Ahliah 2020-2025
With the tremendous work that the school has been doing on its strategic goal (2017-2022) of Ensuring the continuous building of an environment that is conducive to Transformative Learning with Technology and achieving full integration of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards”, the school could smoothly and quickly transition to online learning when the schools in Lebanon closed in March 2020 with the onset of the COVID crisis. The full transition to Remote Learning required modification to the curriculum, teaching strategies, and assessment and evaluation methods. The Virtual learning took place through a combination of virtual classrooms mainly Google Classroom for asynchronous learning and live sessions using tools like Google Meet.
On August 4, 2020, with the devastating blast at the Beirut port which is less than 2km away from the school, Ahliah witnessed significant property damage including complete damage of its two entrance doors and about 70% of its windows and doors as well as false ceilings were dislodged and glass shattered. Within, few weeks Ahliah could raise funds and fix all the damages to welcome its students in the first mid of September 2020. In 2020-2021, the school resorted for the hybrid modality of learning for almost the whole academic year where some students in-person and others online.
After a joint CIS-NEASC team visit in November 2022, Ahliah was awarded re-accreditation from both the Council of International Schools and New England Association for Schools and Colleges.
Ahliah’s sustained achievements in curriculum development, innovative teaching approaches, and strategic professional development have positioned the school as a leading educational partner. Through systematic curriculum review aligning the curriculum with international standards while grounding it in the context of our students’ lives in their school and community, the integration of inquiry-based and interdisciplinary learning, and the promotion of different strategies of assessments, Ahliah has strengthened academic rigor and student engagement. Its structured professional development framework fosters reflective practice, instructional coaching, and collaborative planning. These efforts created a culture of research, innovation, and continuous improvement, encouraged the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the American University of Beirut to formalize collaboration through a Memorandum of Understanding across teacher preparation, research, and professional networking.
