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Dubai International Academy, Emirates Hills

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Review

Dubai International Academy, Emirates Hills

by Jon WestleyDecember 7, 2015

Strengths

• The school excels in its outstanding learning provision across both Kindergarten and IB Diploma Programmes
• Students’ personal and social development received the highest KHDA commendation, and this extended to the school’s outstanding provision for the health and safety of children under its care
• The quality of the curriculum across all phases is outstanding
• The outstanding quality of leadership and governance is mirrored in exceptionally good links between parents and the school
• The Dubai International Academy is a genuinely, and richly, inclusive school extending a broad welcome to students with special educational needs
• Older students in Kindergarten demonstrate a mature respect and sensitivity for others, providing exemplary role models for younger students
• Attendance and punctuality are outstanding across all phases of each child’s education
• The Academy nurtures in the children under its care a deep appreciation of Islamic values; children speak of Islamic values with admiration and articulate how those values underpin the development and growth of modern Dubai and the freedom it offers

Weaknesses

• The consistency of teaching, learning and assessment in both the Primary and Middle phases, whilst of a good standard, does not meet the genuinely outstanding standards of the school’s kindergarten and Diploma phases
• The attainment and progress of students in Islamic Education and Arabic language lessons is not meeting the outstanding standards of the school’s educational provision in other core subjects
• The procedures to accurately identify children requiring Special Educational Needs provision in the Kindergarten are not sufficiently developed and the school needs to improve the ways it engages with parents in securing expert assessment of each child’s needs and care
• School teachers can be over-optimistic about child development and need to better engage with international benchmarks to understand and respond to the learning needs of all children

Rating

Our Rating

User Rating

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Academic

A+

Value

B-

ExtraCurricula

A-

B+

Languages

B+

B-

Sports

B+

Arts & Drama

C+

Teaching

B-

Communications

C+

Warmth

A+

Differentiation

SEND Provision

B+

B-

Scl Community

A+

Scl Facilities

A-

B-

Opportunities

• The Dubai International Academy is, for the most part, a genuinely impressive school, and in some key areas it is an inspirational one
• Across two of its four education streams, Kindergarten and Diploma, the school is outstanding
• Where it is weaker, in Middle and Primary phases, failures occur often because of a simple lack of rigour and international benchmarking – teachers simply care “too much” and the over-optimism that results weakens their ability to respond, in some cases, to the individual needs of children
• The school is actively addressing this in developing much more effective benchmarking across these two phases
• The Academy too is extraordinarily open and inclusive, not only in its Special Educational Needs provision, but also in its international and cultural openness which is genuinely impressive
• This is a friendly school in which children support each other and share an inspiring appreciation off Dubai and its freedoms
• The Dubai International Academy is a school to watch: whilst it just falls short of a WSA Schools Compared commendation, it is nevertheless a school that offers a very high standard of education, and a happy one, to most children

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Top of shortlist

64%

In my Top 5

12%

Shortlisted

A possibility

Pass

No way

The first school in the UAE to offer the Geneva based International Baccalaureate (IB), and in full across its Primary Years Programme (PYP), Middle Years Programme (MYP) and Diploma Programme (DP), the Dubai International Academy is innovative, well-established and academic. Of its many successes, the achievement in 2013 of one of its students, Xanita Saayman (now at the University of Toronto), of being the first DIA student, and one of only 108 worldwide, to attain the perfect score of 45/45 in the IB Diploma Programme, is particularly notable. The top score in 2015/16 was 44/45, so evidence that Xanita’s result was not a one-off.

Opening in 2005 with more than 500 students from 55 countries, and an equally diverse faculty of more than 50 members of 18 different nationalities, today the school has 2072 students from over 85 nationalities, looked after by 156 teachers. As WSA notes, “no one nationality seems to stand out in the primary section of this truly international school.”

The school achieved consistent annual KHDA “Good” commendations for its high standard of education over a six year period to 2015-16. In 2016-17, DIA achieved “Outstanding” school status from the KHDA Inspectorate, one of only sixteen schools in Dubai to achieve its highest accolade. Highly recommended.

Go to the FULL REVIEW on WhichSchoolAdvisor.com

Details to consider

Type of school

Private

WSA Good School

Under review 2016-17

Full WSA Review

Average Cost Per Year

FS1: 36006
FS2: 40607
YEAR 1: 40987
YEAR 2: 46415
YEAR 3: 46415
YEAR 4: 46415
YEAR 5: 46415
YEAR 6: 46415
YEAR 7: 52212
YEAR 8: 52212
YEAR 9: 52212
YEAR 10: 58022
YEAR 11: 58022
YEAR 12: 63797
YEAR 13: 63797

Curriculum

International Baccalaureate

External Exam Boards

International Baccalaureate (IB)
Council of International School (CIS)
NEASC (New England Association of Schools and Colleges)

IB DipM Pass Rate

Not published

IB DipM Average Grade

Not published

Selective

Value Added

Not published

Number of Students