Public change log · every edit dated
Register updates
Every change to this guide is logged and dated. If a school closes, we remove it; if a rating changes, we say when and why. A directory you cannot audit is a directory you cannot trust.
- The inclusion sweep is complete. All 169 schools in this register now carry an inclusion entry — covering cohort sizes, named team structures, ratios, therapy access, fee tiers, admissions mechanisms, identification routes, qualification pathways, stated boundaries, and, where no evidence exists, an explicit statement that we do not know rather than a plausible guess. The final school, St Mary’s Muhaisnah, has a dedicated SENDCO and Inclusion Team identifying needs early with parental and external-specialist input, delivering personalised in-class support, focus groups and one-to-one interventions under individual education plans, with leaders and governors demonstrating strong commitment. Its published caveats are exact: although individual students and their needs are communicated to teachers, the support and challenge they receive in class is inconsistent and not always well planned; inspectors asked for a wider range of diagnostic assessments and evidence-based targeted support; and the head of inclusion does not have many links with other inclusion departments to help prioritise the school’s vision — a professional-isolation problem rarely named this openly. Added alongside it, the four statutory inclusion roles every Dubai school must staff, defined: inclusion champion, leader of provision, support teacher, and learning support assistant — including the requirement that a support teacher spend no less than 60% of their time making other teachers better at inclusion. When a school says it has an inclusion team, a family can now ask which of the four roles are filled, by whom.
- Inclusion sweep, eighty-fifth tranche. Lycée Français International Mudon: no KHDA rating and no published inclusion data for this campus, and we say so plainly rather than borrowing its Outstanding-rated sister school’s record. Support for students of determination and English-language learners is expected to follow KHDA standards, which is a requirement rather than a distinction, and we frame it that way. Two things are genuinely useful: the primary offer is deliberately more international than the network norm, with up to six hours of English weekly for all students or three hours of English plus three hours of French support for those who need it, which is a structured route for a child arriving without strong French — and the school opened in temporary accommodation for 2025–26, moving to its purpose-built campus ahead of 2026–27, so ask exactly when and what your child’s first year looks like. New Dawn Private School: no rating, no published inclusion data, but a leadership structure that includes a named functional lead for Inclusion alongside Arabic and Islamic Studies, Curriculum and Assessment, and Pastoral Care, with an inclusive admissions policy. For a school this new that is a structure rather than a track record, and it is labelled as such — with the question that matters most for a small growing team: what happens when a need exceeds what it can deliver.
- Inclusion sweep, eighty-fourth tranche. DESS Primary Academic City has no KHDA rating yet, but carries the best-documented inclusion provision of any new school in this register, because the school has published it: a nine-strong Inclusion team working from a dedicated Learning Zone — an Inclusion Champion, two Inclusion teachers, a Student Advisor and five learning support assistants — with approximately 48 students at 6% of the roll receiving SEN support by January 2026, 65 students at 8% designated with Gifts and Talents, and 16 receiving English language support. Its support model is explicit and we publish the consequence: staff determine provision for Wave 1 needs, while for Wave 2 or 3 needs the school works with parents to arrange a customised plan — so establish in writing what customised covers, and who pays. One genuine structural advantage: children are guaranteed places at DESS College at the end of Year 6, which removes the secondary-transfer problem most primary-only schools leave families to solve. The Scholars School: no rating, opening August 2026, but recruiting a Special Educational Needs Coordinator and Inclusion Support Teacher reporting to a Head of Inclusion — a proper three-tier structure being hired before the doors open. Intent, not outcome, and labelled as such.
- Inclusion sweep, eighty-third tranche — the 2026 premium entrants, written with no regulator judgement to lean on and no pretending otherwise. Harrow International School Dubai has appointed Jason Todd as Director of Inclusion, currently Director of Inclusion at Yasmina British Academy Abu Dhabi and Group Lead of Inclusion at Aldar Education with responsibility for compliance and strategic direction across twelve schools, and fifteen years in SEND. Appointing a group-level inclusion lead before opening is a meaningful commitment rather than a brochure line, and the school states it will be non-selective with a deliberately broad intake — both recorded as intent, neither tested with children in the building. Rugby School Dubai: the campus design includes dedicated spaces for inclusion and learning support alongside medical clinics, so provision is planned into the building rather than retrofitted, and the inherited Kent College site explains why this school may open across the full FS1 to Year 13 range rather than the usual cap. Queen Elizabeth’s School Dubai: its UK parent is a state grammar rated Outstanding by Ofsted, which is to say its results come from academically selective entry in a different system — so the question we put on that page from the first day stands unchanged: how selective will this campus be, and what happens to a child who finds the pace difficult.
- Inclusion sweep, eighty-second tranche, and a correction that resolves something we previously left open. On the inspection pause, we had recorded that sources conflicted about when full inspections resume. The position is now clear: KHDA has announced that private schools will not undergo full inspections during 2025–26 — the second consecutive year without them — with the exception of new schools completing their third year of operation, and with quality assurance visits focused on specific improvement areas taking their place. Our key-findings page now says exactly that, and draws the consequence plainly: for most schools in this register the rating you are reading is the most recent one that exists, and it may be two or more years old. That is precisely why this guide publishes the findings underneath a rating rather than the rating alone. Also encoded: the three Dubai Schools campuses. Al Barsha, with 161 students identified with additional learning needs at its first inspection. Nad Al Sheba, rated Good for provision and outcomes for students of determination, above its overall rating. Al Khawaneej, where we found the school’s own inclusion commitment but no separately published rating, and say so. All three carry the same context: the Dubai Schools partnership exists to help Dubai reach 100% of Emirati students in Good-or-better schools, and two of the three campuses have not yet cleared that bar themselves.
- Inclusion sweep, eighty-first tranche, and a finding that names a specific failure mode. H.H. Sheikh Rashid Pakistani School: KHDA’s published inclusion rating table records this school as Weak, and an inspection finding explains what that means in practice — the school is inclusive and has begun identifying students with SEND using a range of assessments including outside specialists, but not all students identified as having SEND appear on the SEND register. A child can be known to need help and still be invisible in the system that allocates it. That is the specific thing to ask about, and it is a failure mode this register has not previously been able to name so precisely. Context belongs beside it and is published there: at fees of roughly AED 3,100 to 6,260 this is among the most affordable schools in the emirate, serving a community with very few alternatives, and it has climbed from eight years rated Weak to Acceptable overall. Both facts are true at once. Japanese School Dubai: no published inclusion rating found in verified sources, stated plainly, with the note that a Japanese national curriculum school serving a specific expatriate community should be assessed on its own terms — and the three questions to ask instead.
- Inclusion sweep, eightieth tranche. Lycée Libanais Francophone Privé: Very Good, just over 100 students identified with additional learning needs, and inspection commentary that is unusually specific about method — a clear inclusion policy, effective early identification using diagnostic tools including CAT4, strong collaboration between teachers, parents and the inclusion team, detailed observation logs and well-targeted interventions, with parent partnership rated Outstanding. Three development points published alongside: refine personalised plans so they carry measurable outcomes, align diagnoses fully with KHDA categories of need, and strengthen provision for gifted students. Two things families themselves raise are recorded too — Arabic needs consolidating at Lycée level, and the impact of the Taaleem acquisition is being watched closely. Bilingual French International School: no separately published inclusion rating found in verified sources, and we say so rather than infer one from its Very Good overall. What the record does show is a genuine climb across a decade, and the page gives families the three questions to ask instead — including what provision exists in the senior grades, which have only just been built out.
- Inclusion sweep, seventy-ninth tranche — the Jean Mermoz campuses, and one of the most complete inspector descriptions of an inclusion operation in this register. Lycée Français Jean Mermoz: Very Good, 120 students of determination on a 1:13 ratio, meeting the physical needs of students including wheelchair users, with the inclusion leader sitting inside a Pôle d’Inclusion that comprises two psychologists or counsellors, the principal, heads of phase and a governor — so inclusion has leadership, clinical expertise and governance in the same room, which is rare. Most lesson plans are carefully differentiated so students of determination have activities pitched at their own level, identification runs through observation and assessment data, and the team works with parents to celebrate successes and build self-esteem. The published gap is specific: middle leaders and classroom teachers lack sufficient understanding to use assessment data effectively for differentiated planning. The South campus has no inclusion rating of its own and the page says so, treating the North model as a well-founded expectation rather than a result — with the note that two counsellors served over 1,400 students at North, a ratio worth monitoring as South grows, and that admissions there weigh ‘savoir-être’ alongside academic readiness.
- Inclusion sweep, seventy-eighth tranche, and the most serious inclusion finding this register has published. Emirates National Schools Dubai: inclusion rated Weak, with inspectors stating plainly that ‘there is no inclusion leader’ and that as a result provision lacks strategic direction, monitoring, challenge and leadership support for staff — adding that identification processes are underdeveloped and that there are too many students whose learning needs are not being met. That has to be read against the requirement we published two builds ago: every private school in Dubai is required to run an inclusion support team led by a named inclusion champion. Two things are recorded in the school’s favour and both are real — the inclusion governor is committed to developing an inclusive ethos, and admission procedures welcome students with more complex learning needs. But welcoming a child through the door is not the same as meeting their needs once inside, and inspectors have said so. Also encoded: PACE Modern British School, Acceptable, 62 students of determination, with the note that its planned BTEC pathway faces UK discontinuation over the coming years; and Vernus International, where inspectors record genuine kindness and inclusivity in the culture alongside leadership described as an acceptable foundation rather than a strong one.
- Inclusion sweep, seventy-seventh tranche, and a strengthening of the rights section. Dubai Modern Education School: the school describes itself as inclusive and non-discriminatory, with over 2,200 students across more than 50 nationalities in a dual US and Ministry of Education curriculum model — but we found no separate published KHDA inclusion rating in verified sources and say so rather than infer one. Its published admissions detail matters: applications are accepted without discrimination, but the decision to offer a place rests on availability and entrance test results, so that test is consequential and a family should ask what it decides. The page tells readers to weigh this against the inspection finding already published there, that teaching is weak in the elementary and middle phases of the US section. Added to the key-findings page: the framework behind all of this, named. KHDA’s Dubai Inclusive Education Policy Framework, launched 2017 under the Dubai Disabilities Strategy and the ‘My community… a city for everyone’ initiative, set the expectation that private schools would be fully inclusive by 2020 — meaning a student of determination should be able to enrol in any mainstream private school in Dubai without the risk of rejection. Principals acknowledged then that not every school had the staff or budget. Our school pages show how uneven it still is. But that expectation is the standard a child is entitled to be measured against, not an aspiration.
- Inclusion sweep, seventy-sixth tranche, and a number that needs reading carefully. Russian International School: inclusion rated Good — but only 10 students are identified as students of determination in a school of over 500, one of the lowest identification rates anywhere in this register. Provision for those ten is genuinely good, under a knowledgeable inclusion manager, and the school operates a Social Inclusion Model with admission open without restriction. But a very low identified cohort can mean genuinely low need, or it can mean needs are not being found, and in a school delivering a foreign national curriculum to a largely single-language community that question belongs directly to the inclusion manager. This register will keep saying it: a small number is not automatically good news. Gulf Model School: the school describes an inclusive environment with a committed support team, but we found no separate published KHDA inclusion rating in verified sources and say so rather than infer one. It climbed from Weak to Acceptable in 2022–23, which is real movement for the students inside it, and families needing structured support are told to treat a visit as essential and given the three questions to ask.
- Inclusion sweep, seventy-fifth tranche. JSS Private School: Very Good, 155 students of determination in a school of about 2,100, with well-resourced SEN provision, a formal gifted and talented identification programme, and five guidance counsellors across the roll — a ratio families should note when judging pastoral depth. Very Good has been held across three consecutive inspection cycles after Good ratings from 2014 to 2019, and its reading literacy benchmark rose 49 points to 582 in 2023, a progression KHDA rated Outstanding. The page also carries the warning this register issues wherever names collide: JSS International is a different school with a different curriculum, CICSE rather than CBSE. And Al Mizhar American Academy, which now operates as American Academy for Girls — the entry points families searching the old name to the current one, where the provision is documented: around 100 students of determination at the November 2023 inspection, a significant 18% of the roll, in a school whose operator helped develop KHDA’s Inclusive Education Policy. A school changing its name should not cost a family the information they need.
- Inclusion sweep, seventy-fourth tranche. Arab Unity School: KHDA’s inclusion rating table records Good, above the school’s Acceptable overall rating, with approximately 192 students of determination supported by an inclusion team creating individual learning plans and integrating students into mainstream classes. Its admissions policy is published in unusual detail and every SEN family should read it — it follows Federal Law 29 of 2006 and the Dubai Inclusive Policy Framework, admission depends on seat availability and the school’s capacity to address the specific need, and admission is not conditional on a medical diagnosis. One clause deserves attention rather than alarm, and we publish it plainly: the policy states that if a student’s need later poses a threat to the safety of self or peers, parents will be asked to withdraw the child and guided to alternatives. Ask what threshold applies, and who decides. Ambassador International Academy: KHDA records robust identification systems and states the large majority of students of determination make very good progress, with parents and community rated Outstanding and curriculum design Outstanding — and the school foregrounds inclusive education and advocacy on its own public site, so this is not a hidden or reluctant part of the proposition. Published with the counterweight: variability in Arabic, and inconsistency in teaching and assessment in parts of KG and lower primary.
