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Memory Lane: The SchoolsCompared.Com’s UAE Top School Awards 2017-18
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11. American School of Dubai

Image of students at the American School of Dubai on an outbound trip aboard trekking in snow-capped mountains - awarded one of the top 20 Best Schools in Dubai and Abu Dhabi by schoolscompared.com in 2017

Type of school: Not-for-profit

Curriculum: American

Age of children: All through

School size: 1812

Location: Al Barsha, Dubai

 

With fees that start at north of AED 80,000 for FS1 and rise to a fixed AED 115,844 between Grades 1 and 12 you would expect for the American School of Dubai to take children to the education equivalent of K2’s summit and back. And, there is no doubt that the quality of education on offer here is absolutely premium. For SchoolsCompared.com this is the best American curriculum school in the UAE.

However, the American School of Dubai rips up the rulebook when it comes to functioning as a school in the Middle East – and we think it does lose something in the process. Each year, reading the KHDA report, half Outstanding, half splattered with the red Ink of “Weak” you realise you are not dealing in any way, shape or form with a normal school.

Each year it’s a case of plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

The issue is Arabic/Islamic Studies subject provision. The school has so far chosen to ignore its content and location, instead focusing on being a US school (which it is), in the US (which it is not).

But should it ignore its geography? Our view is that so much comes from context – the meeting of East and West in Dubai and Abu Dhabi schools gives children a uniqueness of outlook that cannot be found elsewhere.

The Arabic world has a rich history across the Arts and Sciences that in the best schools is woven throughout the curriculum to bring it to life. The whole child development that comes from this context should not be undervalued – it provides children being educated in the Middle East with powerful differentiators and skills that are valued worldwide. An American enclave in Dubai that loses sight of the value of this will not appeal to all parents.

The other side of the equation is an education that fires on all cylinders. Particularly outstanding is Advanced Placement provision  – a very serious weakness of many American schools – and whole child curriculum that breathes life into the core values of the school: Compassion, Excellence, Integrity, Respect and Responsibility.

An academic and whole child powerhouse, the American School of Dubai provides an education that gives children the opportunity to create, inspire, learn, dream and feel. Performing Arts provision is world class. What an amazing school. If it ever did embrace, however, the context of the Arabic world in which it lives and through which its children find context outside school, it could probably re-define Outstanding.

 

American School of Dubai Examination results

2017

Advanced Placement

Not published.

 

Ratings

Independent feedback: ****

Care of children: *****

Leadership and Vision: ****

Whole and Individual child provision: ****

Facilities (relative to fees): ****

Parental engagement and community:  *****

Happiness: *****

‘Bangs for the buck’: ****

KHDA/ADEC rating: Outstanding

SchoolsCompared.com full review: Here

 

NEXT Page: 12th Place.

 

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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

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