strengths and weaknesses. Above all, the teacher is expected to take responsibility for his words and actions on the understanding that what he says to students and the way he interacts with them inside and outside the classroom may communicate more and be far more influential than anything he does in the process of teaching lessons.
3. The teacher is expected to focus on his students’ learning related to:
a) DAS academic standards and Targeted Characteristics,
b) gather evidence of their achievement,
c) analyze and interpret the evidence and make use of it to plan to improve the learning of each child
d) work with other teachers to help enhance the learning of all students in the cluster.
The DAS Targeted Characteristics describe our aims for the most important attitudes and personal skills that we target for our students and ourselves. They were developed jointly by faculty and staff, parents, students, and DAS alumni. They can be found on the School’s internet website. The DAS academic standards are provided to all employees through the DAS intranet, and are updated periodically.
4. The teacher is expected to apply full personal effort to improving his ability to model the DAS Targeted Characteristics.
5. The teacher is expected to collaborate with members of his team according to the norms and practices agreed on as part of the professional learning community and to follow the guidelines agreed upon. He is also expected to participate fully in activities, projects and plans agreed upon by the team for improving the learning of the students and the work of the group and the school as a whole.
6. The teacher is expected to use every opportunity to learn and improve his knowledge and skills as a teacher, according to the guidelines for Professional Development described in the DAS Plan for Continuous Progress (PCP).
The skills and strategies which the teacher is expected to develop and on which he will be evaluated are described in detail in the rubric entitled “Standards for Teaching at DAS.” This document is provided to all employees through the DAS intranet. After the teacher is evaluated as achieving a certain standard, he is expected to maintain it and to integrate the skills and strategies he has learned consistently and effectively in his daily work with students, while at the same time, working to learn and develop himself more.
7. The teacher is expected to fulfill the roles assigned in relation to monitoring hallways and playgrounds and to participate in the application of agreed upon discipline policies and procedures both inside and outside the classroom, in the school and during school events and trips.
8. The teacher is expected to dedicate all his time in school and many hours outside the normal school schedule to fulfilling the responsibilities of his position. In addition to normal school hours, he is expected to use time at home to complete preparations for school work. Further, he will be asked to be in school after regular hours and on Thursdays from time to time for such activities as meetings, especially with his professional learning community group, grading examinations, conferencing with parents, training students for special occasions, participating in school events, participating in school trips and outings, attending lectures, training, entrance examinations of new students, or other.
9. The teacher is expected to refrain from seeking or accepting any personal benefits, gifts or additional pay from his students or their families.
10. The teacher is expected to abide fully by the rules and regulations of the school and of the government of Saudi Arabia.
11. The teacher is expected to fulfill the requirements of the job title identified in the employment contract and to abide fully by the terms specified there as well as in school policies and any amendments to them. DAS has the right to modify the job title and/or duties from time to time according to its needs, after informing the teacher in writing about the changes.
WHAT IS THE DAS POLICY REGARDING EMPLOYEES WHO TAKE ADDITIONAL JOBS
The employee absolutely may not work for others (even for free) while he is still working at DAS. Working outside the school, including working as a tutor for DAS students or others, is considered grounds for termination of contract. In case the employee violates this rule, DAS shall apply against him the terms of the Saudi Labor Law and DAS Internal Regulations.
The employee identified as working for others during his contract period is put "On Notice" that he is on probationary status as soon as it is proven that he works for others. DAS has the right to take against this particular employee whatever it finds appropriate of the following measures:
1. Termination of the employee's contract within or at the end of the current contract
2. Depriving the employee of the "Letter of Release"
3. Depriving the employee of the "Letter of No Objection"
4. Depriving the employee of the statement that shows his participation in the training courses and of the recommendations related to the duration of his work
5. Stating clearly in the certificate of experience given to him the reason for terminating the contract
6. Notifying the concerned official authorities of the incident
7. Any other measures that are compatible with the Saudi Labor Law
DAS hopes that its employees abide by its rules and regulations for their own sake and for the sake of work for which they are employed.
1. The teacher is expected to take responsibility for the learning, development, and well-being of DAS students, whether inside the classroom or outside it, regardless of their background, nationality, tribal heritage, religion, race, social position, strengths or weaknesses.