- Inclusion sweep, seventy-third tranche, and two affordable schools whose inclusion machinery outclasses their fee bracket. The Oxford School: Good and improving, approximately 147 students supported by a dedicated team of counsellor, special educator and class teachers, with education plans developed after psycho-educational assessments, a dedicated inclusion centre, and — the detail that matters most — an admission process that screens for needs early, so support is in place from the start rather than after a child struggles. Published with the honest limits: a narrow A Level range focused on Commerce and Science, Primary mathematics still a work in progress, and a functional rather than premium campus, because the value here is in the people not the infrastructure. Al Sadiq Islamic English School: Good, with identification and support systems described by inspectors as clear and inclusive, around 80 students of determination, and a named team of a Head of Inclusion, four Learning Support Assistants, a Support Teacher, a SEN Specialist Teacher and a Wellbeing Counsellor. English-as-additional-language provision is managed through the inclusion team at no additional cost, parent communication is rated Very Good, the highest element of its inspection — and basic tuition runs from roughly AED 4,579 to 9,281. That is a full inclusion department at close to the lowest fees in the emirate.
- Inclusion sweep, seventy-second tranche, drawing on KHDA’s own published inclusion rating table. The International School of Choueifat Al Sufouh: 83 students of determination, with inspectors reporting that the school’s resistance to curriculum flexibility, inclusion adaptation and more student-centred learning continues to limit progress, and recommending that qualified teachers be appointed in Inclusion. The SABIS system is tightly structured by design — a strength for students who thrive on it, a constraint for a child who needs the curriculum bent around them, and we say so in those terms. Choueifat DIP: 49 students of determination at just under 2% of the roll, one of the lowest proportions in this register, with KHDA’s table recording this branch as Weak for inclusion and inspectors finding the rigidity of the SABIS system limits responsiveness to inclusion and personalised learning. The Philippine School: our sources conflict and we publish both rather than choose — KHDA’s inclusion table records Weak, while a review source reporting the 2023–24 inspection describes provision as Acceptable, and the two may reflect different years. What is consistent is 101 students of determination, a qualified inclusion leader appointed, positive parent relationships with the inclusion and counselling teams — and the limits, that support plans vary in quality, gifted provision is underdeveloped, and curriculum pathways for students of determination are limited, particularly around future qualifications.
- Inclusion sweep, seventy-first tranche. Al Maaref American School: inspectors record inclusive admission procedures and improving support for students of determination, with only a small cohort identified at the 2024 inspection — and we note on the page that a small cohort is itself worth asking about, because it can mean low need or low identification, and those are very different things. Curriculum adaptations do not always cater to higher and lower attainers, leadership roles lack clarity and self-evaluation is overly optimistic. One piece of context belongs with it: Emirati enrolment has fallen from over 400 in 2020 to around 160, which follows the regulator’s guidance to Emirati families to move to schools rated Good or better — the mechanism our key-findings page explains, visible here in actual numbers. North American International School: no published inclusion rating found in any source we can verify, and rather than infer one from the overall Acceptable judgement, the page says so plainly and gives families the three questions to ask instead — how many students of determination are on roll, who leads inclusion, and what the entry assessment is actually used to decide.
- Inclusion sweep, seventieth tranche, and a second Weak inclusion judgement. Buds Public School: inspectors found that teachers do not adapt the curriculum in ways that help them adequately meet the needs of all groups of students, including students of determination and those with particular gifts and talents, and recommended a review of the entire system of monitoring and support. 40 students of determination were identified. The school publishes no detail about facilities or support for additional learning needs despite being required under KHDA policy to have them in place — and that absence is itself the finding. Primus Private School: Good, 53 students of determination through a dedicated Student Development Centre covering literacy, mathematics, speaking and listening, social, motor and life skills — with the familiar pair of caveats, a mismatch between vision and classroom practice in how education plans are implemented, and curriculum modifications for higher-ability students not yet well embedded. Dhruv Global School: Acceptable on its first inspection in February 2026, 22 students identified, an Inclusion Support Team under a named Head of Inclusion, and an admissions process that is unusually transparent — the admissions test may be waived, the family meets the Inclusion Department to plan support, admission depends on the school’s capacity to provide it, and individualised service agreements may be signed where needed. That last phrase is the KHDA-registered mechanism we published on the key-findings page, named openly by a school for once.
- Inclusion sweep, sixty-ninth tranche, and the first Weak inclusion rating this register has published. Woodlem Park School: inclusion rated Weak, downgraded from Acceptable, and we publish the inspectors’ wording rather than soften it — leaders do not have a cohesive vision for inclusion, systems of accountability and support are insufficient, assessment data are not used effectively to monitor classroom practice and adapt the curriculum, there is insufficient investment in the recruitment of experienced staff, and the school provides limited support for students of determination and for those who are gifted and talented. 62 students of determination are on roll. Its fees are among the lowest in Dubai and its KG phase draws warm parent feedback for phonics-focused early literacy, and both of those are true too — but a family whose child needs structured learning support should read that wording carefully before applying. New Indian Model School: Good, with inspectors describing the inclusion team as providing a positive service and identification as accurate — and a discrepancy we are publishing rather than resolving, because one source reports around 900 students of determination and another 532. We could not reconcile them, so both appear. Bright Riders School: Good, describing itself as inclusive in the true sense of the word with students who have physical challenges, high-functioning autism and learning difficulties integral to school culture — published with the DSIB finding that students of determination and gifted learners are not yet consistently challenged.
- Inclusion sweep, sixty-eighth tranche, and three schools where the inclusion rating and the overall rating tell different stories. School of Modern Skills: inclusion rated Good against an Acceptable overall rating — 84 students of determination plus students identified with gifts, talents and English language needs, a qualified team including an inclusion champion, modified curricula, learning laboratories and a sensory room, early identification, good progress from starting points and parents satisfied with communication. The caveat: tracking systems require further development to fully inform personalised planning. American School of Creative Science: inclusion Very Good against a Good overall rating, with an inclusive ethos, personalised interventions and careful monitoring through its Effective Learning Provision team, wellbeing Very Good and safeguarding Outstanding — published with the limits, that Arabic attainment lags the strongest core subjects, mathematics consistency is uneven and there are no published senior external results yet. And Durham School Dubai, where inspectors are unusually blunt: 50 registered students of determination, provision caring in intent but reactive in practice, insufficient infrastructure, inconsistent education plans, limited monitoring of impact, and zero guidance counsellors on roll. A separate Durham School UK quality visit found teaching standards high with differentiation a strength, so classroom practice may be ahead of the systems around it — but a family needing structured, monitored support should question this school closely rather than assume.
- Inclusion sweep, sixty-seventh tranche. Raffles International School: described by DSIB as fully inclusive with 147 students of determination — and two facts that give the phrase weight rather than leaving it decorative. Assessment processes in Secondary and Post-16 were rated Outstanding, the highest possible grade, which means teachers are using data exceptionally well to drive progress, and data is the machinery inclusion actually runs on. The outcomes hold across a genuinely mixed intake: 42% of GCSE grades at 7 to 9, 100% of Year 13 students reported achieving university acceptance, in a school with a large English-as-additional-language population, with mathematics attainment Very Good in every phase from Foundation Stage to Post-16. Dar Al Marefa: Good for inclusion, with special education services designed around the demands of a bilingual IB curriculum — the only school in Dubai offering the IB bilingually in Arabic and English, including the reduced IB Courses Programme, which is itself a route for students who would struggle with the full Diploma. Published with the inspectors’ finding that alternative curriculum pathways are otherwise absent, and with the July 2024 leadership change to a principal who previously raised Raffles International to Very Good.
- The most consequential thing we have published about school fees, and it reframes dozens of entries in this register. KHDA’s Directives and Guidelines for Inclusive Education require private schools in Dubai to provide the standard school service for students of determination as part of the standard tuition fee. Enhanced provision may be charged for only in exceptional circumstances, only under an individualised service agreement between parent and school that must be registered with KHDA, at a fee that must be no more than the actual cost of the services provided, only where the provision is genuinely not available through the standard service, and with clear documentation to both the parent and the regulator that it is necessary. KHDA reviews and monitors those agreements and they may lead to follow-up or action. That rule now opens the fee section of our key-findings page, ahead of everything else, because this register has documented school after school where parents fund one-to-one learning support assistants — and a family quoted a support fee is entitled to ask three questions: is this registered with KHDA, is it priced at actual cost, and what documentation shows it is necessary rather than routine. Also encoded this tranche: The Indian High School Garhoud, Good, with 190-plus students identified with special educational needs and inspectors’ caveat that differentiated learning activities for those students and for gifted students are not consistent.
- Inclusion sweep, sixty-fifth tranche: The Indian High School, deepened — 220 students with additional learning needs at the 2023–24 inspection in a school of over 5,300, with 317 teachers, three teaching assistants and eleven guidance counsellors on a 1:16 ratio. Inspectors record that the inclusion team works effectively to ensure early and accurate identification of needs, and that students of determination make good progress with personalised learning plans, with personal and social development rated Outstanding. The context that gives those numbers their weight: fees run from roughly AED 5,525 in Grade 5 to AED 10,465 in Grade 12, placing this level of provision at the very bottom of Dubai’s fee range. The page also carries the structural note families miss — this is the Grades 5 to 12 campus, with KG to Grade 4 taught at Garhoud, which holds a different rating. Eleven guidance counsellors for a school at these fees is a number worth sitting with, and it is the kind of fact that only appears when someone reads past the rating.
- Inclusion sweep, sixty-fourth tranche, and an entry upgraded from unverified to sourced. GEMS Legacy School previously carried only the school’s own stated commitment, clearly labelled as such because we had found no regulator judgement. Inspector findings are now available and they are specific in both directions: robust procedures for identifying students of determination, personalised support for the highest level of need described as very effective, and increased staffing having a positive impact — set against ‘support by class teachers is variable’ and ‘provision for gifted and talented students is underdeveloped’. GEMS Our Own English High School, deepened: approximately 13% of students have an additional learning requirement, which in a school of around 10,000 means well over a thousand students of determination — the largest inclusion operation documented anywhere in this register. GEMS Our Own Indian School: 349 children of determination among roughly 3,735 students at fees of AED 6,500 to 13,300, one of the largest cohorts in Dubai at one of the lowest price points. Across all three, the same failure mode recurs: assessment and planning handled well by the SEN team, delivery by individual subject teachers inconsistent. Ask to see how an IEP appears in a subject teacher’s lesson plan — that single request tests the thing that most often goes wrong.
- Inclusion sweep, sixty-third tranche — the two Dubai National School campuses, and a divergence families must see. Al Barsha: 106 students of determination, with inspectors naming strong provision among the school’s strengths, a thorough identification and assessment system, appropriately targeted intervention plans, and a published compliance statement covering the KHDA framework, Ministry of Education SEND laws and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Two honest findings sit against it: inspectors record that ‘the progress of students of determination is variable and dependent upon the quality of teaching’, with not all teachers understanding the practices that promote good progress — and plans to install elevators improving access for students with mobility needs had not been implemented at the time of the 2023–24 inspection, which is a practical accessibility gap to raise directly. Al Twar: inclusion rated Acceptable, below the standard the regulator expects, with support varying by lesson and provision less developed for gifted students. Same name, same group, different provision — and a family assuming the two campuses are interchangeable would be making an expensive mistake.
- Inclusion sweep, sixty-second tranche — the Al Ittihad schools. Al Mamzar: around 45 students of determination in a school of over 1,800, with a dedicated team providing clear individual education plans and detailed identification processes, and inspectors recording that ‘the effective work of the inclusion team ensures that students of determination make good progress overall’ with personal support building self-confidence and resilience. Published with two precise asks and one parent concern: ensure the modifications set out in IEPs are actually included in all classroom lesson plans, ensure planned modifications are delivered in lessons because support was found not always reliable in the classroom, and — raised by parents themselves — reduce staff turnover. The gap between a plan on paper and a plan delivered in the room is the single most common failure mode this sweep has documented, and here inspectors named it directly. Al Safa, upgraded: Very Good for both inclusion and wellbeing above its Good overall rating, with inspectors naming ‘the school’s inclusive ethos and the high quality of care and support provided for all students, including students of determination’ among its strengths, a highly qualified team with clear strategic plans, and precise entry assessment processes — in a school where almost 90% of 2,850 students are from Emirati families.
- Inclusion sweep, sixty-first tranche — the Al Mawakeb campuses, and an admissions position every family should read before applying. The group publishes it plainly: the Principal and Senior Leadership Team are authorised to admit students ‘when they determine that adequate provision can be made’ for a child’s particular needs, and expect an assessment from an external agent such as an educational psychologist or occupational therapist providing data on strengths, challenges and suggested strategies. That is a capacity-based admission with an external-report expectation — materially different from the schools in this register that admit without requiring a diagnosis, and a family should know which kind of door they are knocking on. To the group’s real credit, it also publishes and links KHDA’s ‘Advocating for Inclusive Education’ parent guide, actively pointing families toward their own rights. Al Khawaneej is the newest campus, opened in 2018, so the page tells families to ask specifically how the inclusion team there is staffed rather than assume parity with the older schools.
