The Best British 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 British Curriculum School in the United Arab Emirates 2023 – 2024

is awarded to:

The British School Al Khubairat, Abu Dhabi.

Our view of The British School Al Khubairat

Web: https://www.britishschool.sch.ae

KHDA: Outstanding

Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/british-school-al-khubairat-abu-dhabi

Review: https://schoolscompared.com/curricula/a-levels/the-british-school-al-khubairat-al-mushrif/

The British School Al Khubairat is (for some arguably) the most important British school in Abu Dhabi and one with a richness of history, and inclusive commitment to children, that is pretty much unmatched in the Emirates.

The British School Al Khubairat, established in 1968 with the support of the late President of the UAE and the British Embassy, was the first British school in the Emirates. It was founded ambitiously on the unwavering ethics of being resolutely not-for-profit, profoundly inclusive and outward looking to, and embracing of, its community. It was, furthermore, tasked with offering the most comprehensive, beyond-outstanding education to students, founded on every outstanding quality of the British curriculum, in perpetuity. It was to be the lighthouse and beacon in the Emirates for British Education and all it stands for.

And it has delivered on this extraordinary ambition.

This is the school, after all, that first delivered the study of Engineering into UAE schools – and did so, in no small part, to pioneer a pathway for young women that had been closed off elsewhere. This is a school that pioneered, legitimised and galvanised the sector to deliver technical stream education in the capital against innumerable odds. This is a school that looks at its children, every single one of them, as individuals that can, and will, change the world for the better and achieve anything they set their hearts on – and then throws everything behind making that happen.

This too is a school justifiably renowned for recruiting the very best teachers in the Emirates.

Innovation is everywhere. You even find studios in corridors where children paint, invent, create – there is nowhere where activity and the bustle of learning is not alive and bursting at the seams with creativity, invention and freedom of expression. The new Science and Innovation Centre fires the engines even further. But, above all, this is a deeply, deeply humane school, one driven by its belief in young people, all young people, and the potential of learning as a force for good. Girls are celebrated here as all children are. Those forgotten in other schools are the centre of the universe. The compassion of never walking by on the other side is an embedded way of life.

The result is a richness of education, and educational opportunity, that creates students that will grow to be the adults you would value as friends. Here you find students, and educators, with hearts and minds that see the bigger picture, a deeply human and inclusive one – and then make it real.

We visited the British School Al Khubairat twice as part of our deliberations here. Where to begin? As above, first, this is a school that played an absolutely instrumental role in enabling technical stream education to be accepted, and then recognised as an imperative, in Abu Dhabi. It was not an easy accomplishment. Today, arguably in no small part because of BSAK, technical stream education has a force and presence in the emirate that is arguably on a scale even more embedded than Dubai. Competition is now fierce here, and arguably no more so that between the exceptional Cranleigh School Abu Dhabi, and our chosen winner. Each ratchets up quality here by the year. BSAK is the school that embedded Engineering into UAE education uniquely, recognising that it is engineers that play the most profound role in shaping our world. More than this, they have been pioneers in inspiring generations of young women to become Engineers in a still depressingly male dominated sector (and world). Engineers solve problems, solve the problems that confound us – and then provide the blueprints to make a better world. The subject/pathway of Engineering, technically explored, is so important.

Second, however extraordinary this achievement is in itself – and there are countless others, to understand what has been achieved here you have to start with its extraordinary, beyond- inspiring leadership. Mark Leppard MBE is one of the most humane, most genuine, completely unpretentious, kind and committed educationalists in the UAE. And as an organisation that works across the world, we would say too, globally. Mr Leppard begins with the premise that education must be for all children, and that schools have a responsibility to build education to ensure that no child is ever left behind. He also believes in students being given freedom to learn. That means in part giving them an extraordinary range of subject and qualification pathways so that all children are inspired and each, and every, one, finds their gift and can plan their futures with every conceivable educational resource at their fingertips. But it also means Mr Leppard believes ethically in giving space to all children to make mistakes, learn and never ever be shamed. He is a gentleman, in the fullest, lost sense of that word, that has made his life the betterment of this world through supporting children and ensuring they have life chances to become who they are, and who they can be. Mr Leppard inspires an understanding of why these Awards exist at all – to celebrate those, too often forgotten, that give us all hope, and a future, through education which should be rightfully seen as the absolute centre of human life and all its potential and possibility.

