AMMAN (JT) - His Majesty King Abdullah took part in a ceremony on Wednesday evening marking King’s Academy’s official commencement of its first academic year.

“This is a historic moment that is the culmination of many years of hard work dedicated to the realisation of His Majesty King Abdullah’s great vision to build a world-class institution that will serve Jordan and the region for generations to come,” Chairman of King’s Academy’s Board of Trustees Safwan Masri said at the convocation ceremony, attended by the faculty and the school’s 106 students.

This first group of King’s Academy students consists of 66 boys and 40 girls, equally divided between the 9th and 10th grades. Twenty-three are full boarders, 52 are weekday boarders and 31 are day students.

This year’s students hail from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Palestine, the United Arab Emirates, Taiwan and the United States

Addressing the audience, which also included present and former members of the King’s Academy board of trustees, Headmaster Eric Widmer welcomed the classes of 2010 and 2011.

“On this incomparably beautiful campus,” he said, “our beginnings have been anything but humble and yet, we look humbly on those exciting challenges now before us, and all the opportunities that go with them.”

Inspired by His Majesty, and modelled after his high school alma mater Deerfield Academy in the US, King’s Academy is a private, progressive, coeducational boarding and day school integrating the New England boarding school experience in the historical and intellectual context of the Middle East.

Welcoming talented students from all backgrounds, religions and social classes, the school aims to foster empathy, tolerance and harmony.

The curriculum includes an integrated cocurricular programme of athletics, activities and community service, and students live in a nurturing residential environment that facilitates their intellectual development.

The school, situated 30 minutes south of Amman on a 575-dunum site, comprises 23 buildings and state-of-the-art facilities.

King’s Academy is the only private, coeducational not-for-profit boarding school in Jordan and the Middle East, with 30 per cent of its income allocated to full and partial scholarships for students from the Kingdom.