- Inclusion sweep, sixtieth tranche: Our Own High School Al Warqa’a, where DSIB inspectors recognised the Inclusion Department as a success story — an open-door policy with the counsellor and accommodations in line with the Dubai Inclusive Education Policy Framework and UAE law — and then set out with unusual precision what still needs to change. Extend provision so the inclusion team is fully represented within senior leadership; ensure there are sufficient learning support assistants to maximise the progress of all students of determination; and ensure class teachers are fully informed about exceptional learning needs and develop the expertise to provide consistently high-quality modification and support. Those three asks are published on the page because they are a checklist a parent can put directly to the school, item by item, and ask what has changed. This is a boys’ school of roughly 4,700 students, Good for seven consecutive years, at fees of about AED 8,700 to 14,600 — which makes the scale of that inclusion operation, and the honesty of its remaining gaps, worth understanding together.
- Inclusion sweep, fifty-ninth tranche — three Acceptable-tier schools, written with the same care as any Outstanding page. Ignite School: over 100 students of determination, 102 at the last inspection and double the number two years earlier, one of the highest proportions in its sector, with early identification, individualised plans, a sensory and adaptive room, and inspectors recording that most students of determination make good progress academically, socially and personally — published alongside the finding that internally assessed results run consistently higher than external benchmarks, and that three consecutive Acceptable ratings carry particular regulatory weight for its substantial Emirati cohort. Cedar School: 40 students needing SEN support, over 10% of enrolment, with inspectors recording a qualified and experienced head of inclusion, resources matched to needs, and students of determination fully included in all activities — and the specific caveat that curriculum modification across different subjects was inconsistent. Oak Tree Primary: a dedicated head of Inclusion within an improved middle leadership structure, published with two things to weigh — parent partnership rated Acceptable and described as underdeveloped, and a documented leadership discrepancy, where the inspection report names one principal and the school website another, with no public confirmation of when that changed. Ask who is leading the school today, and since when.
- Inclusion sweep, fifty-eighth tranche, and a piece of regulation almost no family knows about. Under KHDA’s published school policy, a school that chooses not to admit a student of determination must complete a ‘Non-admission’ form and upload it to the KHDA system within two working days of declining. A refusal is therefore not a private conversation with an admissions officer — it is a recorded event with the regulator, and a parent who is turned down may reasonably ask whether that form has been submitted. That is now on the key-findings page alongside the rest of the admission rights. Two schools encoded with it. Citizens School: 67 students of determination in a school of roughly 700, with WellComm and CAT4 assessments determining support needs and an Individual Learning Support Assistant provided where required — and a published inclusion policy that cites Federal Law 29/2006 directly, that special needs in themselves are not an obstruction to admission. Dunecrest American School: pastoral care Very Good across all phases, management and resources Outstanding, a policy that explicitly recognises twice-exceptional students, and a clear statement that provision exceeding the KHDA framework requires a KHDA-certified Independent Learning Support Assistant. Establish who employs and pays that assistant before you apply.
- Inclusion sweep, fifty-seventh tranche: German International School Dubai, where inclusion is rated Very Good — above the school’s overall rating — with 61 students of determination identified at the 2024 inspection, inspectors recording leaders and governors as highly committed to inclusive education, an Inclusion Support Team running a special educational curriculum, and a favourable ratio of roughly 1:10. Three things a family must weigh are published alongside, all from the school or its inspectors. The special educational curriculum must be agreed with parents and comes at an additional cost. Entry involves placement testing, with students achieving far below age expectations counted as SEND candidates, so that assessment is consequential rather than routine. And wellbeing is rated only Good, with inspectors finding that governors and senior leaders ‘have not yet facilitated a shared vision for the wellbeing of all’, which constrains planning — a notable gap in a school whose inclusion provision is otherwise strong. Strong inclusion and unsettled wellbeing can coexist in the same school, and a family should know both before they choose.
- Inclusion sweep, fifty-sixth tranche. South View School: 92 students with SEN requirements supported by a Head of Inclusion, two SENCOs, four teachers and additional learning support assistants — and one detail that is architectural rather than administrative, that the Inclusion Department sits at the heart of the school rather than tucked away, which the school describes as a physical representation of its philosophy. ‘The Base’ operates at break and lunchtime as an inclusive gathering spot where students can socialise, which addresses the part of the school day that is hardest for many children with additional needs and which almost no school thinks to design for. Dove Green Private School: began as an academic and SEND selective school and has since fully embraced the Dubai Inclusive Framework — a documented shift this register states plainly, because a school that used to select is not the same school as one that never did, and the change is recent. Provision covers in-class support, phonics and mathematics interventions, social skills groups, pastoral care, gifted groups and English language support, on roughly a 1:13 ratio.
- Inclusion sweep, fifty-fifth tranche, and the fullest fee breakdown for learning support we have yet verified — banked, not published, because the school it concerns is not in this register. Kent College Dubai holds Very Good for 2023–24, with inspectors calling it ‘a fully inclusive school, with excellent care and support for all students’ and issuing a single recommendation: raise achievement in all subjects to very good or better. 79 students of determination among roughly 800 students on a 1:10 ratio, with a 20-pupil cap in senior classes. Its Achievement Centre runs interventions across literacy, numeracy, motor and social skills, emotional regulation and life skills, with a bespoke personalised curriculum for Level 3 students, ASDAN as an alternative SEND pathway, a performance pathway for gifted students, and partnerships with external psychology and therapy agencies. And the fee structure, which is the most transparent we have found anywhere: there are no additional fees for English language provision; the school helps parents source individual learning support assistants and nearly all are under school contract with an option of visa and medical cover, with cost depending on hours; and speech and language and occupational therapy costs are arranged directly between parents and their chosen centres. That is a school telling families exactly what they will pay and to whom, before they ask. When Kent College enters this register, all of it publishes.
- Inclusion sweep, fifty-fourth tranche. Dwight School Dubai: its Quest Programme has the broadest stated scope in this register — students of determination, students with gifts and talents, twice-exceptional students, and students with English language needs, all supported through targeted intervention inside the common learning environment. Twice-exceptional means a child who is both gifted and has a learning difficulty, and it is a group almost no school in this market names at all, let alone builds provision for; those children are routinely missed because their ability masks their difficulty and their difficulty masks their ability. Approximately 25% of students receive additional support, 7% on the SEND register, a similar proportion identified as gifted, and around 11% receiving English language support. Regent International, deepened: 36 students of determination supported through the Achievement Centre, which assesses learning, language and social-emotional needs on entry, with Individual Achievement Plans written in partnership with student, teachers and parents — and the school stating plainly that it is an inclusive school, not a specialist SEN institution.
- Inclusion sweep, fifty-third tranche: Victory Heights Primary School City of Arabia, which opened in 2025 and has no KHDA rating, because a first full inspection normally comes only in a school’s third year of operation. What is verifiable is the transplant, and it is unusually complete: the leadership team, the ELLI learning framework, the inclusion philosophy and the academic benchmarks were all brought across from Victory Heights Sports City, which holds Outstanding from both KHDA and British Schools Overseas including Outstanding for inclusion, and the founding principal came from inside that school. The inclusion team works with teachers and families to provide support where required, on a purpose-built campus. The page still says what it must: the Outstanding belongs to the sister school and not to this one, and primary-only means the Year 6 move needs planning from the day you enrol. Transplanted people and frameworks are the strongest signal a new school can offer — and they are still a signal, not a result.
- Inclusion sweep, fifty-second tranche: Dubai Heights Academy, deepened — a school launched as part of Dubai’s ‘My Community… A City for Everyone’ initiative and built from opening in 2017 to be a model for inclusion. The team is named in full, and the physical provision is the most detailed in this register: an Enrichment Zone with a Wonder World Snoezelen room using fibre-optic light therapy, a Fun Junction sensory room with a magnetic climbing wall, a sensory sound garden and therapy support classrooms, with a speech and language therapist and an occupational therapist on site twice weekly delivering group therapy inside classrooms, and physiotherapy available. Additional curriculum pathways include BTEC Level 1 and ASDAN, and wellbeing and personal development are both Outstanding across all phases. Published with two costs to settle in writing: where a child needs a one-to-one learning support assistant the school helps parents interview and hire a suitable candidate but the parent pays, and the gap between discounted and KHDA-approved fees is a conversation to have with admissions before signing rather than after.
- Inclusion sweep, fifty-first tranche: GEMS FirstPoint School, whose Inclusion Support Team is among the largest documented in this register — three specialist teachers, seventeen Learning Support Assistants and fifteen Inclusion Champions, one in every year team and one in every subject department. That last structure is worth naming, because it means inclusion has an owner in each part of the school rather than sitting in one office at the end of a corridor. Inspectors record that the principal and governing board ensure a highly inclusive ethos with high levels of sustained investment, thorough identification systems covering students of determination and gifted students, and effective support for most groups. Published with two commercial facts a family must settle before applying: every child is tested for English language proficiency on admission and specialist provision, if required, is chargeable with the amount set by level of need and advised only at that point — and tuition excludes uniforms, lunches, transport, trips and external extracurricular activities. A charge whose size you learn after you have accepted a place is a charge worth asking about first.
- Inclusion sweep, fiftieth tranche — the Emirates International schools, and the single strongest inspector endorsement in this entire dataset. Of EIS Meadows, DSIB wrote: ‘In this very inclusive school, all students, including students of determination and those who are gifted and talented, almost always have their needs fully met. The skillful inclusion team manage a varied range of students’ needs with sensitivity and expertise. Most students make strong progress towards their individual education plan targets.’ Published with the development point inspectors named, that leaders are still working on how information about gifted students is shared to provide additional challenge in lessons. EIS Jumeirah: 120 students of determination at just over 5% of the cohort, running a graduated Assess, Plan, Do, Review approach tracked through an Inclusion Register, with one-to-one IEPs, small-group intervention, in-class support, modified curriculum, inclusive technology, examination access arrangements and partnerships with external therapy centres, and IEPs formally reviewed at least three times a year with parents and external agencies present. The cost line families must establish before applying: Wave 3 students requiring a one-to-one Learning Support Assistant are funded by families. Fiftieth tranche, and that question — which tier is charged for — has now proven decisive at more schools than any other.
- Inclusion sweep, forty-ninth tranche: GEMS Al Khaleej International School, and the most granular tier breakdown published anywhere in this register. Very Good for both inclusion and wellbeing, above the school’s Good overall rating, with around 110 students holding SEN requirements — 6 receiving Level 3 support, 47 Level 2 and 9 Level 1 — plus 25 designated gifted and talented. The team is four dedicated SEN teachers and three learning support or shadow teachers, with three fully equipped resource rooms, assessment batteries and four guidance counsellors. Inspectors record robust identification systems covering students of determination including those who may be gifted, with challenge and support matched to their needs evident in most lessons across all phases, and parents and governors serving in designated roles as Inclusion and Wellbeing Champions. One further fact shapes everything else on this page: around 85% of students are English language learners, since Arabic or another language is their first. A school where nearly everyone is learning in a second language is running a different kind of inclusion operation, and a family should read it that way.
- Inclusion sweep, forty-eighth tranche: the Star International campuses, and an admissions mechanism worth understanding in full. 101 students of determination are supported across Al Twar and Al Qusais, with an experienced inclusion team working alongside class teachers so personalised strategies are embedded in daily lessons, and a purposeful room on each campus for one-to-one or small-group intervention. The school follows the Assess, Plan, Do, Review cycle using the 2019 Directives and Guidelines for Inclusive Education, and identification runs either through its own specialist team or a formal medical diagnosis — meaning a diagnosis is not the only route in, which matters for families still waiting on assessment. Every admission involving a student of determination is handled by the inclusion team under the Inclusion Champion, and the school may issue a ‘Conditional Acceptance’ with conditions and a timeline shared and counter-signed by all present. That document is the thing to obtain and read carefully. Inspectors asked that individual education plan targets be made precise and measurable, and that curriculum modifications be monitored for actual impact rather than assumed.
- Inclusion sweep, forty-seventh tranche. Al Salam Community School: holds the SEND Inclusion Award for 2026–2028, external validation of early identification, adaptive teaching and partnership with parents — an award granted after independent review rather than self-declaration, which is the distinction this register keeps drawing. Published inclusion and gifted policies, accommodations monitored through formal agreements, and a campus designed to be accessible for people of determination. Two things to establish in writing before applying: some additional staff support may incur extra fees, and the school does not describe itself as a specialist SEN institution. Its sister campus registers almost 19% of students as students of determination, among the highest proportions in the UAE, but that is a different school and this one should be judged on its own provision. Newlands School: fully inclusive admissions, genuinely welcoming to children of all ability levels, personal development and parent engagement both Very Good, and teachers who know their students — published with a substantial counterweight, that first-cohort IGCSE outcomes were described as disappointing, inspectors called for raised teaching standards, the school holds no external accreditation, and there is no qualified counsellor, which is a real gap in a school that emphasises wellbeing.