Third, The British School Al Khubairat is a school that brims with life. It is flooded with the stuff. On our last visit, we found something we have never seen in another school. The whole ground floor has been transformed into the most enormous workshop, filling every possible space on the landmark entrance of the school, where children, individually, or in clusters, invent, create, and showcase their work. It is like walking into a business incubator. It is quite, quite extraordinary and so inspiring. The effects ripple across the school. Other students see what is possible – not from the (amazing) teachers top-down, but bottom-up, with students creating the world around them. The British School Al Khubairat empowers the absolute best of, and in, their young people.

Fourth, The British School Al Khubairat is without doubt one of the leading schools in Sport across the UAE. Sport may arguably be embedded more in Dubai, but in terms of accomplishment, values and sportsmanship BSAK is never outclassed. More than this, this is a school that inspires every child to take part and find their own way to sparkle.

It’s all part of a bigger, humane, deeply ethical picture hinting at what a world would be like less riven by the horrors of inequality, and where life chances are no more restricted to an elite few. It’s a vison that has never been more needed as the world face the AI Revolution that may well see, as Musk points out, the end of employment as we know it and the need for some form of UBI. This is a radically new world our children are growing up in – and the sorts of value frameworks and innovation our children will need cannot be found in schools following a treadmill curricular. Heart has never been more important in schools.

Investment is off-the-scale. As we visited the new Science and Innovation Centre had been completed:

and the plans for the future demonstrate an ambition unmatched elsewhere:

https://issuu.com/bsakabudhabi/docs/summer_term_renovation_plans_-_phase_5_plus_

From The Arts, to Sport, from Science to Engineering, from Fine Art to Entrepreneurship, from Geography to the spectrum of Social Sciences and the Performing Arts, the Outstanding in Education flows here like the great UAE seasonal rivers, without the limits of seasons.

This is too one of the very few schools to invest in bursaries, this evidence of a care for families and children that goes beyond words or mere talk, and a school that walks the walk of its ethics and compassion.

Across the board there is nothing to critique in this school. It is a powerhouse that, day after day, year after year, generation of students after generation, changes the world, and makes it a better place. The British School Al Khubairat is a school that leads from the front and has an impact way beyond its walls. It may be not-for-profit, but as for-profit schools tell us, that does not guarantee that a not-for-profit is better. They are right. What makes a school are the decisions that are made, and what teachers and leadership, and children, make happen.

This school should make Abu Dhabi, and the broader United Arab Emirates so proud.

And it does.

If we could design the perfect school, the British School Al Khubairat would be that school – and more.

Award Presentation

The Top Schools Award for Best British School in the United Arab Emirates 2023 – 2024 will be presented to The British School Al Khubairat Abu Dhabi 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 British curriculum education in the UAE:

Dubai College

Web: https://www.dubaicollege.org

KHDA: Outstanding

Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/dubai-college

Review: https://schoolscompared.com/secondary-schools/dubai-college-al-sufouh/

Our view of Dubai College:

“Undoubtedly the benchmark academically selective school in the UAE – but it’s also up there with the best globally.

“Forget all the pages about its stellar results. Yes, it puts the UAE on a global stage. BUT this is not at all the point.

“To understand DC, you have to see it through the prism of a school that looks after a very special and rare type of child that would not find an easy home elsewhere. This is a school that saves children, very much like the Catcher in Catcher in the Rye.

“You also have to understand that Dubai College is as much about Sport, Music, the Performing Arts as it is about the intellect, if not more so. The children who achieve a place at Dubai College have opportunities to visit places in the heart and mind, and receive a level of understanding, that just does not exist anywhere else. It’s competitive – just imagine the challenges of delivering “everything” for a powder keg of such talented students for whom enough will never be enough. It’s for that reason that getting wellbeing and happiness right here, is such a challenge – but one visited with quite exceptional and painstaking levels of attention, diligence and care.

“This is also a school that sets global benchmarks for its application and celebration of Oracy. Through Oracy it inspires its children, and gives them the most impressive toolbox, to speak, engage and articulate ways of looking at the world that make a difference, the difference.

Dubai College children, its extraordinary young men and young women, are those with all the potential to make an impact on our world by shining a light on the best of us, and those with all the gifts, and responsibilities, to change heart and minds and bring the world with them.”

