The history of ABQ schools starts with the venerable Azzan Bin Qais International School – a pioneer and an iconic presence in the Omani private education landscape. Started in 1990, it is an embodiment of transformation and development of Oman as a country and its education system. Azzan Bin Qais School was acquired by Al Omania Education in 2009, followed by a significant expansion and upgrade of the campus. Al Omania continued its commitment to the education sector by launching As Seeb International School – a state-of-the-art facility – in 2012. The third leg of the growth strategy was the acquisition of Sohar International School – the largest private school in the Batinah region. The teachers, staff, and of course your previous principal, have nurtured and taught the students well, and have put all their energy into making the school culture what it is today, and that is wonderful to see. Unfortunately, transitions are never easy, be it at school, college, or university, or in fact at any other stage of your life. It is only natural to feel a bit anxious about who is taking over as principal. We operate Cambridge International Schools, with CIE- and GED based curricula. Academic excellence is paramount to us, and the nature of our external exams have a significant bearing on our teaching philosophy. As these exams for the most part are skills and knowledge based, and generally exclude coursework, we put a lot of emphasis on curriculum proficiency in order for students to learn the specifics required. We are firm believers in an educational philosophy anchored in socio-constructivism, where students actively participate in problem-solving and critical thinking regarding a learning activity which they find relevant and engaging, thereby & “constructing” their own knowledge by testing ideas and approaches based on their prior knowledge and experience. At the same time, we believe that students need to be given a minimum knowledge base and skills via the more traditional methods to enable students to work effectively with the tasks they are given. Such educator-directed instruction is mainly to be used for transferring the optimal factual knowledge required for students to handle more complex learning activities involved in independent learning.