- Inclusion sweep, forty-sixth tranche: Dubai International Academy Emirates Hills, and the single most important distinction this register draws. The school’s overall rating is Outstanding — the only IB continuum school in Dubai to hold it — but its provision and outcomes for students of determination are rated Very Good, one level below. For a family whose child needs support, that second number describes their child’s daily experience and the first one does not. Inspectors found timely and accurate identification, supportive classrooms, personalised learning plans and differentiated instruction covering both students of determination and high achievers, with overall care and support Outstanding — alongside two published development points: strengthen the inclusion improvement plan so barriers to learning for students of determination are reduced, and engage the parents of all identified students rather than most. The senior structure helps: all four IB programmes including the Career-related Programme, so a non-Diploma route exists. And a practical note from parents — admission is competitive, with waiting lists requiring persistent follow-up.
- Inclusion sweep, forty-fifth tranche, including a correction. GEMS Modern Academy: our entry said around 300 students of determination and gifted learners; the figure in the sources we can verify is around 220, supported by the SEN team in a school of 3,860 with 239 teachers and 74 teaching assistants. Corrected. The rest stands and is strengthened: one of the few schools in Dubai rated Outstanding for provision and support of students with additional learning needs, with personal development, understanding of Islamic values and Emirati culture, and social responsibility and innovation skills all Outstanding across all four phases — and the two caveats retained, that not every identified student joins the support programme and that inspectors asked for inclusion staffing sufficient for effective monitoring. GEMS Founders Al Mizhar, deepened: grown from over 3,000 students in March 2022 to more than 4,000 by February 2024, including 520 Emirati students, on a 1:17 ratio — with the point that rapid growth is itself a pressure on any inclusion department, so ask how staffing has kept pace. Its April 2025 British Schools Overseas inspection, conducted when no KHDA inspections were scheduled, rated the quality of education Outstanding.
- Inclusion sweep, forty-fourth tranche — two ISP schools, and a distinction worth naming. Nibras International: 99 students of determination among around 1,488, with an inclusion team running classroom strategies, small-group interventions and individualised plans, and an inclusion governor on the board specifically to champion inclusion. Two findings sit together on the page because both are true — inspectors named support for students of determination and gifted learners as an area for improvement and asked for assessment data to be used more effectively to personalise learning, while also recording that students themselves are ‘particularly sensitive toward students of determination, showing care and kindness’. Culture and provision are not the same thing, and at this school the culture is ahead of the systems. The Aquila School, deepened: very good to outstanding provision praised by both inspectorates, Outstanding from British Schools Overseas in 2025, and a senior structure that matters for planning — IGCSE followed by a choice of IB Diploma, IB Career-related Programme or BTEC. Three distinct routes through Sixth Form is a genuine structural advantage for a student who will not thrive on a single academic track.
- Inclusion sweep, forty-third tranche: The Arbor School, deepened, and staffed at a level few schools match. Its Thrive department leads support for students of determination, English-language learners and gifted students with a team of 20 — a Head of Thrive, SEN coordinators, an Accomplished Learner Lead for gifted students, an English as an Additional Language Lead, further inclusion teachers and counsellors. Over 150 students, more than 10% of the roll, have additional learning needs including a small number with high-level requirements, and four guidance counsellors serve 1,229 students. Care and support is Very Good across all three phases, and parents cite inclusion as their main reason for choosing the school. Published with the two things to clarify before applying: enhanced SEND provision, where a child’s level of need requires it, is charged separately under its own contract, and the secondary phase is still maturing. This school also sits at the centre of a point worth restating — it is rated Very Good for inclusion rather than Outstanding, and is still regularly named among the strongest SEN providers in Dubai. Ratings rank schools against a framework; they do not always capture what a department actually feels like to a family inside it.
- Inclusion sweep, forty-second tranche: Safa Community School, Outstanding from both KHDA and British Schools Overseas, with inspectors stating plainly that ‘the quality of support for students of determination is highly effective’. Around 15% of students identified with SEND requirements and roughly 25% receiving English as an Additional Language support — and one category almost no other school in this register tracks: ‘Arabic C’ students, those holding Arabic passports who do not speak Arabic, a genuine and widely ignored need in this city. Two further details stand out. The 2022–23 report credited the school for giving students of determination a voice by involving them actively in designing their own education plans, and inspectors record that students of determination themselves speak enthusiastically about the wellbeing curriculum. A school that asks a child to help write their own plan, and whose inspectors quote those children directly, is describing something a rating cannot. Published with the practical warning that it is heavily oversubscribed.
- Inclusion sweep, forty-first tranche: GEMS Dubai American Academy, and a growth curve worth publishing on its own. Outstanding for inclusion, over 320 students of determination — up from 124 identified in 2013–14, 220 by 2018–19 and 334 by 2022–23, with SEND provision rated Very Good in 2018–19 before reaching Outstanding in 2022–23 and holding it. A school that trebled its identified cohort while improving its inclusion rating is doing something real, and the numbers say so more convincingly than any prospectus. The structure: a K-12 inclusion delivery model with a graduated system of support, individual education plans, one-to-one services, an inclusion governor and an inclusion champion, and the GEP programme offering High School Diploma equivalency as an alternative route. Non-selective, with students not refused admission based only on SEND, no medical diagnosis required to apply, and sibling priority for students who experience SEND. The page also notes the school assesses applicants and requests existing psychologist or therapy reports — described as essential to resourcing rather than a barrier, which is a distinction families should test.
- Inclusion sweep, fortieth tranche — the Dubai British Schools, three campuses at three completely different stages, described as such. Emirates Hills: Outstanding, just over 100 students at around 9% of the roll, with inspectors recording that governors and leaders ensure provision for students of determination is of the highest quality across the school, ASDAN available as a life-skills route alongside mainstream support, and the same coordinator running the gifted and talented programme — published with the honest note that the campus is relatively compact. Jumeira: around 10% registered with additional learning needs and up to a quarter of students supported in total, with a head of inclusion who joined from Arcadia British School and is widely credited with the Outstanding inclusion ratings that school holds from both KHDA and BSO — which for a school with no inspection record of its own is a more meaningful signal than group branding. Mira: 54 students on SEND provision, numbers deliberately kept manageable while systems embed, support largely push-in rather than withdrawal, and the school describing its own inclusion as an area of active development rather than a finished model. That last phrase is unusually candid, and it is exactly why a family needing highly specialised provision should ask what exists today rather than what is planned.
- Inclusion sweep, thirty-ninth tranche — the JESS campuses, and the most comprehensively staffed inclusion operation documented anywhere in this register. Across both schools close to 400 students, roughly 15% of the roll, are registered as students of determination, supported by an inclusion team of 23 staff: Teachers of Inclusion, Independent Learning Support Assistants, occupational therapists and speech and language therapists. A further 452 students receive English as an Additional Language support and 346 are identified as gifted and talented. All of it at no additional cost, in a not-for-profit school. Inspectors named the provision for students of determination a best feature and recorded that parents regard it very highly; parents themselves have described it as life-changing. JESS Jumeirah’s published admissions position is equally clear: students are not refused admission based only on their experience of SEND. Two honest notes are published too — admissions are extremely competitive with waiting lists closed for most year groups, and Jumeirah is primary-only, so the secondary move needs planning from the start. And the number that ends an argument: an IB Diploma average around 37 points, achieved while remaining proudly mixed-ability.
- Inclusion sweep, thirty-eighth tranche — both Repton campuses deepened, and a distinction worth stating plainly. Repton Dubai: 200 students of determination with an in-house team working alongside third-party therapists on site, inspectors recording that teachers’ understanding of differentiation has strengthened through workshops led by senior leaders and that lesson plans now incorporate it, all staff trained in mental health first aid — published with the caveat that delivery is still improving and ‘consistency remains a challenge’. Repton Al Barsha: 140 students with additional learning needs at 11% of the roll, detailed and accurate identification, most students of determination making better than expected progress through the Repton Achievement Base — published with two limits, that alternative pathways for complex needs are still being developed and that the school is growing from a few hundred pupils toward more than 1,300, which is real pressure on space and systems. And the distinction: Repton Dubai holds Outstanding overall but Very Good for inclusion. Those are not the same judgement, and for a family whose child needs support, the second one is the one that describes their child’s daily experience.
- Inclusion sweep, thirty-seventh tranche: Deira International School, and the strongest inclusion entry this register has published. Outstanding from KHDA, 246 students of determination in 2023–24, around 12% of students identified with additional needs and roughly 20% supported by the inclusion team including English language learners — with inspectors recording ‘detailed and well-informed procedures’ for identification, a clear inclusive admission policy, ‘comprehensive and highly focused support’ and ‘excellent facilities and resources providing for a wide range of needs’. Three things lift it beyond the rating: the school holds SENDIA accreditation, an external award requiring evidence submission, interviews and classroom observations rather than a self-declaration; it publishes parent guides to advocating for inclusive education in English and Arabic alongside the relevant UAE law, which is a school actively teaching families their rights; and it is Outstanding in every category of its 2025 British Schools Overseas report. Not-for-profit, non-selective, and the principal’s framing of the rating as hard-won ‘considering our fully inclusive admissions’ is the standard this register has held every selective school to since.
- Inclusion sweep, thirty-sixth tranche: The English College, deepened. Good for inclusion, just under 90 students of determination in a non-selective school long known for its inclusive environment — and structured from the front end, with the admissions process identifying needs early so provision is in place from day one, tailored strategies for students of determination, English language learners and more able pupils, and a More Able and Talented programme identified through CAT scores and teacher referrals, led jointly by a MAT Coordinator and the Head of Inclusion. Published with two inspector requests: involve parents of students of determination more closely in transitions between year groups and phases, and give all phase leaders sufficient time to monitor teaching and progress rigorously. Also banked for the coverage sprint, not published: The Elite English School’s verified findings — 116 students of determination on its SEN roll in October 2023, with inspectors recording that identification is accurate but ‘support remains uneven’. That school is not yet in this register.
- Inclusion sweep, thirty-fifth tranche: Horizon International School, where the provision worth naming is a route rather than a rating. Just under 90 students of determination registered at the last inspection, with the school adopting a Quality First Teaching approach in line with the Dubai Inclusive Education Policy Framework — and delivering the UK-based ASDAN programme one to one through its Achievement Centre as an alternative pathway for students who cannot access a full IGCSE curriculum. That is a genuine qualification route rather than a holding position, and it is the thing to ask about specifically if a full examination programme is unlikely to suit your child. A Gifted and Talented Programme runs alongside, and the school holds an Outstanding British Schools Overseas rating across all inspection categories. Published with the inspectors’ caveat: higher-ability students are not always challenged to work independently, and feedback on the quality of students’ work is inconsistent across the school.
- Inclusion sweep, thirty-fourth tranche: Kings’ School Nad Al Sheba, deepened — Outstanding for provision and outcomes, with around 130 students of determination, up sharply from 90 the previous year, supported by the LInK team of NASENCo-qualified SENCOs, speech and language therapists, dyslexia intervention specialists, autism communication specialists, EAL teachers and in-class assistants, including examination access arrangements such as scribes. Gifted students are supported alongside, with scholarships in sport, art, music, performing arts and academics. The scale context is published too: around 1,105 students here against more than 3,100 at Kings’ Al Barsha, with roughly half the roll Emirati. Also banked for the coverage sprint, not published: Dubai Carmel School’s verified inclusion findings — identification criteria effective and parents involved, but not all staff providing effective support in lessons, modifications not always aligned to developmental stages and specialist pathways limited. That school is not yet in this register, so nothing appears on the site until it is.
- Inclusion sweep, thirty-third tranche: GEMS Winchester School Dubai, where the admissions policy is the story. Inspectors named improved provision for students of determination in overcoming barriers to learning, alongside the care given to all students — and the school publishes three commitments a family can hold it to: students are not refused admission based only on their experience of a special educational need or disability, admission is not conditional on submitting a medical diagnosis, and sibling priority is given to students who experience SEND. Where it may rarely not be in a child’s best interests to be placed there, staff follow KHDA procedures and the decision is shared with the regulator. Not requiring a medical diagnosis to apply is a genuinely low barrier, and families who have been asked for paperwork elsewhere should know it is not universal. The page also carries a warning this register has issued before: this is the Dubailand school, not The Winchester School in Jebel Ali. Two different schools, similar names, different ratings.
- Inclusion sweep, thirty-second tranche. Dubai Gem Private School: Good, just over 105 students of determination, with inspectors recording that leaders and governors promote an inclusive ethos reflected in many features of school life, a recently appointed head of inclusion implementing policy, individual education plans for the most significant needs, and targeted support ensuring students of determination take part in all learning activities — with personal and social skills developed notably in art lessons, personal development rated Outstanding across all four phases, and a ratio of roughly 1:12. Pristine Private School, deepened: Very Good for inclusion and wellbeing, with a named team of the Principal, Head of Inclusion, support teachers and learning support assistants, the Wellbeing Award for Schools held to 2026 and five guidance counsellors — published with two inspector caveats, that curriculum adaptation within lessons is not yet consistently secure, and that the inclusion team was asked to monitor whether teacher training is actually improving the progress of students of determination. That second one is the question every school should be asked: not whether training happened, but whether it changed anything.
