Al Riyadh Charter School Achieves IQM International Centre of Excellence Status

August 27, 2026

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We are delighted to celebrate Al Riyadh Charter School’s achievement of the IQM International Centre of Excellence Award.

Serving just less than 4,000 students across a large and highly complex K–12 setting, the school has worked hard to establish the clarity, structure and professional culture required to sustain improvement at scale. Schools of this size can easily become fragmented or overly dependent on compliance systems. At ARCS, safeguarding, wellbeing, attendance, behaviour, intervention and classroom support now appear more closely aligned through a shared focus on student success and belonging.

A Culture Where Every Child Belongs

Al Riyadh Charter School (ARCS) demonstrates a deeply embedded culture of inclusion where belonging and student wellbeing are central to the life of the school. Inclusion is clearly reflected in the school’s mission, values and day-to-day practice, ensuring that all learners, including Students of Determination, ELL learners, EAL learners, and those requiring additional support, achieve positive academic, social and emotional outcomes. The aspiration is articulated in the following clear message, “every child, every voice, every opportunity.”

The school has identified a visible link and compares itself to a wolf pack. This is fully understood by all stakeholders and the similarities are used to maximum impact across lots of areas. The description is that the school community is similar to a wolf pack with the idea that, “every wolf cub deserves to feel they belong.”

A real strength of the school is the high-quality student leadership team. This is highly celebrated and the students are given empowerment and distributed leadership. The structure is closely aligned to the wolf pack theme, and some examples include, scout ambassadors, den captains, head of cub packs, national identity, and eco warriors. A group of Year 6 boys described the leadership opportunities as, “being given these positions is great for us and has made a huge difference to us in school. We are trusted to talk to other students and get their views, help with activities and we even visit homes in the community with important energy saving messages. We also have uniforms that we wear that make us feel extra special.”

Transforming Inclusion Across the School

Leadership at Al Riyadh Charter School demonstrates a clear and ambitious commitment to inclusion, wellbeing and continuous improvement. Inclusion is embedded within the school’s strategic vision and operational structures, rather than existing as a separate initiative. There has been a systemic shift in the last two years since the appointment of the Principal, who has built a new leadership team and put in place a new strategic focus of using data to inform strategic decision making.

The school is fully aware it is going through a period of rapid improvement and understands the process of the stages of effective improvement, using the research model of, “foundation to consistency to empowerment to excellence.” A robust multi-tiered system of support enables leaders to track attendance, behaviour, wellbeing and academic progress carefully, allowing interventions to be timely and responsive.

The Head of Inclusion is providing very strong leadership, both within the department and across the school. The work is very strategic and well distributed, with clear systems in place to review provision, monitor the impact, and ensure ongoing improvement is planned for.

Supporting Every Learner

The development of the Resource Based Classroom has strengthened the school’s inclusive capacity considerably. Leaders have invested in more specialist pathways whilst maintaining a clear commitment to mainstream inclusion wherever appropriate. Discussions surrounding reintegration pathways, transition planning and collaborative review processes suggested careful long-term planning rather than short-term intervention alone.

The Multi-Tiered System of Support is effectively used to identify educational needs early, monitor progress, and implement targeted interventions across academic, behavioural and wellbeing areas. There is collaborative planning taking place between teachers and inclusion staff and this ensures that education provision is responsive and aligned to individual student need.

Teachers are developing a wider range of adaptive strategies to support students of determination, ELL and EAL learners. There is clear evidence of staff using scaffolded questioning, flexible grouping, differentiated tasks and collaborative learning. The CPD delivery model is based on critical thinking and includes practical activities such as role-playing and carousels, rather than a more theoretical approach. The CPD Lead believes, “this inclusive approach is effective and bespoke to what the staff need, rather than the one size fits all model of CPD.”

The consistent use of visible, easily identifiable widgets, has strengthened independence, communication and engagement this year across all years. Visual supports, bilingual resources, sensory spaces and flexible seating arrangements support accessibility and student wellbeing. Students of determination benefit from Individualised Education Plans (IEPs) and the gifted and more able students (G&T) have Advanced Learning Plans.

Building a Culture of Wellbeing and Belonging

Al Riyadh Charter School has established a calm, positive and inclusive environment where behaviour, wellbeing and personal development are strongly promoted. The school’s values of being, “ready, respectful and responsible” are embedded consistently across the school community and underpin expectations for behaviour and relationships.

The counselling and wellbeing provision across the school played an especially important role during recent regional conflict and uncertainty. Staff described highly visible systems of student check-ins, pastoral monitoring and emotional support which helped ensure vulnerable learners remained connected, regulated and emotionally secure throughout the school day.

Leaders have worked deliberately to move practice away from reactive responses and towards a culture rooted in regulation, restoration and belonging. Students demonstrated increasing awareness of self-regulation strategies, staff spoke confidently about preventative approaches and learning environments felt calm and purposeful.

Find Out More About IQM

The Inclusion Quality Mark provides schools with a nationally recognised framework for developing and celebrating inclusive practice.

If your school is interested in achieving the IQM Inclusive School Award, contact the IQM team on 028 7127 7857 or email admin@iqmaward.com.