Saudi Gazette Hala International School (HIS), offering British curriculum and accredited by NWAC, is one of the well-known schools among the expatriate community of Jeddah. For more than 20 years it has been consistently educating thousands of students who have passed through its portals. Today, Halaites stand tall in every field all over the world and gratefully acknowledge the strong foundation that the school provided them. HIS is the vision and brainchild of its principal, Tanveer Tariq, whose aim was to provide excellent and affordable education to the expatriate community. Students sometimes had to wait for a year to gain admission into the Hala fraternity. Now, it has more than 1,500 students in its kindergarten, girls and boys' section, and a staff of about 150. Never has the need been greater, for educational institutes to be beacons for the youth to ascertain what is right for them and grow into morally upright and responsive human beings and citizens of the world. Hala fosters and encourages an atmosphere of social and cultural harmony and equality, and is home to 24 different nationalities. HIS has been successfully preparing its students for the IGCSE and Cambridge A Level examinations. Its first batch of IGCSE in 2000 and A level in 2007 resulted in outstanding achievements with Top World and KSA rankings. For the fifth consecutive year its students have achieved top rankings. In the May-June 2012 examinations, its student Syeeda Aasia ranked top in the KSA in AS Level Accounting. She scored A's in all the subjects she appeared for at the AS level. Mohammad Ragialla of the IGCSE secured the second position in Jeddah among students taking nine subjects. He had scored 6 A*s and 3 A's with distinction. Both joined HIS at kindergarten. For the academic year 2011-2012 HIS achieved 90 A*s and 186 A's for the IGCSE. A highly competent and dedicated staff, who place the success of the students at the heart of every instructional decision, are to be credited for the laurels achieved. Academics are not the only field HIS excels in with the students being active and enthusiastic participants in co-curricular and extracurricular activities. A range of activities including debates, quizzes, elocutions, spelling bees, storytelling, recitation, etc., encourage a strong sense of healthy competition. Students compete for individual honors and also for their teams. The four houses, Bluettes, Greenettes, Rosettes and Yellowettes vie with each other for top honors. Today's children are tomorrow's leaders. Keeping this in mind, HIS conducts elections for the students' cabinet. A head boy/head girl and a school captain head the cabinet comprising of house captains and sports captains. Sport has reached new heights at HIS with the completion of the Hala Cricket Academy (HCA) in 2010, which also serves as the sports ground for the boys' section. The ground measures 5,000 sq. m and was the first green grass cricket academy in the Kingdom. Physical fitness is taken very seriously. Physical Education classes are conducted regularly and the Annual Sports Day is one of the most awaited events of the academic calendar and is its highlight. Students are also actively involved in team sports like cricket and football. Hala International's cricket team has won all under 19, under 17 and under 15 championships it has participated in. It has also contributed members to the Saudi national team. Its well-equipped and modern science labs, IT labs and library have ensured that the school has also been keeping pace with the ever-changing and evolving technological development and globalization. Video conferencing facilities are also an added bonus for its students and help make sure they do not lose out on anything. In its pursuit of excellence, Hala International has made and always will make all attempts to identify and develop the individual strengths of each of its pupils and guide and prepare them for a brilliant future and proudly live up to its motto of “Helping the present and forming the future.”
