GEMS Founders Mizhar is a new all-through British school which will launch in September 2018 which, after phased opening, offer an all-through education for children from FS through to IGCSE and A’Level. The school is being build ground-up to replicate the original Founders School Dubai model in Al Mizhar 1 – map below.

The school is the second in GEMS’ portfolio of Founders schools – the first, GEMS Founders Dubai, in Al Barsha, was the “most successful school opening in GEMS history in terms of enrollment”, opening FS to Year 8 provision with over 1800 students on ‘Day One’ in September 2016. Our review of the first [...]

GEMS Vertus is a new British, English National Curriculum school in planning phase. The school will launch in September 2018 in Al Waha, Dubailand and will offer a pure, all-through UK curriculum and Sixth Form from EYFS to IGCSE and A’ Level. Map below:

Our Guide to choosing the Right School can be found here.

Our Guide to IGCSEs can be found here.

Our Guide to AS Levels can be found here.

Our Guide to A’ Levels can be found here.

Our Sixth Form Guide can be found here.

The school will offer a mixed, co-educational education and is expected to open in phases, initially to Year 6, although we are awaiting clarification on exact [...]

Dubai Heights Academy (DHA) is a new British curriculum AED159M school opening on a 2,80,000 Square foot site in Al Barsha in September 2017, map below.

DHA has published plans to provide a through FS to Year 11 education to IGCSE and will open initially with phases 1 – Year 4.  We are awaiting confirmation whether the school also plans to provide a dedicated Sixth Form.

Eventual capacity is 1,845 children. The Secondary School will open in September 2020 for Years 7 – 11 with IGCSE’s being sat for the first time in 2023. We really like this choice to phase the school’s opening so slowly. It allows the school to grow organically as each year works its way [...]

Newlands School is a new UK curriculum school launching in the Al Warqa area in September 2017. Conveniently located for families living in both the northern residential areas of Dubai as well as those in Sharjah and beyond, the school promises to offer a “high quality, international education as an affordable option for parents”.

Initially opening from FS1 to year 6, the school intends to enable students to study the full English National Curriculum through to iGCSE and A Level at fees that are considerably lower than those of Dubai’s more expensive schools. Fees range from AED 19,200 in FS1 to AED 26, 400 in Year 6. A 10% Founding discount will also be available for [...]

Updated May 2017 – EXCLUSIVE SCHOOLSCOMPARED FIRST LOOK

The Arbor School, Dubai, is a new Tier 1, premium British curriculum all-through school set to launch in September 2018 as the educational hub of the Al Furjan community. Al Furjan has also attracted the interest of other school groups including being mooted as the home of the second Arcadia School (our review of the founding Arcadia School can be found here). The school is being built within easy reach of both the Sheikh Zayed Road and Mohammed Bin Zayed Road. It is expected the school will also attract families in Discover Gardens – map below.

Fees are anticipated to be premium plus with [...]

Updated May 2017 – EXCLUSIVE SCHOOLSCOMPARED FIRST LOOK

The Aquila School is a planned new all-through British schools offering the English national curriculum to IGCSE and a dual-stream International Baccalaureate/British technical BTEC education at Sixth Form. The school is set to open in September 2018 and will be located in the heart of Dubai Land – map below.

The Aquila School will be the first new all-through school for the International Schools Partnership (ISP), the UK headquartered global schools group. Currently ISP is best known in the emirates for their taking over and current turnaround of Abu Dhabi-based Reach British School, reviewed [...]

“… except for a video screen, classrooms are bare. The learning environment is generally bleak.”

KHDA. School Inspection. 2016-17

This is an almost impossible school to review. In many ways H. H. Shaikh Rashid Al Maktoum Pakistan School (HHSRAMPS) operates in a parallel universe to education elsewhere in Dubai. The KHDA points out that this is not the fault of parents, or students, who are passionate about securing a quality education. The problem stems, for the KHDA, from the school and the inability of its owners in recruiting sufficient numbers of qualified teachers – or to manage a school that meets even the most basic requirements of a [...]

The Ambassador School – Dubai presents quite a complicated picture for review. As it stands, in isolation, it is a KHDA “Good School” with children achieving a “Very Good“ level of attainment and progress across core subjects in English, Science and Mathematics. Care and protection of children is “Outstanding.” It is worth however understanding some of the background to the school to put this in context. Overall, the picture is a good one.

First, the school traces its roots back to a different school, established in 2010, under the franchised brand GIIS in association with the Kalwani family.

GIIS provided the basic expertise for the Kalwani family to establish [...]

“In the business of education, you must focus on quality. Schools must not be run for profits, and whatever you earn from the school must be invested in increasing the salaries of teachers.

I believe in providing value education and holistic development of the child at an affordable cost.

I can tell you that if I were to double my fees, I wouldn’t lose a single student because that is the kind of standard we have set.” Dinesh C. Kothari, Pro-Vice Chairman, Delhi Private School – Dubai (KT)

“The USP of the school is our deliberate focus on encouraging students to have a moral compass: to have a sensibility greater than themselves and to have a philanthropic [...]

“The Our Own School was the goose that laid the golden egg for us.” Sunny Varkey, Chairman, GEMS Education.

“GEMS ‘Our Own’ moulds its students into confident, articulate and compassionate leaders who collaborate with others. We add value, not only to their wellbeing, but also to the wider global community. We constantly endeavour to achieve our vision to be a learning community that provides opportunities for all children to excel in their chosen field, respect their culture, celebrate diversity – and become leaders for a better world.” Thomas Mathew. Principal. GEMS Our Own English School

In its second year as one of an elite number of KHDA “Very Good” schools [...]

