Revolutionising Education: How GEMS Schools Leverage CENTURY for Success

Successfully integrating any new technology across a school, let alone a group of schools, presents a significant challenge. It requires a clear vision, dedicated leadership, and demonstrable impact to achieve genuine staff and student buy-in. In a recent webinar, CENTURY was joined by two leaders from GEMS Education to explore their journeys of embedding the CENTURY AI-powered teaching and learning platform into the heart of their schools.

The session, “Revolutionising Education – How GEMS schools leverage CENTURY for success,” featured insights from Phil Yates, Head of Primary at GEMS Cambridge International School (CIS) Dubai, and Phil Waterworth, Primary Co-Principal at GEMS Wellington Academy Al Khail. They shared a candid look at their initial hurdles, the strategies that drove adoption, and the outstanding impact on teacher workload and student outcomes.

The Journey at GEMS Cambridge International School, Dubai: Overcoming Hurdles to Secure Buy-In

For Phil Yates and his team at GEMS CIS, the journey began with a slow start. The school faced several common implementation challenges, including:

• A mid-year rollout with no clear initial direction
• An overwhelming number of existing EdTech platforms, causing confusion
• Concerns from parents about increased screen time
• Difficulty gaining buy-in from teachers, particularly in secondary where there was a fear of distracting from a packed syllabus

The solution was a strategic and determined approach to leadership. Phil explained the need for someone to “grab the bull by the horns” and drive the vision. This involved creating a ‘Working Party’ of “CENTURY Tech Champions” to pioneer the platform, alongside making usage a formal part of Performance Management targets to ensure accountability. An audit of all EdTech tools demonstrated that CENTURY could absorb the function of multiple other platforms, streamlining the school’s digital toolkit.

The results of this dedicated effort speak for themselves. This academic year, students at GEMS CIS have:

• Answered nearly three million self-marked questions on CENTURY, receiving instant, personalised feedback
• Shown an average improvement of 19% between their first and second attempts on diagnostic assessments
• Achieved ‘Outstanding’ GL assessment results across all year groups from Y2-Y10

Innovation and Student Engagement in the Classroom at GEMS Wellington Academy Al Khail

At GEMS Wellington Academy Al Khail, Phil Waterworth shared how CENTURY has become a cornerstone of classroom practice. The school’s implementation journey has been a gradual process, focused on embedding strategies deeply before moving to the next stage.

A key strategy has been “smarter feedback”. Teachers use custom-made CENTURY stamps in students’ books to direct them to a specific nugget that addresses a misconception, consolidates learning, or provides an extension task. This simple but effective tool has become a huge hit with staff, helping to make feedback more timely and impactful without increasing workload.

Innovative strategies are employed to foster student engagement and celebration through:

• Weekly leaderboards displayed in classrooms and corridors
• Whole-school assemblies where we announce the top-performing classes and year groups, which the students love
• Participation in national competitions like the CENTURY Winter Cup, which drives engagement even further

Another innovative practice is the use of CENTURY’s data to inform flexible groupings before a lesson begins. By analysing performance on a pre-assigned nugget, the teacher can identify which students need support, who is ready for a stretch, and who simply needs praise for their commitment. This allows for highly targeted input from the very start of the lesson.

This focus on data-driven teaching has yielded outstanding academic results, with both schools seeing significant annual increases in GL Progress Test results since introducing CENTURY:

GEMS Wellington Academy Al Khail

The proportion of students achieving above curriculum standards in their external GL Progress Tests has increased significantly since the school began using CENTURY in 2020.

Proportion of students achieving above curriculum standards:

• English: 21% increase
• Maths: 20% increase
• Science: 22% increase

GEMS Cambridge International School, Dubai

Data for the 2024–2025 academic year shows that student progress in GL tests from Year 2 to Year 10 is rated ‘outstanding’. Furthermore, an analysis of CENTURY usage during this same academic year reveals:

• 19% average improvement between students’ first and second attempts on diagnostic assessments

“CENTURY has played a really key and pivotal role in supporting those increases.” – Phil Waterworth, Primary Co-Principal at GEMS Wellington Academy Al Khail

Key lessons for a Successful Rollout

Both school leaders emphasised that while their school contexts are very different, their success was built on a shared set of principles. For any school looking to embed a new technology, their journey highlights the importance of a structured approach that champions the platform, provides ongoing training, and uses data to demonstrate tangible progress to all stakeholders – staff, students, parents, and governors.

Catch up on the full webinar here.

Book a demo to see how CENTURY can transform teaching and learning at your institution.

To learn more or get support, contact your Account Manager or email support@century.tech.