The Best American School in the United Arab Emirates 2023 – 2024 Revealed. Top Schools Award Winner. Official.
The Winner
The SchoolsCompared.com Top Schools Awards for
The Best American Curriculum School in the United Arab Emirates 2023 – 2024
is awarded to:
GEMS Dubai American Academy
Our view of GEMS Dubai American Academy
Web: https://www.gemsaa-dubai.com
KHDA: Outstanding
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/gems-dubai-american-academy
It’s difficult to know where to begin, but the history here provides an insight into what you can expect from DAA. The school was already a KHDA Outstanding School and GEMS flagship for the US curriculum. However, in a twist of fate, or the result of extraordinarily strategic decision-making (you take your choice), GEMS education, separately, built the most advanced and facility rich school in the world and then pulled ASD into it, giving its students a beyond-outstanding, Tier 1 plus plus new home. Visiting DAA literally takes the breath away in the scale and ambition of its architecture, facility provision and the resulting breadth of opportunities for students.
Forward looking to the nth, this is the school setting benchmarks in the exploration of AI and robotics – and was doing so when other schools barely registered the freight train coming down the tracks.
Current leadership is extraordinary, dynamic, inspirational, humorous and humane and the results, school wide, are almost beyond description both beautiful and impactful.
The combination, in evidently happy and delight-filled students, of an empowered interrogating and inquisitive mindset with all the tooling of the best facility and technology support of any US school in the Emirates – and a whole child programme second to none, is something to behold.
Advanced Placement and the IB Diploma qualification pathways ensure two perfect graduating options, one pure play international, the other pure play US.
The biggest surprise here are the fees. Yes, they are Tier 1 premium, but they are significantly lower than its biggest competitor and, wow, is the ROI impressive. On the basis of the offer here, and compared with its outstanding counterparts, the payback and value-proposition here is off-the-scale.
Finally, this is an American school. Yes, it offers an alternative pathway in the IB, but that has not seen any compromise in the richness of its whole child delivery across Sport and the Arts, or the distinctly US ethical culture, one focused on the happiness of children and an outstandingly rich, well-rounded education to the nth, that pervades every aspect of school life. This is a proudly American-first-and always IB school, not an IB school using the US brand to steal some clothes. Gutsy, dynamic, humane, forward looking, happy, high achieving and voracious in its ambition for children, this is many more than a single “heck” of an outstanding school.
We have visited GEMS Dubai American Academy and watched its development over more than a decade, and latterly as it has moved to the most technically advanced and equipped school campus in the United Arab Emirates.
Top Schools Award for Best American school in the UAE 2024. Pictured: a delighted Dr. Ethan Hildreth, the powerhouse Superintendent of this Outstanding-plus pioneering US curriculum school for children
In 2023, finally, this centrifugally important school for GEMS Education school has found in Dr Ethan Hildreth a Superintendent and CEO to match and exceed all the love, investment, and potential, of this extraordinary school. Over more than two hours, we deconstructed every part of the school through his eyes.
This is a school that defines the pinnacle of investment in almost every aspect of curricular provision. From sporting facilities to Performing Arts infrastructure, from Television and Radio production facilities to provision for Music, from technology investment to a robotics facility that is the envy of much industry, from ceramics and sculpture to fashion, this school has everything.
The original GEMS Education masterplan and architectural render of the most ambitious and expensive school ever built in the UAE and today the crown jewels of US Curriculum schooling in the UAE
This remains, after all, the single most expensive school ever built in the UAE. What Dr Hildreth has brought to the table is the substance to make all this work together and the emotional intelligence, academic brilliance, compassion and vision to turn bells and whistles into meaningful centrifugal parts of each child’s education. His impact on teaching faculty and students, which we witnessed first-hand, is quite extraordinary. Today this is a school that is firing on all cylinders – which in this case is quite a few more than most schools have in their toolbox.
GEMS Dubai American Academy is the first school in the Emirates to have achieved 10 consecutive Outstanding rankings from the KHDA. But it is also a school that historically we believed should have been better. Today we no longer believe this. GEMS Dubai American Academy, under Dr Hildreth, has found its mojo.