“With the opening of GEMS Heritage Indian School we are reaffirming our commitment to education in the country – and helping to take forward the vision of the nation’s leadership, which is placing an emphasis on quality education.

“We recognize there is a need for high quality Indian curriculum schools and we know that GEMS Heritage Indian School will further the reputation that GEMS Indian curriculum schools have already built in the county.”  Dino Varkey, Group Executive Director and Board Member, GEMS Education.

GEMS Heritage Indian School is a new 10,000+ capacity role Indian CBSE curriculum specialist STEAM focused school that will open in [...]

Updated May 2017 – SchoolsCompared.com visit and KHDA Inspection 2017

Nibras is undergoing a school-wide  transformation that is framed by an almost tangible level of excitement.

We are strongly focused and headed upward!!

In the 2017 KHDA report, Nibras was commended on several aspects of improvement.  KHDA reported that there was an improvement in students’ behavior and attitudes   ​Students’ personal and social development improved in the middle phase since the previous inspection.   The school has been successful in helping the students to develop positive and responsible attitudes and academic progress is up in some areas.

In all phases [...]

“BCCS Dubai in DIP Dubai Investments Park will be our company’s flagship school. Our company has been in the education business for over a decade, currently operating 2 schools in Egypt, and launching 2 more schools in 2018 in New Cairo.” Karim Mostafa, Vice Chairman of British Columbia Canadian School Dubai

An ideal candidate for the British Columbia Canadian School is a student who values education for its true essence and not a desire to memorise facts and figures for an exit exam. BCCS students will include the full spectrum of abilities and will be students who will develop into life-long learners that value the process of learning as well as the mark that comes at [...]

“Brighton’s reputation is built upon offering its pupils an innovative curriculum and outstanding pastoral care in their pursuit of academic excellence, all underpinned by a passionate belief in the importance of the individual.

Every child in the Brighton College family of schools is valued for his or her own sake, encouraged to develop his or her talents to the full in a community where there are no stereotypes and where every achievement, however small, is noticed.” Ian McIntyre, Director of Schools, Brighton College International Schools

Background

Founded in 1845, Brighton College (UK) is a top-tier UK independent secondary day and boarding [...]

“Dwight New York is delighted to extend Dwight’s 150-year commitment to ‘ignite the spark of genius in every child’ to Dubai, where students will be part of one global Dwight family.

Our new school in Dubai will join those in New York, London, Seoul, and Shanghai that share this mission.” Stephen Spahn. Chancellor. The Dwight Schools

Background

Dwight School Dubai [DSD] is a non-selective KG to Year 12 IB Curriculum school set to open in Al Barsha South in September 2018 offering all-through US education for children between 3 and 19 years.

The founding school was established in New York in 1872 by Julius Sachs, a member of the Goldman-Sachs [...]

“No child should be labelled or left behind and no limits should be placed upon what children can achieve. This informs everything we do, with the fundamental objective of developing happy and confident individuals.” North London Collegiate School, UK

Background

North London Collegiate School Dubai (NLCS Dubai) will open in September 2017. Located on a 38,000 square metre plot in the Sobha Hartland development at Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum City, NLCS Dubai will be an all-through International Baccalaureate World Continuum School, offering the Primary Years Programme (PYP), Middle Years Programme (MYP) and the IB Diploma for children between the ages of [...]

““The Sheikh Zayed Academy is one of the most exclusive and prestigious schools in the region.” Sunny Varkey. Chairman. GEMS Education

Updated November 2016

The Sheikh Zayed Private Academy for Girls, established in 2000, is the founding school for what has, since 2015, been a group of two schools, one for boys, one for girls operating under the same brand and mission of the “Sheikh Zayed Private Academy”.

Both schools are bi-lingual American curriculum schools that have are part of a growing cluster of schools seeking to provide both a traditional, faith-based curriculum for its children that nurtures a love, knowledge and respect of/for Arabic traditions, [...]

Updated November 2016

““At Merryland, we celebrate the wedding of traditional forms of education with white hot technology. But we do this bearing in mind the universal truth that the ultimate aim of education is to form men and women of character who shun evil and fear God. We stand by Victor Hugo in this regard: “When we open a school, we close a prison.” Susheela George. Founder. Merryland International School.

It is difficult not to be inspired by the founder of Merryland. It’s not a strange place to start a story, because if a school is founded, as is the case here, by an owner driven entirely by a care for children and their future, there is simply no better [...]

Updated November 2016

The International School of Creative Science [ISCS] is a new Arabic-American dual curriculum faith school launching Phase 1 of its provision in Nad Al Sheba 3. The school is situated in the prime education corridor between Kings School Nad Al Sheba and Repton School on a circa 11-acre site.

The school has been established with the single aim of balancing the best of Western education, and its currency for later university and career development, with the protection, appreciation and nurturing of Muslim and broader Arabic culture, language, faith and morality within its role. It’s an East meets West equation that is far from simple to resolve and [...]

Updated November 2016

The American School of Creative Science [ASCS] is a new Arabic-American dual curriculum school launching Phase 1 of its provision in Al Barsha South. Location information can be found here. Its position is almost immediately adjacent to GEMS World Academy on a very large 11 acre campus.

The first phase is planned to reach completion with 39 classrooms educating around 1100 students in Grades FS1 to Year 5 between the ages of 4 and 12 years. Eventually the school will offer a full FS all-through education to Year 12. ASCS is one of three new schools at various phases of launch in the Emirate, these building on the model first established by its [...]