Dubai Sports City has confirmed that it will open a Dubai Campus of the legendary US school, Bradenton Preparatory Academy, on its premises in September of this year.
The Bradenton Preparatory Academy at Dubai Sports City – the first outside the United States – will offer a first class academic education with a bespoke method of learning to allow students time to train and compete in their chosen sports while simultaneously receiving an American College preparatory education.
The academy’s American College Preparatory curriculum covers a wide range of subject areas including English, Mathematics, social studies, performing art, and music. Arabic language and cultural studies will also be offered to all students.
Bradenton Preparatory Academy students will have a unique and sought after opportunity to benefit from the accredited coaching programmes and excellent sporting facilities offered at the Dubai Sports City Academies Campus – which is situated immediately next to Bradenton Preparatory Academy, thus providing a fully-integrated learning environment.
“Dubai Sports City and Bradenton Preparatory Academy share the same philosophy of providing the right scholastic and physical education environment for the all round development of students,” said Khalid Al Zarooni, President, Dubai Sports City. “The opening of Bradenton Preparatory Academy will complement the core offering within Dubai Sports City - a place to learn, live, work and play.”
In America, Bradenton Prep - founded in 1975 – innovated the concept of integrating a classical, college prep education, with elite sports training opportunities. The results of the program include over one thousand graduates earning over twenty-eight million dollars in academic and athletic scholarships.
“Parents expect more from a college prep school. Academic excellence is a given. They want a program that will seamlessly work with the other extra-activities that their children choose to pursue. We use 21st century tools to allow students to excel in the classroom and on the playing field,” said Dr. Susan Hedgcock, Head of School in Bradenton, Florida.
Initial registrations are now being taken for the new school year starting in September 2009 for boys and girls from kindergarten through to grade 12. The academy will house up to 900 students, with 200 expected to register in the first year.
To complement and further the Bradenton Preparatory Academy ethos, a keystone criterion is to ensure that classes have a very low student-teacher ratio and Bradenton Preparatory Academy operates with a maximum of 18 students per teacher, thereby ensuring that students receive individualized attention which educators find critical to scholastic advancement. The individualized attention allows the faculty to nurture the student to aspire to be the best they can be.
Bradenton Preparatory Academy has a documented success rate of sending 99 percent of its students attaining university placement, whilst the other one percent usually would have embarked on a career in professional sport.
“Dubai Sports City is the perfect location for the first Bradenton Preparatory Academy outside the US,” said the academy’s founder, Dr. Lois Gerber. “Our students will be provided the best education within a sporting environment which will nurture their natural talents, enable them to individually develop and make the extraordinary happen.”
“We have had many students from the UAE come to our school in Florida, and now we will be able to offer the same quality of education here in Dubai,” she added.
Former students of the Bradenton Preparatory Academy include UAE golfer Rhea Nair who is already finishing in the top ten places of tournaments; Christopher Davies, the son of Duncan Davies, Senior Vice President at Emirates Flight Catering, Bayhaan Lakdawala, Jassim Talah, Sebastian Hesele, Abdullah Al Duaij and current Florida student, Ahmed Al Mausharrekh.
Amongst many recognized accreditations, Bradenton Preparatory Academy is internationally accredited by the Commission on International and Trans-regional Association (CITA) and has been recognised for its excellence by the National Independent Private School Association (NIPSA) in the USA.
Bradenton also provides an advanced online portal for the parents to be in contact with teachers to monitor students’ homework, test results and tutorials.
The Bradenton Preparatory Academy will be located next to the Dubai Sports City Academies Campus, which includes the Dubai Sports City Football Academy, the home of Manchester United Soccer Schools, Dubai; a David Lloyd Tennis Academy; a Butch Harmon School of Golf, the first such facility outside the United States; and the International Cricket Council’s own ICC Global Cricket Academy.
In addition, Dubai Sports City is home to the WorldHockey Academy, a first of its kind partnership with the International Hockey Federation; a Swimming Academy based around a 50 metre swimming pool with a retractable boom allowing simultaneous use by multiple users; a Rugby Academy, a high performance gymnasium; and a world-renowned sports medicine and rehabilitation centre.