2. The teacher is expected to interact with students in a positive way, accepting and encouraging them as whole, unique persons with strengths and weaknesses. Above all, the teacher is expected to take responsibility for his words and actions on the understanding that what he says to students and the way he interacts with them inside and outside the classroom may communicate more and be far more influential than anything he does in the process of teaching lessons.
3. The teacher is expected to focus on his students’ learning related to:
a) DAS academic standards and Targeted Characteristics,
b) gather evidence of their achievement,
c) analyze and interpret the evidence and make use of it to plan to improve the learning of each child
d) work with other teachers to help enhance the learning of all students in the cluster.
The DAS Targeted Characteristics describe our aims for the most important attitudes and personal skills that we target for our students and ourselves. They were developed jointly by faculty and staff, parents, students, and DAS alumni. They can be found on the School’s internet website. The DAS academic standards are provided to all employees through the DAS intranet, and are updated periodically.
4. The teacher is expected to apply full personal effort to improving his ability to model the DAS Targeted Characteristics.
5. The teacher is expected to collaborate with members of his team according to the norms and practices agreed on as part of the professional learning community and to follow the guidelines agreed upon. He is also expected to participate fully in activities, projects and plans agreed upon by the team for improving the learning of the students and the work of the group and the school as a whole.
6. The teacher is expected to use every opportunity to learn and improve his knowledge and skills as a teacher, according to the guidelines for Professional Development described in the DAS Plan for Continuous Progress (PCP).
The skills and strategies which the teacher is expected to develop and on which he will be evaluated are described in detail in the rubric entitled “Standards for Teaching at DAS.” This document is provided to all employees through the DAS intranet. After the teacher is evaluated as achieving a certain standard, he is expected to maintain it and to integrate the skills and strategies he has learned consistently and effectively in his daily work with students, while at the same time, working to learn and develop himself more.
7. The teacher is expected to fulfill the roles assigned in relation to monitoring hallways and playgrounds and to participate in the application of agreed upon discipline policies and procedures both inside and outside the classroom, in the school and during school events and trips.
8. The teacher is expected to dedicate all his time in school and many hours outside the normal school schedule to fulfilling the responsibilities of his position. In addition to normal school hours, he is expected to use time at home to complete preparations for school work. Further, he will be asked to be in school after regular hours and on Thursdays from time to time for such activities as meetings, especially with his professional learning community group, grading examinations, conferencing with parents, training students for special occasions, participating in school events, participating in school trips and outings, attending lectures, training, entrance examinations of new students, or other.
9. The teacher is expected to refrain from seeking or accepting any personal benefits, gifts or additional pay from his students or their families.
10. The teacher is expected to abide fully by the rules and regulations of the school and of the government of Saudi Arabia.
11. The teacher is expected to fulfill the requirements of the job title identified in the employment contract and to abide fully by the terms specified there as well as in school policies and any amendments to them. DAS has the right to modify the job title and/or duties from time to time according to its needs, after informing the teacher in writing about the changes.
WHAT IS THE DAS POLICY REGARDING EMPLOYEES WHO TAKE ADDITIONAL JOBS
The employee absolutely may not work for others (even for free) while he is still working at DAS. Working outside the school, including working as a tutor for DAS students or others, is considered grounds for termination of contract. In case the employee violates this rule, DAS shall apply against him the terms of the Saudi Labor Law and DAS Internal Regulations.
The employee identified as working for others during his contract period is put "On Notice" that he is on probationary status as soon as it is proven that he works for others. DAS has the right to take against this particular employee whatever it finds appropriate of the following measures:
1. Termination of the employee's contract within or at the end of the current contract
2. Depriving the employee of the "Letter of Release"
3. Depriving the employee of the "Letter of No Objection"
4. Depriving the employee of the statement that shows his participation in the training courses and of the recommendations related to the duration of his work
5. Stating clearly in the certificate of experience given to him the reason for terminating the contract
6. Notifying the concerned official authorities of the incident
7. Any other measures that are compatible with the Saudi Labor Law
DAS hopes that its employees abide by its rules and regulations for their own sake and for the sake of work for which they are employed.