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Best British Schools in Dubai – the SchoolsCompared.com Parent Guide 2021
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Best British Schools in Dubai – the SchoolsCompared.com Parent Guide 2021

by Jon WestleyJanuary 1, 2020

The Bottom Line?

All of the schools here, often in different ways, set benchmarks for educational provision.

But, as importantly, the sheer number of schools we have felt able to highlight says much that is positive about the quality of education in Dubai within the UK schools sector. Parents really do have choices.

We have distinguished traditional English National Curriculum schools between those offering primary-only and those delivering  all-through provision. By referring to individual reviews, you will find the slipstream schools for the primary schools listed. For many parents, separate primary schooling remains a priority – and all of the primary schools here operate at an outstanding level in one or more respects. Taken across the spectrum of their provision, all the primary schools listed here are beacon schools, shining a light for the best education available in the Emirates. Each operates at globally benchmarked, highly creditable standards.

The same holds true in most part to the all-through schools identified here. Again, it is imperative to look at individual reviews to understand how each school may provide a better fit for the abilities and ambitions of each individual child. Some, for example, will offer better SEND provision, others will offer better added-value for the non-academic child. We have also taken the decision to include a number of schools here too which make compromises in some areas of provision, for example, in facilities, subject choice or “bells and whistles”, but which still offer something, we believe, of considerable value. Many schools featured here too offer a quality of education beyond that which might be reasonably expected of their fees.

Every school identified is in some ways extraordinary for the right child.

Nothing, however, can ever take the place of visiting a school, weighing the views of other parents and interrogating schools on added value, results, whole child provision – and how they will specifically meet the needs you identify for your child(ren).

What our reviews, and those of our sister site WhichSchoolAdvisor, aim for, is to strengthen your hand in making informed decisions, and we weight heavily in our reviews the feedback we receive from you.

GEMS_INARTICLE  

Your feedback can be left through the form at the very end of our reviews. We always respect the anonymity of feedback if requested.

Please do continue to feed your views back to us. Do not underestimate the help you give to future parents by investing your time in doing this – and your critical role in enabling us to feedback to schools directly the changes you feel that are important to get the changes required implemented for your children today.

Updated February 2017

About The Author
Jon Westley
Jon Westley is the Editor of SchoolsCompared.com and WhichSchoolAdvisor.com UK. You can email him at jonathanwestley [at] schoolscompared.com
9 Comments
  • Kashish
    February 23, 2017 at 11:48 am

    Hi i wnt to knw whch is best school horizon international or raffels international school

    • March 5, 2017 at 9:59 am

      Hi Kashish, this is a really tough question to answer. To some extent it will depend on the age of your child(ren) and what type of environment you are seeking. Raffles International is a very well established school consistently rated Good by the KHDA. It is a very international school in nature with students and staff from a diverse range of countries (with the highest proportion of students being from Europe) and around 1,700 students in total – so a large school, with a staff to student ration of 1:11. Horizon International is a much smaller school with under 1,000 students, the majority of whom are UK passport holders. Staff turnover at both schools has historically been relatively low, although there were significant changes at Horizon International at the end of the 2016 academic year. The staff to student ratio is 1:11, so lower than Raffles International. The new Principal (who joined from GEMS) appears to be popular with parents and has a clear focus on areas of development and improvement. Neither school has had students graduate from year 13 as yet, so it is too soon to comment on Sixth Form outcomes. Fees at Raffles International School range from AED 30,000 to AED 65,000, whilst at Horizon International, they are between AED 33,000 and AED 93,000 (though there is currently a large discount for children in years 10, 11 and 12 with fees being similar to Raffles). As you can see, there are many similarities between the schools and our advice would always be that you visit the schools and see for yourself which you feel is likely to suit your child(ren) better.

  • Kashish
    March 5, 2017 at 10:20 am

    Thanks for your comment and help.

  • Kashish
    March 5, 2017 at 10:20 am

    Thnank you, can you give me information on Regent International too?

    • March 5, 2017 at 5:27 pm

      HI Kashish, Regent is another long established school. It has recently reverted to Primary only with the opening of Sunmarke School which is part of the same group. Historically, the school has been rated Good by the KHDA for the past 5 years. Prior to the opening of Sunmarke, there were approximately 1,400 students at RIS. This number has now fallen considerably to approx 1,000 with the move of the Secondary students. The majority of staff and students are UK passport holders. The staff:student ratio was 1:13, this is likely to have improved with the changes. The Foundation stage, in particular, was praised by the inspectors. To some extent, the age of your child(ren) will determine if Regent is a good option as it does not offer the Through-school arrangement any longer and children would be expected to move to its sister school when they reach Secondary stage.

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