- Inclusion sweep, thirty-first tranche, and two schools proving that inclusion is not a function of price. Amity School Dubai: Good, 78 students of determination on a push-in and pull-out model led by a Head of Inclusion, with five gifted and talented students and eleven receiving English language support — and two published commitments a family should hold the school to, that it charges no additional fees for SEND provision and that it will not refuse a place to a child with SEND, offering priority admission to siblings of students with SEN requirements. Sibling priority for families with additional needs is rare enough in this market to be worth naming. Apple International School: 164 students of determination on an ASDAN-accredited skills pathway with parallel gifted provision, an inclusion team using a graduated approach to interventions, and assessment rated Very Good across all phases — in a school of nearly 5,000 students charging from roughly AED 6,832 at FS1, which places that provision at the very bottom of Dubai’s fee range.
- Inclusion sweep, thirtieth tranche. Ambassador School: Very Good for overall, wellbeing and inclusion, having climbed Acceptable to Good to Very Good and held that ground — with KHDA recording robust identification systems and the large majority of students of determination making very good progress, 162 students of determination supported by 38 teaching assistants alongside 113 teachers at a 1:9 ratio, and external recognition including a GESS Award for best initiative for inclusion and wellbeing. A school that foregrounds inclusion publicly rather than burying it is telling you something real. GEMS Al Barsha National School: serving Emirati families with bilingual early years, Islamic values and Emirati heritage as stated priorities — published with the honest context that it has been rated Acceptable at every inspection since 2019–20, that frequent leadership changes have slowed improvement despite substantial investment and modern facilities, and that inspectors found a small minority of Secondary boys not consistently meeting behaviour expectations. No separate inclusion rating was found in our verified sources, and the page says so.
- Inclusion sweep, twenty-ninth tranche, and one entry deliberately marked as unverified. GEMS Founders Al Mizhar: a dedicated programme for students of determination inside a 3,146-student school, most of them Emirati, with 232 teachers and 53 teaching assistants — published with the honest ratio of roughly 1:17, which is the trade-off that keeps fees between AED 24,877 and 37,856, and with the note that inspectors recorded broad improvement in 2023–24 even though the overall rating held at Good. GEMS Founders Dubai South, corrected: its first KHDA inspection is not due until its third year of operation in 2026–27, and its voluntary British Schools Overseas inspection in May 2025 awarded Good, with exceptionally positive parental sentiment around inclusion — and its KHDA-approved discounted fees run for the first three years only, so confirm in writing what happens after. And GEMS Legacy School, where we found the school’s own stated commitment to welcoming students of determination but no separate regulator inclusion judgement in our verified sources. The page says exactly that, and tells families to test the commitment on a visit rather than treat it as an independent finding.
- Inclusion sweep, twenty-eighth tranche, and the clearest counter-example in this entire dataset to the idea that inclusion costs a school its results. Dubai English Speaking College: Outstanding for inclusion, 208 students of determination, a fully non-selective admissions policy with no academic entry criteria, not-for-profit, Outstanding continuously since 2012–13 — and in 2025, 60% of GCSE students achieved grades 7 to 9 while 45% of A Level students achieved A or A*, with a value-added residual of +1.14. Those results were produced across a cohort the school did not select. Dubai English Speaking School: Outstanding, 64 students of determination, with a named team of a Head of Inclusion, inclusion teachers, learning support assistants and a student advisor, and teacher turnover around 10% against a UAE average nearer 20 to 22%, which means the adults who know a child tend to stay. Published with two fit notes: Arabic attainment is only Acceptable, and it is primary-only, so Year 7 entry needs arranging separately.
- Inclusion sweep, twenty-seventh tranche: Nord Anglia International School Dubai, deepened. Outstanding for both inclusion and wellbeing, with 320 students of determination at approximately 11% of the roll supported by an inclusion team of some twenty staff plus external specialists, English-language provision and extension work for gifted students — and inspectors recording that ‘high-quality support ensures that students of determination flourish’, describing the provision as exemplary. The structural fact published alongside it is the one that gives the rating meaning: this school was established as selective and is now described as wholly inclusive following KHDA’s policy, while children are still assessed before joining. A school can be genuinely excellent at supporting the children it admits and still operate an assessment gate at the door. Both facts belong to the same school and both belong on the same page.
- Inclusion sweep, twenty-sixth tranche, including a correction to our own wording. Star International Mirdif: Good, 46 students of determination, with parents of those children reporting they feel welcomed and actively involved in compiling individual education plans — and an admissions process where every application involving a student of determination is handled by the inclusion team under the school’s Inclusion Champion, with the school reserving the right to issue a ‘conditional acceptance’. Ask what conditions attach, in writing. Cambridge International School: Very Good for both inclusion and wellbeing, above its Good overall rating, with provision split into separate named departments for Exceptional Learners, Students of Determination, and Emirati and English Language Learners rather than one catch-all team. And Regent International School: our earlier entry said only that inspectors recommended strengthening inclusive provision. That was incomplete — the same report also named the inclusion department’s support for students of determination among the school’s strengths. Both findings are true and both now appear. Publishing half a report is a way of misleading with accurate facts, and we would rather correct it than leave it.
- Inclusion sweep, twenty-fifth tranche. GEMS Wellington International: Outstanding for both inclusion and wellbeing, close to 180 students with SEND requirements in a school of over 2,900, running a graduated Wave 1 to Wave 3 framework in which Wave 3 triggers an individual education plan and specialist input, across the twelve SEND categories KHDA recognises — with a named team including a Governor for Inclusive Education, Directors of Inclusion and SENDCos by year band, an autism spectrum specialist and inclusion language development specialists. The school is also non-selective, which means its academic results measure what it adds rather than who it admits. JSS International: Very Good and improved, 149 students of determination among 2,996, with an inclusion team called ‘Ikigai’ that includes the Principal, Head of Inclusion, a designated Inclusion Governor, a teacher — and a parent. A governance structure that seats a parent inside the inclusion team rather than outside it is rare enough to be worth naming.
- Inclusion sweep, twenty-fourth tranche, and one entry that reads as a warning rather than a recommendation — which is exactly what this dataset is for. The Millennium School: 155 students of determination in a school of over 2,700, with 155 teachers and 28 teaching assistants — published alongside the finding that support for students of determination, while present, is inconsistently delivered, and that teaching quality in the Primary and Middle phases falls short of the standard achieved in Kindergarten and Secondary. A family needing intensive SEN support should weigh that against the school’s real strengths elsewhere rather than assume a Very Good overall rating covers it. GEMS Our Own Indian School: Very Good, with around 9% of students identified with SEND requirements and inspectors finding that ‘inclusion is a key principle for leaders, staff, and students’ — and a detail worth crediting, that Grade 11 students stay back in the afternoon to coach and mentor younger students who need help, which makes inclusion part of the culture rather than a department.
- Inclusion sweep, twenty-third tranche — the value-tier Indian schools, where the inclusion machinery is often better than the fee level suggests. Springdales School: Very Good, 115 students on the SEND register, the ASDAN qualification pathway running alongside mainstream CBSE, and inspectors highlighting ‘the inclusion centre with its dedicated team of qualified specialist educators who bring out the best in students of determination’ — delivered through the SAWA department and a named Inclusion Support Team that includes the Principal, Inclusion Lead, Inclusion Coordinator, section leads, special educators and both parent and teacher inclusion champions. Published with the counterweight: gifted and talented provision is described by inspectors as variable, with challenge for high achievers inconsistent. Credence High School: Very Good, over 115 students of determination, with the school stating that students with SEND requirements have the same right to admission, participation and equity as any other — and the honest qualifier it attaches, that it supports them where the provision is available to do so.
- Inclusion sweep, twenty-second tranche: Jumeira Baccalaureate School, and a trade-off this register thinks families should see stated openly. Inclusion is embedded in the school’s mission statements, with policies that support students with complex needs and a curriculum inspectors judged Outstanding in most areas for meeting the needs of almost all students including students of determination. The structural fact behind it is that the school is genuinely non-selective, and its operator led the drive to inclusive education in Dubai. The published consequence: a non-selective intake will not produce the highest average Diploma scores, and the school runs the full IB continuum including the Career-related Programme precisely so students across the ability range have a route through. A school that admits everyone and a school that posts the highest averages are measuring different things, and a family should judge on whether their own child would be supported rather than on a cohort mean.
- Inclusion sweep, twenty-first tranche. Emirates International School Jumeirah: Very Good, 120 students of determination, with inspectors recording strong systems for identifying both students of determination and those with particular gifts and talents, and ‘thoughtfully constructed individual plans’ guiding curriculum adaptations — supported by an inclusion department, an in-house sensory room and specialist English-language provision. Greenfield International School: Very Good, with KHDA praising inclusive education practices alongside wellbeing, tailored support for a substantial cohort, and a ratio of roughly 1:13 to 1:14 across 106 teachers and 35 teaching assistants — published with the inspectors’ two precise development points, that all teachers must use assessment information to deliver lessons meeting the needs of every ability group including students of determination, and that leadership capacity must grow to match the school’s changing demographics. Ninety-four schools now carry a verified inclusion entry.
- Inclusion sweep, twentieth tranche. Dubai International Academy Al Barsha: Very Good, improved from Good, with a SEN register that grew from 124 students at its first inspection in 2022 to 146 two years later, a Head of Inclusion running separate Primary and Secondary teams across support Levels 1 to 3, and English-language learners supported both in class and online — with the fee position stated explicitly, that in-class and pull-out support is free while one-to-one support is funded by parents. Repton Al Barsha: Very Good, with inspectors recording detailed and accurate identification, purposeful interventions and most students of determination making better than expected progress through the Repton Achievement Base — published with the limit that matters, that alternative pathways for students with complex needs are still being developed. That is the twentieth tranche of this sweep, and the same three questions have now proven decisive at almost every school: what does the team actually consist of, which tier of support is charged for, and what does the school not yet do.
- Inclusion sweep, nineteenth tranche — the Metropole schools, and the most completely itemised inclusion team in this register. GEMS Metropole Motor City: Very Good across three consecutive cycles with close to 500 students on the SEN register, supported by a Head of Inclusion, two SENCOs, three counsellors, eight specialist teachers, three English-as-additional-language specialists, a gifted and talented coordinator, a careers counsellor, a speech and language therapist, a school psychologist, an occupational therapist — and Lotus, the school’s emotional support animal. That is what a fully staffed inclusion department actually looks like written out, and most schools never publish it. GEMS Metropole Al Waha: Good on its first inspection in February 2026, with inclusive admissions, personalised education plans built by specialist staff and external professionals, and most students of determination making gains — published with the inspectors’ finding that challenge, questioning and support need greater consistency across classrooms, which in plain terms means provision can depend on which teacher a child gets.
- Inclusion sweep, eighteenth tranche: Royal Grammar School Guildford Dubai — KHDA inspectors identified wellbeing and inclusion as areas of strength, with an inclusion team and SENCO working within Dubai’s Inclusive Education Policy Framework, and personal development rated Outstanding across all three phases. The structural support behind it: 118 teachers to 1,246 students, roughly a 10.5:1 ratio, with class sizes capped by design. Published with two honest notes — the school is still growing year by year toward Year 13, so senior provision remains unproven, and tuition excludes lunches, transport and educational trips, which belong in a family’s real budget rather than a footnote. Ninety-one schools now carry a verified inclusion entry.
- Inclusion sweep, seventeenth tranche: Victory Heights Primary School — Outstanding for inclusion by both KHDA and British Schools Overseas, with around 80 students of determination at close to 10% of the roll supported inside mainstream classrooms by specialised learning support teachers and assistants, on a 1:14 ratio with 68 teachers and 36 assistants and turnover below the Dubai average. Inspectors record meticulous identification, high-quality teaching and bespoke pathways through which students of determination make more than expected progress. One further fact belongs on this page and rarely appears anywhere: over half of students do not have English as their first language when they join, which means the English-language support here is built for scale rather than as an exception — directly relevant to any family arriving in Dubai mid-education.
- Inclusion sweep, sixteenth tranche — the Wellington academies, and a tiered fee model spelled out. GEMS Wellington Academy Al Khail: Very Good, with inspectors recording that ‘an inclusive culture is well embedded throughout the school’ and that the inclusion department is ‘extremely well led by a highly-skilled team’, supported by Directors of Inclusion, SENCOs, specialist teachers, English-language staff and counsellors, 107 teaching assistants, and GCSE, BTEC and ASDAN pathways at Key Stage 4. Its support is explicitly tiered: Level One and Two students receive classroom or small-group help at no extra cost, while Level Three students needing one-to-one learning support assistance are funded by parents. GEMS Wellington Academy Silicon Oasis is upgraded to Outstanding for inclusion, the top judgement, delivered through its Inclusion Hub and inclusion ambassadors in both phases — with its own stated boundary that intensive remedial programmes are not offered. Three tranches running, the same lesson: ask which tier your child falls into, and what that tier costs.
