Dhonveli School The island school: grades one to ten, three hundred and twelve children, one session a day
Grades one to ten, since 1979

One school, one island, and a parent hour every Wednesday

Term dates, notices, the uniform list, the admission months and what to bring, and who teaches what. If you need a class teacher rather than the office, the Wednesday hour is how to reach one without taking them out of a lesson.

Ask the office Grades and subjects
For parents

The four things parents ask the office for most

Term dates and the holidays

Three terms, published a year ahead and printed on a card that goes home with every child in the first week.

Reaching a class teacher

The Wednesday parent hour, eleven until noon, no appointment. Or a note in your child's message book, answered the next day.

The uniform list

What is needed, where it is sold on the island, and what the school lends rather than expecting a family to buy twice.

Examination timetables

Published three weeks before every term examination, on this site and on the board by the gate.

The school

Grades, subjects and what happens in each part of the school

Seven sections, from grade one to the grade ten examination year, plus the learning support room, the library and the clubs.

Grades one to three: reading and number

Four classes, a reading period every day, and a child heard reading aloud by an adult at least twice a week.

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Grades four and five: the year the subjects separate

Two classes a grade, subject teachers arriving, and the point where a child who cannot read fluently starts to fall behind in everything.

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Grades six to eight: the middle school

Six classes, subject departments, and the grades where a quiet child is easiest to lose.

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Grades nine and ten: subject choices and the examination year

Streams chosen at the end of grade eight, three practice examinations in grade ten, and the move to another island for grades eleven and twelve.

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The learning support room

Two teachers, small groups, and a place a child is sent to get better at something rather than because they are in trouble.

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The library, the reading programme and the book wallets

Two thousand one hundred books, a reading period for every grade, and books that go home every night in a wallet.

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See every grade

What changed when we went to one session

Until three years ago this school ran two sessions, a morning and an afternoon, because there were not enough classrooms. It is the arrangement most island schools of this size have lived with.

The four new classrooms let us move to a single session, and the change was larger than the timetable. Every child now gets the full school day, the afternoon is free for clubs and for sport rather than for a second set of lessons, and the teachers are not teaching two different sets of children the same lesson twice.

The one loss is worth admitting. In the two session years the classes were smaller. Our classes now average twenty eight in the middle grades, which is more than we would like, and the reading and support arrangements described on this site exist mainly to answer that.

The school this year

312
Children, grades one to ten
24
Teachers
28
Average class in the middle grades
96%
Attendance last term
What the school has done

Three things worth reading about

The reading programme in grades one to three, the school garden, and the four classrooms that ended the two session day.

The reading programme in grades one to three
Dhonveli School 2025

The reading programme in grades one to three

A daily reading period, every child heard aloud twice a week, and the plastic wallet that stopped books being lost.
Four classrooms, and the end of the two session day
Dhonveli School 2023

Four classrooms, and the end of the two session day

The building that let every child have a full school day, and the thing it cost us.
The school garden and what the canteen does with it
Dhonveli School 2024

The school garden and what the canteen does with it

Eleven beds, a club of forty children, and food that goes straight to the canteen counter.
Read about them
From parents

What families tell us

My son's class teacher rang me in the second week of term about his reading, not at the end of it. That is the first time a school has done that for one of my children.

A Aishath Reema Parent, grades two and seven, Dhonveli

They talked us through the move to the other island properly, twice, with the boat times and what the hostel actually involves. We had been dreading it.

M Mohamed Naeem Parent, grade ten, Dhonveli

The uniform shelf is kept so that nobody can tell who has taken anything from it. I have both left things on it and taken from it, and neither time did anybody ask me a question.

H Hawwa Mazeena Parent, grade four, and association member, Dhonveli
Admissions

Joining the school

When do grade one admissions open, and who can join?

November, for children who turn six before the school year begins. Come to the office any working day in that month and allow twenty minutes.

Bring the child's birth record, the immunisation card, and a letter from the council confirming the address if the family has moved to the island recently. The child does not need to come, and there is no test of any kind for grade one.

We are moving to the island in the middle of the year. Can our child join?

Yes, at any point. Come to the office with the report or transfer paper from the previous school if you have one, and do not wait until the start of a term.

A child arriving mid year is assessed in reading and mathematics in the first fortnight, not to place them in a lower grade but so that the support room can help with the gap between two syllabuses. Children moving between islands are the commonest reason for a real gap and it is easier to fix in the first term than in the third.

What happens after grade ten?

Children finish with us at the end of grade ten. For grades eleven and twelve they go to the school on the neighbouring island, about forty minutes on the school boat.

We hold two meetings for grade ten families about it, covering the boat, the subjects offered there, and the hostel arrangement for children who stay over during the week. Ask for those dates at the office in the second term rather than the third.

How are grade nine subject choices made?

At the end of grade eight. We offer a science combination, a business and commerce combination and a general combination, and every child takes Dhivehi, English, mathematics and Islam whichever they choose.

There is a parents' meeting in the second term of grade eight, a written note home about what each combination leads to, and a conversation with the class teacher for any family that wants one. We will not push a child into science because their marks allow it.

Grade one admissions open in November

For children who turn six before the school year begins. Come to the office with the birth record and the immunisation card, and allow twenty minutes.

Ask about admission Ring the office
Get in touch

Write to the office

Say your child's grade and class if it is about a child. Anything for a class teacher is passed on the same day, and anything urgent should be a telephone call rather than a message.

We reply to every message. Leave a phone number if you would rather we called.

  • Where we are Dhonveli School
    Skool Magu, Dhonveli
    Maldives
  • Call us +960 656 2140
  • WhatsApp 9607562140
  • Email us office@dhonvelischool.edu.mv
  • Opening hours School day: Sunday to Thursday, 7.30am to 1.15pm Office: Sunday to Thursday, 7am to 2pm Parent hour: Wednesday, 11am to noon Closed Friday and Saturday