Best Early Childhood Centre and Nursery School – The Finalists 2023 – 2024
The following schools are our Top 5 schools and Finalists for the 2023-2024 SchoolsCompared.com Best Early Learning Centre and Nursery School Award for their outstanding plus pre-school education of children in the UAE.
All the schools listed, in different ways, provide outstanding mix of pre-school learning so that every child can meet his or her individual ambitions, potential, and ability. Kindness and care for little ones, high levels of staffing, an understanding of the benefits of different pre-school approaches, outstanding relationships with parents and large doses of inspiration are the stand-out features we have looked for.
When we have looked at schools, we have weighted those that plough back investment into facilities, teacher salaries, resources and school improvements year-on-year to improve education for children.
All of the schools shortlisted endeavour to deliver a benchmark for the pre-school education for children available in the UAE.
Finally, we have looked across all areas of provision, investment, innovation and achievement that support each school being shortlisted. This Award was steered by the kindness of journalists at our sister site WhichSchoolAdvisor.com who have recognised expertise in this area with many years of nursery school visits and experience behind them. We hold, however, final responsibility for the decisions and any omissions or errors.
These are the far too often unsung heroes of the educational sector. They set up the lifetime of educational opportunities of children and, speak with any graduating slipstream school, you will hear their value praised to the rooftops. At their outstanding best, these are schools populated with conviction-led, highly qualified, aspirational educators, providing a quality of education unsurpassed in any school, regardless of phase, budget or reputation.
You can read more about what we have looked for in an outstanding nursery school education here.
Our Top 5 Finalists
The Top Schools Awards 2023 – 2024
Creative Nest Nursery
“Quite spectacular Early Years Centre, Creative Nursery Years was established from Day One to do everything to an outstanding plus standard. Purpose built to an uncompromising Tier 1 brief, the Reggio Emilia philosophy is read backwards into extraordinarily thoughtful and strategic learning spaces flooded with light and a mix of functionality and beauty that fires the senses and intellect of little ones. Faculty are all qualified and educationalists to the core. Leadership is stellar and Creative Nest a life project and vocation not a business. CPD for staff is ongoing, stretching and meaningful – already phenomenal educators just get better and better in a nursery offering careers not part-time gap fillers. Indoor and outdoor facilities are above and beyond and it’s hard to see how they could be bettered. Mud Kitchen, Splash Pad, Working Kitchen, Sensory Room, build-up, build-down themed experiential areas, performance spaces and classrooms populated with proven Reggio “tech”, the journeys little ones make as they grow with the school are unlimited in their innovation, breadth and tailoring to the fascinations and needs of each child. Arabic learning too is integrated seamlessly as part of living, picked up by little ones naturally and never by rote. The professionalism and commitment to Early Years learning here is beyond-standout and its implementation rich, inventive, tireless and… exciting. Its no wonder that parents are as adoring as the little ones.”
Creative Nest Nursery – review here
Future International Nursery Dubai
“The care for Mums here is stand-out with a 360 degree understanding that the role of a nursery extends to the whole family. Every member of staff is conviction-led and nothing is ever too much for leadership and faculty that have unmatched depth of understanding of the Early Years matched by compassion, talent and unwavering commitment to each and every child. The bi-lingual English-Arabic programme is second-to-none in the Emirates. Indoor and outdoor spaces are alive with learning, with beautiful forest school gardens meeting indoor spaces with staggering breadth of facility provision and themed spaces that are constructed by educators in lesson plans and delivery that are inventive, tailored and richly and individually child focused. Facilities are quite magical, this captured best in the giant fairy toadstools holding the changing areas for the flowing splash play and streams that run through the abundant and lush flower garden. The outdoor learning areas take the breath away. These flow indoors in themed lessons and wildlife discovery including the much-loved school rabbit to interactive aquarium. From a dedicated Theatre to one of the best working kitchens we have seen in any nursery in the UAE, from themed build-up, build-down spaces to a stunning Sensory Room, facilities stretch the plus in Tier 1 plus. The core curriculum is British/International with significant structure to ensure that every child meets key milestones to prepare them for “big school.” This sort of approach requires gifted teaching from very talented and committed faculty. At Future the end result is a nursery that delivers above and above for children, but also delivers the sorts of community and adoration from families that is rare and moving in equal measure.”