- Inclusion sweep, fifteenth tranche, and the clearest example yet of why the fee question matters. Arcadia British School: Outstanding inclusion through its Creative Avenues Programme, with a named team of one inclusion champion, three inclusion teachers, two counsellors and ten learning support assistants — and the school’s own stated position published in full: intermittent support is free, but where a child needs a full-time learning support assistant the school helps parents find one and the parent bears the full cost. Sunmarke School: Very Good through its Achievement Centre, covering language, maths, literacy, social and emotional mental health and functional independence, with an alternative curriculum pathway at Key Stages 3 and 4 and Post-16 routes inspectors called exemplary — and EAL and SEND support included in tuition rather than billed separately. Two schools, two honest and completely different answers to the same question. Neither is hidden on this site, and no family should discover the difference after enrolling.
- Inclusion sweep, fourteenth tranche: GEMS Jumeira Primary School — Outstanding inclusion, around 140 students of determination supported through personalised plans and early intervention, inside a school holding its eleventh consecutive Outstanding rating. Published with the practical context that actually shapes a child’s day: a 1:15 ratio, class sizes from 22 in Foundation Stage up to 27 in Years 1 to 6 — the upper end sitting at the maximum approved level, and something parents have raised in pre-inspection surveys — alongside historic staff turnover of 10 to 15%, well below the Dubai average. A school can hold the top rating and still have a class-size question worth asking, and both belong on the same page.
- Inclusion sweep, thirteenth tranche — the Cognita primaries. Horizon English School: Outstanding inclusion, 99 students of determination in a school of just over 1,100, taught by 78 teachers with 48 teaching assistants, which is unusually generous adult capacity for a primary — published with two structural fit notes rather than faults, that it is primary-only so the secondary transition needs planning from the start, and that it runs a no-homework philosophy. Ranches Primary School: Very Good, 109 students of determination at around 12% of the roll, with dedicated learning spaces, sensory and communication equipment, external speech and language and occupational therapists, and gifted learners identified through teacher observation and the school’s own assessment framework. Parent partnership at Ranches is rated Outstanding, the highest mark anywhere in its report.
- Inclusion sweep, twelfth tranche — three of the value tier’s biggest inclusion providers, deepened from summary lines into checkable detail. Delhi Private School: 228 students of determination plus 272 identified with gifts and talents, a named team of a Head of Inclusion, three special educators, three counsellors and 26 support staff, a three-tier support system, assistive technology, multi-sensory teaching and the ASDAN pathway. The Winchester School: just over 400 students of determination in a 4,300-student school, with 49 teaching assistants dedicated to inclusive classrooms — published beside the 1:18 ratio and roughly 24% teacher turnover, because continuity of the adults who know your child is part of what you are buying. GEMS FirstPoint: Very Good across every Dubai focus area, with inclusive education covering students of determination, the most able and English language learners — and the inspectors’ request to strengthen support further still kept firmly in view.
- Inclusion sweep, eleventh tranche — the IB continuum schools, and an admissions mechanism families should understand. Raffles World Academy: Very Good, with inspectors recording that strong governance and leadership promote high-quality inclusive provision, an Enrichment Club run by the Inclusion Support Team, and staff mentoring for highly able secondary students. Its published admissions process is unusually explicit and worth knowing: the final decision is taken jointly by the Principal and the Leader of Provision for Inclusion, who assess whether the school can meet a child’s needs and may offer a full place, a partial place in partnership with a specialist provider, or none — and siblings of students of determination get admissions priority. GEMS World Academy: Very Good, close to 200 students of determination, push-in and pull-out support with bespoke plans, and standard learning support at Levels 1 to 3 included in tuition — published with inspectors’ caveats that differentiation is not consistently applied across lessons and that monitoring of curriculum adaptation plans is still emerging. Uptown International School’s entry is upgraded: Outstanding for both provision and outcomes, around 140 students of determination.
- Inclusion sweep, tenth tranche: Swiss International Scientific School’s entry deepened with the detail that makes it checkable — inspectors recording that ‘thorough procedures ensure the rapid initial identification of students of determination and those with gifts and talents’, provision effectively modified to personal needs, the UK ASDAN programme running as a life-skills route alongside academic study, the Inclusion Quality Mark’s International Inclusive School award, and around 70 teaching assistants on a 1:10 ratio — published with the inspectors’ caveat that learning support assistants’ roles could be strengthened further. Also recorded for accuracy: SISD was acquired by Nord Anglia Education in 2023 and its long-serving principal leaves at the end of 2025–26, with a successor awaiting KHDA approval. Leadership and ownership changes belong on a school page, because a rating is earned by people and people move.
- Inclusion sweep, ninth tranche: Safa British School — inclusion judged Outstanding by both KHDA and British Schools Overseas, with secure identification systems, targeted interventions, tiered SEND support and a Bridge Learning Centre for complex needs, and pupils with SEND and with English as an additional language making progress in line with their peers. Both wellbeing and inclusion sit at Outstanding while the school’s overall rating is Very Good — which is itself a meaningful signal about where this school puts its effort. Kings’ School Al Barsha’s entry has also been deepened with the full LInK detail: over 259 students of determination with access to specialist SEN coordinators, speech and language therapists, dyslexia intervention specialists and autism communication specialists, in what inspectors call ‘an exceptionally inclusive learning community’. A pattern worth stating as this sweep passes the halfway mark: several of the strongest inclusion providers in Dubai are not the schools with the highest overall ratings, and a family whose child needs support should be reading the inclusion column first.
- Inclusion sweep, eighth tranche, and a new section that may save families a great deal of money. Hartland International: inclusion named a significant strength by both KHDA and British Schools Overseas inspectors, 84 registered students of determination plus support for children without a formal diagnosis, fifteen fully qualified inclusion teachers covering SEND, English as an additional language and gifted provision — with no additional cost to parents for that in-house team. Dubai Heights Academy: built as a model for inclusion since opening in 2017, with an Enrichment Zone containing a Snoezelen room, sensory room and therapy classrooms, a speech and language therapist and an occupational therapist on site twice weekly, physiotherapy available, Outstanding wellbeing, and a 1:9 ratio with a teaching assistant in every class. The key-findings page now also sets out what should be free and what is commonly charged for: individual education plans, in-class support and access to the school’s inclusion team should not cost extra, while shadow teaching, external therapy and specialist assessments usually do. Five schools in this register charge nothing for in-house learning support; at least one contracts enhanced provision separately. Know which you are signing, in writing, before you pay a deposit.
- Inclusion sweep, seventh tranche — and a finding that ought to end an argument. JESS Arabian Ranches: Outstanding inclusion, 224 students of determination supported through the Oasis Centre and an Essential Pathways curriculum, with inspectors naming that provision a best feature of the school — and an IB Diploma average around 37 points achieved while remaining proudly mixed-ability. Top outcomes and genuine inclusion are demonstrably not a trade-off, and this register now has the numbers to say so. As at JESS Jumeirah, no additional fee is charged for learning support. Dubai British School Jumeirah Park: Outstanding for inclusion as well as overall — one of only eighteen schools in Dubai to hold both in 2023–24 — with around 11% of students identified, recorded as ‘fully included in all aspects of school life’, and ASDAN and BTEC pathways offering real alternative routes. Jebel Ali School: Very Good, with clear policies and trained adults producing practical classroom adjustments rather than words on a page. Eighty-seven schools now carry an inclusion entry.
- Inclusion sweep, sixth tranche — two entries where the caveat is the useful part. GEMS Our Own English High School: Very Good, with inspectors recording that the school ‘is highly inclusive and welcomes students of all abilities’, comprehensive identification systems for students of determination and for gifted learners, and an inclusion governor holding a well-developed vision — published with the regulator’s own qualifier that ‘the implementation of the modified curriculum for all students of determination is variable’. GEMS Wellington Academy Silicon Oasis: a personalised model with an Inclusion Hub, inclusion ambassadors across both phases, and individual education plans informed by educational psychologist, speech and language and occupational therapy reports — published with the school’s own stated boundary, that English language support runs for Years 2 to 9 and intensive remedial programmes are not offered. A school telling you plainly what it does not do is more useful than a school implying it does everything, and this register will print both.
- Inclusion sweep, fifth tranche — the GEMS schools, and the largest inclusion cohort in this register. GEMS Founders Dubai supports 860 students of determination inside a school of more than 6,000, non-selective by policy, with a qualified team of SEN specialists and learning support assistants, and inspectors crediting investment in buildings, staffing and resources as evidence of intent. On volume alone at mid-market fees that is one of the strongest inclusion propositions in the emirate — and the page still asks the only question that converts volume into quality: what is the ratio of specialists to those 860 students. GEMS Royal Dubai: Outstanding inclusion with around 12% of students identified, alongside Outstanding parent partnership and inspectors recording that parents are ‘enabled to be true partners’ — published with the honest qualifier that the school’s stated focus is mild SEND requirements, so families with needs beyond that range should ask directly. And GEMS Founders Dubai South, which has no KHDA judgement at all, carries instead its British Schools Overseas finding of a fully inclusive ethos and exceptional SEND progress, clearly labelled as a second inspectorate rather than the regulator.
- Inclusion sweep, fourth tranche — and a piece of information that may matter more than any single school entry. Dubai College: Very Good for inclusion, 90 students of determination at just over 8% of the roll, with high-quality identification procedures, individual education plans built around classroom accommodations, students themselves involved in adapting their own support, and better than expected progress — published with the inspectors’ note of some inconsistency in how teachers implement those plans, the report’s own observation that the college is very open about its academic selection policy, and the request to enhance strategic leadership of wellbeing and inclusion. Alongside it, the key-findings page now carries something no school brochure will tell a family: under KHDA’s directives a Dubai school may not refuse a child simply because of a disability, refusal without exceptional grounds is monitored and can trigger regulatory action, and every private school must run an inclusion support team led by a named inclusion champion. A parent who is told no is entitled to ask which exceptional grounds apply, and who that champion is.
- Inclusion sweep, third tranche — and the awkward question this register will keep asking. North London Collegiate School Dubai: 53 students of determination, with inspectors naming ‘the expertise, vision, determination and leadership of the inclusion department’ among the best features of the school. Brighton College Dubai: governors formally asked to adapt admission and inclusion policies to reflect their stated vision for a fully inclusive school. Both schools are academically selective, testing children before offering a place, and both pages say so directly next to their inclusion entry, because a strong inclusion department and a selective admissions gate are two different things and a family needs to understand both. The question we tell parents to ask is the same one Deira International’s principal invited when framing that school’s Outstanding rating as hard-won ‘considering our fully inclusive admissions’: how does selection actually work for a child with identified needs?
- Inclusion sweep, second tranche: GEMS Modern Academy — Outstanding for inclusion, with around 300 students of determination and gifted learners supported by the SEN team, an inclusion governor working actively with the department, and independent learning plans used by teachers to design lessons around individual needs. Two caveats are published with it, both from the school’s own inspection record: not every identified student joins the support programme, which the report attributes to parental reluctance, and inspectors asked the school to ensure inclusion staffing is sufficient for effective monitoring. An Outstanding inclusion rating does not mean there is nothing to ask about, and this register will keep saying so.
- Inclusion sweep begins — the largest gap our own audit found. Repton Dubai: Very Good, around 200 students of determination supported by an in-house team working with third-party therapists on site, published with the inspectors’ caveat that teachers’ delivery of differentiated activities is improving ‘although consistency remains a challenge’. Repton Al Barsha: Very Good, provision for special educational needs and for the more able run through a single named structure, the Repton Achievement Base. Kings’ School Dubai: Outstanding, 92 students of determination, with inspectors recording excellent systems for swift and accurate identification, a sensory room on site and occupational therapy from an external specialist. Jumeirah College: Outstanding for inclusion and wellbeing alongside its Outstanding overall rating — all three at the top, which few schools manage. The key-findings page now also carries the sector scale to judge these against: 24 schools Outstanding for inclusive education, 48 Very Good, 75 Good and 45 Acceptable — so an Outstanding inclusion rating is rare, and an Acceptable one puts a school in the bottom quarter on the measure that matters most to a family whose child needs support.
- Brand change: the wordmark is now DubaiSchoolGuide.com. It reads as the address you type, on every one of the 271 pages, in all nine languages — a domain is a domain in any script, so the Arabic masthead carries it too, set left-to-right so it renders correctly inside a right-to-left page. ‘School’ keeps the same green it has always had. Nothing else moved: same typeface, same weight, same colours, same position. Two technical consequences worth recording, because they are real changes even if nobody notices them: the word spacing has been closed to zero so the name reads as one address rather than three words, and the wordmark scales down slightly on phones narrower than 480 pixels, because twenty characters that cannot break mid-word need the room. The legal and editorial name in our footer, page titles and structured data remains Dubai School Guide.
