How Hartland International School, Dubai use CENTURY to support High-Performance Learning

Hartland International School is a High-Performance Learning school in Dubai. Niall Statham, Assistant Head, Whole School focusing on student experience, spoke to us about how CENTURY can support the development of thoughtful individuals who can thrive in school and beyond. 

As a High-Performance Learning (HPL) school, how does CENTURY contribute to your mission?

The alignment between CENTURY and HPL is clear. At Hartland, we prioritise equipping students with skills that prepare them for the future, and CENTURY supports us to do that. It empowers students to take charge of their learning. This complements the HPL concept of “With students not to them.” The platform gives students autonomy and balances privacy and personalisation, offering tailored content that challenges students at the right level.

In our diverse international school, with students from over 110 nationalities, this autonomy is invaluable. Each classroom is unique, and CENTURY adapts to individual needs, enabling students to explore their interests while mastering curriculum goals. Anything that gives the student agency plus teacher information is an absolute gold mine. 

Are there any other benefits of CENTURY to your organisation?

CENTURY enables self-directed exploration alongside structured learning. It’s a balance between the teacher delivering the information students need and then giving the students the opportunity to direct their own learning. This is something they can pursue more freely on CENTURY than on any other platform. Students can switch seamlessly between subjects which also helps with consistency of delivery.

Consistency is also what first led our inclusion department to introducing us to CENTURY. They can log in and see the progress of one of the students that they’re working with. The platform ensures students are doing meaningful curriculum work in a way that would previously have been difficult. 

It’s also really useful for cover lessons. If a student finishes the work for that lesson, there is always more work for them to complete on the platform that is adapted to their needs. 

How does CENTURY develop students’ life skills?

CENTURY makes hard work and progress tangible. Students see their achievements without over-reliance on gamification, promoting intrinsic motivation. This balance encourages genuine engagement.

In what ways does CENTURY support teachers in managing such a diverse and dynamic classroom environment?

CENTURY provides teachers with detailed insights into student progress. Using it for pre-teaching and pre-testing allows you to assess understanding before a lesson begins. This minimises the guesswork in teaching and ensures that lessons address students’ needs effectively.

Where CENTURY can really support is in the hinge moments of a lesson where you want to check for understanding. The platform allows you to quickly get that information, either before or following or even during lessons. With other platforms, you can’t be sure they are focussing on the areas they really need to improve on and you don’t have the data to track it. CENTURY is the ideal tool for this. 

Teachers can use CENTURY’s dashboards to track students’ effort and perseverance, backed by the data available of time spent and progress made. This is especially powerful in developing students’ understanding of hard work and resilience, a key component of HPL. The platform facilitates conversations about these concepts. 

How would you like to move forward with CENTURY?

Moving forward, we want to integrate CENTURY into our admissions process when new learners arrive at the school. Lots of our students join the school with English as a second language and it can be difficult to discern if an issue is to do with a lack of understanding of a concept or a language barrier. We want CENTURY to bridge that gap so that we are getting better information to teachers faster. This will help teachers tailor lessons immediately, bridging gaps faster and fostering smoother transitions for students joining from diverse educational backgrounds.

To learn more about how CENTURY can work in your international school, click here.