Where to start? If there is one core strength of an American education which no other curricular can match is its focus on the breadth of child social experience. The High School Diploma is set at a level that many argue means it lacks the might of gold standard A Levels in British education or the IB, in any of its formats. But this completely misses the point. American education gives young people the chance to have a rich life in school beyond books. It allows children to grow up gently without force or the pressure of competitive systems that have somehow created the idea that the academic life of children matters more. It clearly does not. This does not mean, however, that GEMS Education’s flagship American school does not offer the most outstanding academic pathways for its students or stretch. It offers this too. IB pathways students secured an average 32.7 points, placing them in the top percentile of schools in the UAE, including top IB schools.
On our visit we experienced some of the most inspiring discussions between IB students we have experienced in any UAE school. They were discussing their inventions – and why they mattered so much to them. We arrived both unannounced, and unexpected. The students engaged with us with the confidence, conviviality and social skills that make up exactly the qualities employers are looking for – and added all those things on top that define just how good a school is in the education provides. The solutions they had made were so clever, so innovative. They were personal – in many cases solving problems in their own lives. In many cases they had been manufactured. The passion, intelligence, innovation and likeability demonstrated by them was off-the-scale. This was evidence of exactly the type of applied knowledge you see in universities, by young people who had every quality to make their parents, and school, very proud. Our visit took in unannounced visits to classes, discussion with countless teachers, and intensive questioning of the school leadership. There is no American school in the UAE that has impressed us more for what it is achieving for children, its culture, ethics, leadership and ambition, in the last five years.
As well as the IB, the school offers Advanced Placement. In doing so, in an American context, GEMS DAA is offering in-house exact equivalence with the outstanding breadth of academic opportunities that dual pathway A Level and IB schools do elsewhere. Technical stream options are delivered in voluminous options within the HSD curriculum. No US school offers greater breath of subject pathways or qualification pathways in the UAE. That matters, because it means it can meet the needs, potential, ambitions, and gifts of every single student. Add to the mix, the most exceptional and far-ranging facility and material provision in the Emirates, all the strengths of a founding US education built on the inherent personal development opportunities built into a US education, and school conviction-led leadership that actually understands the opportunity here, and GEMS Dubai American Academy, for us, finally, truly and definitively deserves its Outstanding rating – and much more to boot.
The word exceptional is used too often, but here the word is deserved. The potential here is even more exciting – and that is saying something.
Award Presentation
Best-American-Curriculum-GEMS-Dubai-American_Academy-Winner Certificate-portrait
The Top Schools Award for Best American Curriculum School in the United Arab Emirates 2023 – 2024 will be presented to GEMS Dubai American Academy at a special Breakfast Celebration at The Emirates Golf Club on the morning of 16th November 2023. At the event the recipient of The Top Schools Awards 2023 – 2024 for Outstanding Contribution to Education will be revealed.
Historic winners of the Outstanding Contribution to Education in the UAE Award include H.E. Dr. Abdulla Al Karam, Director General of the Knowledge and Human Development Authority, recognised for his era defining leadership of Education in Dubai as a force for good; and the Varkey Family, for their instrumental role in shaping education in the UAE, and ensuring the life chances for generations of children, following the founding of GEMS Education in 1959.
Our Finalists.
Our extraordinary Finalists and those schools which have achieved outstandingly in so many ways for children in the Best British Curriculum School category follow. Each of the following schools are recognised for their profound contribution to American curriculum education in the UAE:
American Community School of Abu Dhabi
Web: https://www.acs.sch.ae
ADEK: Outstanding
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/american-community-school-abu-dhabi
“Phenomenal, powerhouse, historic, and contemporaneously important, US curriculum School, one deeply intertwined with the development of education in the UAE. With more than 50 years of history in the capital, the school today has remained true to the ideals of delivering a world class whole child US education, but has strengthened its offer still further with provision for Advanced Placement. It makes a big difference even to a school as good as this; we have long argued that no US curriculum school should be operating without an AP pathway. The school’s relationships with top tier US universities gives it a strong pull for students and families set on US higher education, whilst the educational experience plays to all the strengths of a properly, and outstandingly well delivered, US curriculum, with a balance of academics and exceptional whole child delivery in the Arts and Sport. The heady combination of not-for-profit values, Tier 1 fees and small school dynamics ensure that investment in children is exceptionally high. Despite the fee levels, it’s little wonder then that the school is consistently over-subscribed.”