- Independent audit, and the fixes it forced — published in full because an audit you do not publish is marketing. Fourteen defects were found by running machine checks against the built site. Twelve were fixed the same day: a skip-to-content link for keyboard and screen-reader users; accessible names added to every form control that lacked one; minimum 44-pixel tap targets on buttons; horizontal scrolling for the three pages carrying wide tables; a no-JavaScript fallback on the map page; 257 page titles and 141 descriptions shortened so search engines stop truncating them; and three school pages that showed strengths without an improvement list now say plainly that the gap is in our sourcing, not evidence that inspectors raised none. Two findings were left open at the time with reasons given — both are now closed. The gold and light-green rating tags measured 4.25 and 4.31 against the WCAG AA threshold of 4.5, so the tag ink has been darkened very slightly — every chip colour, shape, weight and size is unchanged — and all six rating tags now measure 4.65 or better. And an Organization identity node with publisher attribution has been added, with each school’s structured data extended to carry its curriculum, founding year and published fee range. One more thing belongs here: our own audit script reported that FAQ structured data was missing. It was not — the script failed to look inside schema graph wrappers. The tool was wrong, the site was right, and we are recording that with the same weight as the real faults.
- The inspection sprint is complete. All 169 schools in this register now carry a ‘what the inspectors said’ section — strengths and required improvements published together, dated to the cycle they came from, or, for schools never inspected, an honest page that says so and separates what is known from what is not yet proven. The final two: Dubai Modern Education School, a dual-track US and Ministry of Education school where the published record shows teaching improved to good in Kindergarten and the MoE section but recorded as weak in the elementary and middle phases of the US section — the single most important thing a parent of a child in those years could know. And Emirates National Schools Dubai, where the published record is among the thinnest anywhere in this register: rather than manufacture plausible detail, the page states that plainly and gives families the exact questions to ask instead. That principle has governed all one hundred and seven tranches: found in the record, or not published at all.
- Inspection sprint, tranche one hundred and six: St Mary’s High School Muhaisnah — consistently strong English, mathematics and science with excellent IGCSE results, external benchmarks reported Very Good to Outstanding across both phases, exemplary personal development in the inspectors’ own words, Good wellbeing with students reporting that they feel safe and listened to, and strong Arabic as a first language, which reverses the usual pattern here. Published beside it: low Arabic as a second language attainment, and inspectors’ call for sharper focus in Islamic Education, Foundation Stage development and inclusion practices — which we state plainly, because a family whose child needs structured support should ask what has changed and who leads it. And H.H. Sheikh Rashid Pakistani School: one of only two Pakistani-curriculum schools inspected in Dubai, now at Acceptable after Weak ratings in earlier cycles. Its published record is thinner than almost any school in this register, and rather than manufacture detail we cannot verify, the page says so and tells families exactly which questions to ask on a visit. One hundred and sixty-seven schools now carry sections; two remain.
- Inspection sprint, tranche one hundred and five — the Creative Science schools. International School of Creative Science Nad Al Sheba: Good at every inspection since 2018–19, with Outstanding health and safety and Outstanding parents and community across all phases and Very Good wellbeing — three judgements above its overall rating — blending the UK curriculum with a Quran memorisation programme and a Virtues character curriculum, published beside class sizes of 28 in Primary and Secondary and the fact that girls and boys are taught separately from Year 5. And American School of Creative Science: Good in February 2024, confirming the 2023 breakthrough that allowed its growth to Grade 12, after three consecutive Acceptable cycles — published with the instruction to confirm exactly which campus a child will attend, since the school shared a site with its sister school pending a move. One hundred and sixty-five schools now carry sections; four remain.
- Inspection sprint, tranche one hundred and four — and the register’s most recent inspection yet. GEMS Metropole Al Waha was inspected for the first time in February 2026 and rated Good, dated to the 2025–26 cycle: inspectors found strong systems, clear vision and positive outcomes, with most improvement areas concerning consistency rather than fundamental weakness — published alongside the finding that matters most to SEN families, that challenge, questioning and support for students of determination need greater consistency across classrooms, which means provision that depends on which teacher a child has. Also encoded: Lycée Français Jean Mermoz South, opened on Hessa Street in 2024–25 and extended to all secondary levels in 2025, and Lycée Français International Mudon, a branch of Outstanding-rated LFI Oud Metha currently in temporary accommodation until its purpose-built campus opens — both unrated, both with the borrowed-reputation warning stated plainly. One hundred and sixty-three schools now carry sections.
- Inspection sprint, tranche one hundred and three — the two newest Dubai British School campuses, both unrated. DBS Jumeira, opened August 2024 in Al Wasl, has already added Years 7 and 8 and is growing toward Year 13; DBS Mira opened August 2025 in Emaar’s Mira community with a 25-metre competition pool and specialist arts studios, led by a founding principal from DBS Jumeirah Park and a head of primary from The Arbor School — leadership drawn from inside the group, which this register treats as a more meaningful signal than branding. Both pages state that the Outstanding ratings belong to Emirates Hills and Jumeirah Park and are not transferable, that Year 9 at Mira opens only in 2027–28 so the all-through pathway is a plan rather than a provision, and that families needing highly specialised SEND provision should ask exactly what a developing inclusion team can deliver — and get it in writing. Also recorded: the group’s standing charges, including a AED 4,000 registration fee, belong in a first-year budget. One hundred and sixty schools now carry sections.
- Inspection sprint, tranche one hundred and two — three sister campuses opened in 2024 and 2025, and one principle stated on every page: a sister school’s rating is not this school’s rating. GEMS Founders Dubai South, whose Al Barsha South original holds Very Good from KHDA and Outstanding from British Schools Overseas, is itself unrated and still opening Years 10 and 12 in 2026. DESS Primary Academic City carries a name attached to two Outstanding schools and has no judgement of its own. Victory Heights Primary City of Arabia is led by the original school’s former deputy head — continuity of practice rather than a brand licence, which we note as the more meaningful signal — and is still unrated. All three pages ask the same practical questions: which senior staff actually transferred, what the fee-discount reversion terms are in writing, and how a primary-only school plans the Year 6 move. One hundred and fifty-eight schools now carry sections.
- Inspection sprint, tranche one hundred and one — three schools with no inspection record, written honestly rather than hopefully. Queen Elizabeth’s School Dubai, the first overseas campus of one of the UK’s highest-performing schools, opens August 2026 in Dubai Sports City: visitors describe a clear sense of purpose already in place, and this register still records that nothing has been independently assessed and asks the question the brand invites — how selective will this campus be, and what happens to a child who finds the pace hard. The Scholars School opens in Al Quoz 1 with founding fees from around AED 42,700 against standard rates of AED 61,000 to 85,000, published with the advice to get in writing what that discount covers and for how long. And New Dawn Private School, open since August 2024, growing year by year, with its late launch, its not-yet-operational secondary pathway and its undisclosed ownership structure all stated plainly. One hundred and fifty-five schools now carry sections.
- Inspection sprint, tranche one hundred — the French sector completed. Bilingual French International School: Very Good in 2023–24 after a decade of volatility — Acceptable, Good, back to Acceptable, then two Goods before this breakthrough — and the only school in Dubai offering Advanced Placement, the IB Certificate, the bilingual French-English IB Diploma and a bilingual French Baccalaureate with an American pathway, published beside the plain fact that its senior grades have only just opened and carry no examination track record. And Lycée Libanais Francophone Privé: Very Good at its new Meydan campus, governance and parent partnership Outstanding, Outstanding French, mathematics and science in Maternelle, with inspectors quoting a coherent vision incorporating wellbeing and student-centred learning.
- Two schools that have never been inspected now have honest pages. Rugby School Dubai and Harrow International School Dubai both open for 2026–27, so their sections carry a different header: no rating, no inspection findings, and a clear split between what is known and committed and what is not yet proven. Rugby opens FS1 to Year 13 at once on the Nad Al Sheba site Kent College vacates in 2026, with founding fees from around AED 70,000; Harrow opens on a 50,000 square metre Hessa Street campus capped at 2,000 students, with obligatory meal charges of roughly AED 6,650 to 13,440 a year on top of super-premium tuition. Both state plainly that a full inspection normally comes only in a school’s third year. Also corrected: this guide had stated that inspections resume in 2026–27. Sources now conflict, some reporting the pause extended through that year, so the key-findings page records the disagreement rather than picking the convenient answer.
- Correction, published in full: four inspection strengths encoded in tranche one under GEMS Our Own English High School were in fact drawn from the report page of GEMS Our Own Indian School in Al Quoz — two different schools in the same family. The findings have been moved to the school they belong to, and GEMS Our Own English High School has been rewritten from its own verified record: Very Good for a seventh consecutive inspection, Secondary achievement now Outstanding in English, mathematics and science, personal development and innovation Outstanding school-wide, about 7% teacher turnover — with the scale trade-offs stated. We would rather publish our own mistakes than let a family act on one.
- Inspection sprint, tranche ninety-eight: Vernus International Primary School — a small Silicon Oasis school whose strengths are real and specific: personal and social development Very Good in Kindergarten, health and safety Very Good in both phases, good English progress, curriculum design Good, and a 1:7 student-to-teacher ratio against a Dubai average nearer 1:13.6. Published with equal weight: Acceptable in both inspections, weak Islamic Education and Arabic first-language attainment in Elementary, leadership effectiveness Acceptable with self-evaluation not entirely accurate, enrolment down from just over 330 students to 238 between inspections — and the finding every parent should carry into a meeting, that the school’s internal assessment data often overestimates achievement against external benchmarks. With inspections paused, this report stands as the definitive public assessment until 2026–27. One hundred and forty-eight written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche ninety-seven — the Dubai Schools public-private partnership and a new British entrant. Dubai Schools Al Barsha: Acceptable on its first inspection, with wellbeing rated Good above the overall grade, UK-recruited teachers, an assistant in every class from KG to Grade 3, and NEASC and TASS accreditation — published beside the plain academic gap in Elementary and Middle English, mathematics and science. Dubai Schools Al Khawaneej: over 95% Emirati enrolment, all-inclusive fees covering transport, uniform and activities, and a published subsidy calculator for UAE national families — published with an Acceptable wellbeing rating in which parents and students have only basic means of raising issues, and the fact that its inspection predates the move from Mirdif to the current campus. And PACE Modern British School: Acceptable on debut, with the staffing model stated plainly — UK-qualified leaders developing teachers recruited from lower-cost markets, and one counsellor for the whole school. One hundred and forty-seven written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche ninety-six — both Dubai International Private School campuses. Al Quoz: Good, with an inclusive ethos and strong parental engagement recognised by inspectors, Arabic as an additional language rated Good — unusual in this market — NEASC and Cognia accreditation, and accessible fees for a full American pathway to Grade 12. Garhoud: good improvement in English and science across all phases, Elementary mathematics lifted from weak to acceptable, top-ten in Dubai for Emirati achievement in TIMSS 2023 — published beside the inspectors’ instructions: develop measurable targets with timeframes, reconfigure the High School to an accredited American model, align teaching to curriculum standards, and ensure all teachers are aware of the needs of students of determination and support them effectively, which is the regulator’s way of recording that not all did. One hundred and forty-four written summaries live; seventy inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche ninety-five — including the register’s first documented downgrade. North American International School was rated Good in 2019–20 and again in 2022–23, then Acceptable in November 2023, with inspectors specific about the cause: in Middle and High school, expectations are often too low and learning activities insufficiently challenging. That is a decline rather than a plateau, it sits against mid-range American-curriculum fees, and it carries extra weight for the Emirati families who make up the largest group in the school. Alongside it, Al Sadiq Islamic English School: Acceptable in thirteen of fourteen inspections, with Secondary English, mathematics, science and Islamic Education all Good, parent partnership Very Good, wellbeing Good, and fees among the most accessible anywhere in this register — published with the plain note that achievement outside Secondary is Acceptable throughout and the school runs only to Year 11. One hundred and forty-two written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche ninety-four — two schools that exist to serve one community each, and are irreplaceable to it. The Japanese School Dubai: Good in all fourteen inspection years since 2008, a 1:6 ratio among the most generous in the emirate, and the only Japanese national curriculum in Dubai — published beside inspectors’ mixed picture, including compliance issues with UAE Ministry requirements, governance concerns arising from the transitory nature of rotating appointees, and flagged resources and facilities. The Philippine School Dubai: Acceptable for a fourth consecutive cycle, a genuine recovery from three straight Weak years between 2016 and 2019, with Filipino rated Good across all four phases, personal and social development a notable strength, and fees among the lowest of any licensed private school here — published with the finding that internal data and observed standards do not match, which is a checkable thing to raise on a visit. One hundred and forty written summaries live.
- Fee corrections, published: Arab Unity School’s range is corrected to the KHDA-approved AED 6,462–10,808, which makes it the most affordable full British-curriculum school in this register by a wide margin, and Russian International School’s to AED 15,722–25,180. Both were previously listed with wider estimates; both now match published figures. Fee accuracy is not a detail on a site whose entire purpose is helping families compare what they can actually afford.