Cranleigh Abu Dhabi

Web: https://www.cranleigh.ae

KHDA: Outstanding

Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/cranleigh-abu-dhabi

Review: https://schoolscompared.com/new-schools-in-uae/cranleigh-abu-dhabi-saadiyat-cultural-district-saadiyat-island/

Our view of Cranleigh Abu Dhabi:

“Beyond astonishing school that does everything, absolutely everything, extraordinarily – and with recent changes offers a breadth of curriculum and subject pathways that adds another plus to “Outstanding Plus.” Whole child provision across-the-board sets the heart on fire and the imagination firing on all cylinders – yes, it’s that good. Traditional and yet forward thinking, and with money no object, this school is pretty much the perfect option for every student.

“What Cranleigh School Abu Dhabi has the capacity to achieve for children is limitless.

“Cranleigh Abu Dhabi is, in short, a phenomenal school.”

Nord Anglia International School Dubai

Web: https://www.nordangliaeducation.com/nas-dubai

KHDA: Outstanding

Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/nord-anglia-international-school-dubai

Review: https://schoolscompared.com/all-through/nord-anglia-international-school-dubai-al-barsha/

Our view of Nord Anglia International School Dubai:

“We think that this is the definitive Nord Anglia School worldwide; it is beyond- outstanding. A school known historically for its exclusive, and passionate, love of, and respect for the IB, and a delivery of the IB Diploma second-to-none, Nord Anglia International School Dubai won so many hearts and minds for its courage in diversifying its offer to children to include alternative gold-standard A levels. In doing so it signalled its absolute care for its students and commitment, whatever the cost, to ensure that no child at Nord Anglia International School Dubai is ever left behind, or does not find a qualification or subject pathway able to light their path to achieving beyond every possible ambition.

“Whole child provision in the Arts is a phenomenon – you never forget a performance by a Nord Anglia Dubai child or group of children. Never.

“Nord Anglia International School Dubai is a school that has played a pivotal role in the evolution of education, and the expectations for education, in the UAE – and it is all the more remarkable that it has done so in such a relatively short time.

It is impossible to imagine Dubai Education without it.”

Safa Community School

Web: https://www.safacommunityschool.com

KHDA: Very Good with Outstanding Features [Note as of the time of writing we are unable to reveal the current grading of this school. Read into that what you will…]

Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/safa-community-school

Review: https://schoolscompared.com/new-schools-in-uae/safa-community-school-dubai-al-barsha-south/

Our view of Safa Community School Dubai:

“The Safa Schools have something that cannot be learned in books, or taught in classes. They have that indefinable something that makes children love learning. … that makes children love school. …that makes children adore their teachers. … that makes children thrive. The chemistry of a Safa School is one that makes joy, and keeps on making it, and making it, and making it….. It is unstoppable and a visit to a Safa School is like visiting a City of the Future built around happiness, potential, discovery, learning – and hope.

“It is true of both Safa Schools, but we had to choose one, and the opening of one of the most extraordinary Sixth Forms in the UAE at Safa Community School means that it unanimously secured its position here as one of the very finest British Curriculum schools in the United Arab Emirates.  Building cars, constructing beyond beautiful furniture, exploring the future of batteries – here you will find a state-of-the-art design and technology labs at the heart of an astonishing Sixth Form and GCSE dedicated purpose-built Safa College that brings the imagination to life every day for students….. a building that grows from the landscape proudly facing the future with all the architectural magnificence of a ship cutting through the oceans to find answers to the questions that come ceaselessly from its students. Descriptions of magnificent schooling here would fill a book.

“The roots of everything achieved here at this absolutely beautiful school, one so deeply caring, even spiritually so, can be found in its Primary and Middle School, where the children establish the ethical foundations that create a world where everything is possible for each child. This is not the place to discuss the owners of the school, or its Principal. All that is to be said is that their personal impacts, inspiring, moving and far-reaching, deserve every recognition and accolade.

“Children are loved, respected, nurtured and cherished here. The happiness of every child is something created here that few schools can emulate.

Safa Community School is a real second home for children, one that delivers everything important in Education– and in spades. Words cannot capture just how outstanding, beyond- outstanding, this extraordinary school is for its children.”

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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