American School of Dubai
ADEK: Good with Very Good and Outstanding Features
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/american-school-of-dubai
“Multi Top Schools Award-winning school that never ceases to amaze with its extraordinary delivery for children. Breadth of child opportunity here is limitless and despite an almost six-decade history in Dubai, ASD delivers a perfect US education to such a degree that it could almost be transplanted to the US without standing out as other than a Tier 1 best-in-class US private home school. The result is that it pays the price with regulators with its rating, but everyone knows that, despite this, the reality is of an outstanding-plus education that is uncompromising on its mission to provide seamless transferability of culture and school life for US families between home and Dubai. Non corporate seat holders can expect to pay some of the highest fees of any school in Dubai, and families of determined children (which are welcomed with open arms and assured of a stellar education) have a further (refreshingly transparent and relatively low) payment on top. Not-for-profit dynamics sees continuous re-investment of those fees in children. Academic attainment is exceptional, and students are stretched with Advanced Placement an integral pathway of an ASD education. Whole child life is equally exceptional with students wanting for nothing. The American School of Dubai deserves its accolades, is a rightfully much loved and respected school – and for many the definitive choice for US and international families seeking a pure and uncompromising US education in Dubai.”
Dunecrest American School
KHDA: Good with Very Good Features
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/dunecrest-american-school
Review: https://schoolscompared.com/all-through/dubai-all-through/dunecrest-american-school-dubailand/
“Dunecrest American School sets itself a apart in its choice to steer its US curriculum towards the IB Diploma as the single alternative option to the High School Diploma for graduating students. It’s a brave move, but one designed to ensure that graduating students can take their pick of university destinations on leaving school anywhere in the world. Some argue that it loses some of the qualities that define US education in the process given that the IB Diploma requires schools to establish a raft of learning approaches for students in younger years and academic stretch is high – but it works terrifically well on its own terms. IB courses take the place of Advanced Placement for students not sitting for the full Diploma. The combination makes the school a considerable draw for both US and international families set on US universities but wanting to keep their options open. Fees are high, but facility provision and investment in teachers deliver strong ROI. ESOL provides strong guarantees of delivery with a proven reputation for delivering this model of US education to an outstanding standard historically in Dubai. This is a near perfect example of what one very well executed model of an internationally focused US education should look like, but we think the introduction of the Career-related programme and Advanced Placement would be the icing on the cake in providing full IB and US graduating post-16 options, both justified by the fees.”
Universal American School
KHDA: Very Good and Outstanding Features
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/universal-american-school
A not-for-profit powerhouse, and a school that should be on the radar of all parents seeking the very highest quality of US education (our review is in process and coming later this year), UAS is to all intents and purposes a new school, despite its heritage. The move to not-for-profit, and switch to a much more child-centred way of delivering high academic attainment, one rooted in kindness and inclusion, is reaping dividends. Investment runs very high here as Al Futtaim backs its ambition to deliver the stand-out US curriculum school in Dubai with heavy investment in outstanding teaching faculty, phenomenal leadership and new facilities. It takes time to implement a vision, particularly one so ambitious, but that vision here is humane, deeply inclusive and much truer to US ideals than its historic counterpart. Breadth of whole child opportunities are extensive, but it is the investment in teachers to deliver this that makes the school sparkle. The choice of leadership here is clever and courageous, the Principal openly evangelising the importance of outstanding, values-rich teaching above all else and about as far away from the typical office bound, never-seen, number crunching business managers you see too often heading schools elsewhere. The trajectory to outstanding schooling here is evident – and the school is hungry to deliver it for all the right reasons. Like its most outstanding internationally focused counterparts, post-16 options are divided between a powerfully supported Advanced Placement backed High School Diploma and the academically stretching International Baccalaureate Diploma. Neither is valued over the other and this is not a school that puts US on the cover to in practice focus its attention only on the IB. The potential here is exceptional – and UAS is a key part of the UAE’s journey to redefining what outstanding looks like in delivering a US education with open doors and huge, light-filled, open windows onto the future.”
A final note.
The Top Schools Awards takes over a year to produce. It engages with parents, students educators and educationalists over countless months, and the work invested in these Awards is the stuff of sleepless nights and deeply felt responsibility. We produce these Awards to celebrate our amazing schools, our magnificent teachers – who are the centre of the universe, our school leaders, whose lives will be judged by their impact on children, and the amazing students that they build a future for. These Awards are only about recognising this – in a world in which our schools and educators have far, far too little recognition. If on exploring these Awards you do one single thing, it should be to reach out to each and every one and thank them for all they do, each and every one of our schools, teachers and school leaders. You have absolutely no idea how much that would mean.
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