Future International Nursery, Dubai – Review here and here
Ladybird Nursery, Al Barsha
“Designed by Godwin, Austen Johnson (GAJ), arguably the the best architectural firm in the UAE, Ladybird Al Barsha sets an exceptionally high standard and bar for what parents can now expect from a Tier 1 nursery. It’s hard to capture in words just how phenomenal and impressive what has been achieved here is for children and the clear labour of love, sheer force of innovation, thoughtfulness and functionality of its design is given life at every turn in the expressions of “Wow!” from little ones and their families. It’s nothing short of the most beautifully executed nursery design and build of any nursery we have seen in the UAE – and it pays dividends for the learning of students. This may be the youngest of the Ladybird nurseries, but the investment in faculty carries in it the more than twenty five years of history and expertise in Dubai early learning provision garnered since the first Jumeirah 1 based Ladybird Nursery opened in 1996. The solid EYFS foundations are definitive and delivered with great expertise and the Montessori over-coding adds warmth and humanity in spades. The combination is uniquely Ladybird’s own in a tried and test formulae that cannot be learned in books. Facility provision is outstanding plus.”
Full review coming on both SchoolsCompared.com and WhichSchoolAdvisor.com
Home Grown Children’s Eco Nursery, Al Safa
“Probably the warmest of the nursery schools we have visited in recent memory, Home Grown matches an exceptional investment in provision with stand-out investment in teachers – it’s more than telling that Homegrown was recipient of our top teaching Award in nursery education in 2020-21. It’s some times easy to forget in the UAE how fortunate we are, notwithstanding cost of living challenges that are pushing many of us to our limits. Home Grown’s Corporate Social Responsibility [CSR] is creditable in itself – but it is there for a reason: to provide role models for children in understanding the importance of giving back, and creating an understanding in them of the complexities of a deeply unequal world. It is this sort of thoughtful, 360 degree investment in little ones, that brings to life for them how they can each make a difference in the world and learn to appreciate the beauty of values, and compassion. The focus on ecology and Environmental Science sets up links for children that are hugely valuable for their later education on graduation. It’s not about being “worthy”, but, rather, about delivering an important academically and ethically driven lens to shine light on one of the “industries of the future”, one driven by the most pressing needs of our time. Facilities are outstanding plus – and beautiful. Outdoor areas in particular are a feast for the soul, heart and mind. At Home Grown they create excitement and innovation a plenty as little ones explore and create an infinity of make-believe stories and adventures to be journeyed. Leadership and teaching is stellar.”
Home Grown Children’s Eco Nursery, Al Safa 2 – review here
Little Land Nursery
Multi-award winning Early Learning Centre, Little Land Nursery created fireworks of appreciation with our Judges in 2021-2022 – and its beautiful, inclusive delivery of an outstanding nursery school education for little ones continues with, if anything, an even more greater investment in personalised education and inspirational learning paths that inspires its adoring parents as much as the endlessly inspired and fascinated children. Celebrating the thirtieth anniversary since its founding in 1994 next year, Little Land has secured a deeply respected place in the landscape of Dubai Early Years Education, with a history of innovation and care for children tried and tested over generations of little ones. The approach is British EYFS for structure with layered and compassionate Montessori over-coded to provide the inspiration and found a care for children second-to-none. It’s not a bells and whistles nursery – imagine instead the dream of a perfect community village nursery, with all the warmth that conjures up, combined with heady investment in the teachers and facilities to deliver Tier 1 learning opportunity, practice and child achievement. To say that leadership is impassioned is an understatement: what takes place here is a life’s work and mission to deliver a future for its children. Caring and humanity cascade through the nursery with abundance and this stands as one of the very finest and special nursery schools in the Emirates.”
Little Land Nursery – review here.
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Wow.. Congrats to all winners. In my opinion, American Gulf School in Sharjah is also suitable to be in the first top American schools. https://www.ags.ae/en