- Inspection sprint, tranche ninety-three: Arab Unity School — Acceptable for the thirteenth time, and the page says why that headline misleads in both directions: secondary and post-16 mathematics and science are Good to Very Good, health and safety Very Good across all phases, Post-16 personal development Outstanding, IGCSE begun in Year 9 to give three years of preparation — all at some of the lowest fees in this register — published beside variable Foundation Stage and Primary attainment, inconsistent checking of individual progress, and improvement plans lacking measurable goals. And Russian International School — Good for a seventh consecutive cycle, with Russian attainment Outstanding in Primary and Secondary, mathematics Outstanding in Secondary and science Very Good throughout, the only school in Dubai delivering the full Volgograd-accredited Russian curriculum — published with the Weak Secondary Arabic rating and the ratio moving from 1:9 to about 1:14 under recent demand. One hundred and thirty-eight written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche ninety-two: Greenwood International School — an eleventh consecutive Good, with personal and social development rated excellent, Very Good Kindergarten, 36 high-school electives inspectors call broad and imaginative, and a documented fix worth crediting: where the previous cycle found only a few teachers appropriately qualified, the 2023–24 report confirms all staff now are. Published beside it: didactic teaching in places, expectations for able students not always high enough, and assessment data not consistently used. And Smart Vision School — a second consecutive Good after two Acceptable cycles, with Very Good Foundation Stage progress in English and mathematics, 55 students of determination supported by a heavily staffed SEND department with speech and language therapy and a lift-equipped campus, published with the note that new ownership arrived in June 2025 and the expansion to Year 13 is still under way. One hundred and thirty-six written summaries live; sixty-eight inclusion entries.
- Register correction, published in full: this guide had The International School of Choueifat in Al Sufouh listed as Good. Multiple independent records of the 2023–24 DSIB inspection show the school rated Acceptable — a rating it has held across more than a decade — and the register has been corrected accordingly, with its fee range updated to the published AED 21,896–41,906. This is the kind of error that changes a shortlist, so it is stated here rather than quietly amended. Both Choueifat campuses now carry inspector summaries: Al Sufouh, with very good high-school mathematics and science and extensive global university placement, published beside inspectors’ findings that progress against previous recommendations was limited, parental involvement inadequate, governance lacking diverse representation and self-evaluation lacking accuracy; and DIP, where a 1:22 ratio is linked directly by inspectors to the challenge of personalised learning. One hundred and thirty-four written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche ninety: The Indian International School DSO — Good after a long run of Acceptable ratings, a 2,800-student community school that has formally adopted Dubai’s Inclusive Education Policy Framework and supports 165 students of determination at fees of roughly AED 9,700–21,000, among the most accessible anywhere in this register. Published beside it: the improvement is recent, the published grade range runs to Grade 10 so the senior-school move needs planning, and with 199 teachers to over 2,800 students the ratio question is a fair one to put on a visit. Also recorded from the same cycle’s Indian-sector table: The Indian Academy holds Good for a fourth consecutive inspection, and its verified findings are banked for the coverage sprint — that school is not yet in this register. One hundred and thirty-two written summaries live; sixty-six inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche eighty-nine: Primus Private School — a thirteenth consecutive Good, with English, mathematics and science Very Good across almost all phases and personal development Outstanding school-wide at fees of roughly AED 12,000–24,000, published beside the staffing arithmetic that matters: 86 teachers against 108 four years ago, a ratio moved from 1:13 to about 1:17, classes averaging 27–30, and turnover at 22%. And Dhruv Global School — the register’s newest inspection, its first, conducted in February 2026 and dated as such: Acceptable on debut for a school opened in 2023, with fees charged well below the approved ceiling, positive early parent relationships, and the honest context that its campus previously housed a school which closed after about twelve months. One hundred and thirty-one written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche eighty-eight: Al Salam Community School — Good for a third consecutive cycle since opening in 2019, permitted to open right through from FS1 to Year 13 from the outset on the strength of its sister school’s record, with inspectors recording outstanding understanding of Islamic values and awareness of Emirati and world cultures across all phases. Published beside it: the long-standing teacher-turnover concern that persists in the latest inspection record, and independently gathered parent sentiment running below what that record might suggest. Also banked for the coverage sprint: Collegiate International School’s verified findings — a 1:11 ratio, NEASC and College Board accreditation, a Good inclusion verdict, and mathematics and science at Acceptable above the Elementary phase — held unpublished because that school is not yet in this register. One hundred and twenty-nine written summaries live; sixty-five inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche eighty-seven — three schools serving large Emirati communities, where the rating carries regulatory weight as well as educational meaning. New Academy School: Good since December 2022 after three Weak cycles and five at Acceptable, with SEN provision improved to Good and 105 students identified with additional needs. School of Modern Skills: Acceptable, with Good Islamic Education across three phases and a broad California-standards curriculum, published beside Acceptable English, mathematics and science in the middle of the school. International Academic School: Acceptable across five inspections after two years rated Weak, with a strong Kindergarten and improving inclusion — published with the inspectors’ caveat that planning does not always articulate how students of determination will be meaningfully included in lessons. One hundred and twenty-eight written summaries live; sixty-four inclusion entries.
- Context build, tranche eighty-six: the official key-findings page now explains something almost no school list in this city states plainly — that a rating’s consequences differ by family. Under KHDA’s admissions rules Emirati students may not enrol in schools rated Weak or below, and the regulator has actively encouraged Emirati families to move children from Acceptable-rated schools to Good-rated alternatives, contacting parents directly; expatriate families face no formal restriction at that level. The page also sets out what Good actually means — the defined benchmark every Dubai school is expected to meet, held by 85 schools in 2023–24, and measured today against a progressively tougher framework, which is why this register treats a long run at one rating as a fact requiring interpretation rather than an automatic criticism. Safa British School’s entry was also deepened with its published National Agenda detail: a PIRLS average of 597, 69 points above target.
- Inspection sprint, tranche eighty-five: Mirdif American School — Good confirmed in October 2023, deliberately small at under 700 students with strength in parent partnership, governance, safeguarding and personal development, published beside the Arabic weakness, the open question of academic stretch, and the practical note that the school ran only to Grade 8 with Grades 9 and 10 added for 2025–26. And American Academy for Girls, formerly Al Mizhar American Academy — Good in every inspection since 2008–09 while the framework itself was toughened, with Very Good early years and elementary provision, Outstanding health and safety in every phase, Outstanding parent partnership, and a distinct position as Dubai’s only international-curriculum girls-only school from Grade 1. One hundred and twenty-five written summaries live; sixty-two inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche eighty-four — two first-ever Good ratings, and the reason this register reads the whole market rather than the top of it. Gulf Indian High School: Good in November 2023 after thirteen consecutive inspections at Acceptable, with achievement now at least Good across English, mathematics, science and Islamic Education, close to 200 students of determination and an inclusion department inspectors call a strength, and examination results published in its annual report — transparency too few schools at any fee level bother with. New Indian Model School: Good for the first time in its history after twelve years at Acceptable, with Kindergarten ratings at Very Good and inspectors crediting a principal appointed only six months before the inspection. Both pages carry the honest counterweight: these turnarounds are one year old. One hundred and twenty-three written summaries live; sixty-one inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche eighty-three: Kings’ School Nad Al Sheba — Very Good since 2018–19, Outstanding Foundation Stage, Outstanding by British Schools Overseas in March 2022, and an Outstanding inclusion verdict whose detail is now published in full: 128 students of determination supported by NASENCo-qualified SENCOs, speech and language therapists, dyslexia and autism specialists, EAL teachers and in-class assistants — a roll-call of provision most schools never itemise, and up sharply from 90 students the year before. Published beside it: self-evaluation documents to be made more precise, a Secondary phase still maturing with no university destination data yet, and premium fees to weigh against a Very Good rather than Outstanding rating. One hundred and twenty-one written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche eighty-two — two Acceptable-tier schools written with the same rigour as any Outstanding page. Cedar School: a small community-scale school with a well-conceived reading plan and most students reading at age-related expectations, published beside Acceptable core-subject attainment and the specific finding that the Emirati cohort’s benchmark progress was rated Weak. Oak Tree Primary: a safe, caring environment welcoming students of all abilities with genuinely improved Foundation Stage provision and middle leadership — published beside the finding that school self-evaluation and improvement planning is rated Weak, the one mechanism by which a school normally improves itself, along with weaker lower-Primary teaching, reading below chronological age in Years 4 to 6, and leadership that has changed again since the inspection. Families choosing at this level are entitled to exactly this much detail. One hundred and twenty written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche eighty-one: Dunecrest American School — three consecutive Good ratings since opening in 2018, with Kindergarten English and mathematics lifted to Very Good, Very Good personal development and care across all phases, Outstanding school management, and dual IB and Advanced Placement pathways on an eight-acre campus. Published beside it, in the inspectors’ own terms: raise achievement in all subjects and particularly in Islamic Education and Arabic, improve the consistency of teaching and the use of assessment information, wellbeing at Good rather than Very Good — and fees running to roughly AED 96,300 at the top of the school, which against a Good rating deserves a deliberate conversation about what you are buying. One hundred and eighteen written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche eighty: The School of Research Science — Good since 2018–19, with Outstanding care, guidance and support across all four phases, Outstanding health, safety and safeguarding across all phases, eighteen extensively trained guidance counsellors for 3,209 students, Outstanding facilities, and — unusually for this market — Arabic rated Outstanding as both a first and an additional language. Published beside it: teaching Very Good in Foundation Stage and Post-16 but only Good in Primary and Secondary, work not always matched to students’ needs, assessment data not consistently used to personalise learning, and the separate US High School section rated Acceptable twice with governance inspectors found wanting — a distinction we spell out, because the two sections share a name and are not the same school. One hundred and seventeen written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche seventy-nine: The Aquila School — Good across all three cycles, a report full of Very Good sub-domain judgements, and an April 2025 British Schools Overseas inspection awarding Outstanding across every area; SEN, EAL and gifted provision praised by both inspectorates, wellbeing Very Good by KHDA and outstanding for pastoral care by BSO. Published beside it: teaching consistency in Secondary, an upper-years curriculum needing broadening before the IB Sixth Form, middle-leadership capacity to develop, and Arabic attainment to raise. And Newlands School — Good for a second cycle after two at Acceptable, fully inclusive admissions, accessible fees, with the honest note that its climb is recent and its principal arrived in January 2023. One hundred and sixteen written summaries live; fifty-nine inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche seventy-eight — both Dubai National School campuses, serving a predominantly Emirati community. Al Twar: Good, with strong Kindergarten and High School achievement, respectful behaviour, robust child protection and four counsellors, and staffing ratios rare at this fee level — roughly 1:10, average classes of 21, and 9% teacher turnover. Published beside it: teaching quality not consistently observed, and enrolment down from around 1,750 in 2018 to just over 1,250, a trend to raise with leaders directly. Al Barsha: Good, the larger 1988-established campus with 2,470 students, published with independently gathered parent sentiment that is mixed — around two-thirds would recommend it, with a meaningful minority unsure or negative. Both campuses teach boys and girls separately from Grade 4, stated as a defining feature to weigh rather than a flaw. One hundred and fourteen written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche seventy-seven — the Al Ittihad campuses, which serve one of the largest Emirati student communities in Dubai’s private sector. Al Safa: Good across eleven inspections with almost 90% Emirati enrolment, Very Good curriculum in every section but Kindergarten, High School science progress risen to Very Good, and — from the regulator’s published table — Very Good for both inclusion and wellbeing, above its overall rating. Published beside it: two downgrades this cycle in Kindergarten English progress and Middle-school Arabic attainment, and inspectors finding expectations too low in some lessons. Al Mamzar: Good since 2018–19 after years at Acceptable, with strengths in Kindergarten and High School — published with the previous cycle’s finding that benchmark progression was weak across all subjects with deficits not improving, and a principal appointed weeks before the inspection. One hundred and twelve written summaries live; fifty-seven inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche seventy-six — the French sector, and a second harvest from KHDA’s published per-school table. Lycée Français International Georges Pompidou: Very Good for a fourth successive inspection, Outstanding English and mathematics, Outstanding teaching in Primaire and Lycée, students of determination grown from under 100 to 265 with Very Good provision, at roughly AED 36,900–50,700 — exceptional value against peers charging two to three times as much. Lycée Français Jean Mermoz: Very Good in only its third inspection, with English Outstanding across the whole school. And from the regulator’s own table, official focus-area ratings now published for Cambridge International, Fairgreen, GEMS Al Khaleej and American School of Creative Science Nad Al Sheba — each recorded Very Good for both inclusion and wellbeing, in several cases above their overall rating. One hundred and ten written summaries live; fifty-eight inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche seventy-five: Australian International School — Good on debut, Dubai’s only Australian-curriculum school, with consistently Good core-subject achievement, teachers praised for subject knowledge and purposeful lessons, and inspectors recording that parents of students of determination are very satisfied with its support; published with the Arabic and Islamic gap, limited community involvement, and premium fees against a debut rating. And Ignite School — leadership working steadily on improvement with very good awareness of Islamic values and improved Arabic outcomes, published beside the plain reasons for its rating: Acceptable attainment in English, mathematics and science across all phases, inconsistent impact from leaders’ planning, and some older students showing unsettled behaviour. One hundred and eight written summaries live; fifty-three inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche seventy-four: The English College — Very Good confirmed in December 2023 after eleven consecutive inspections at Good, one of the clearest transformations in this register: Outstanding in 24 individual criteria, 80% of criteria at Outstanding or Very Good, Outstanding personal development and care across all four phases, and facilities inspectors now call of the highest quality where earlier reports had called them not fit for purpose. Published beside it: Islamic Education and Arabic to be raised to match other core subjects, assessment data to become a more informative driver in Foundation Stage and Post-16, phase leaders needing time to monitor teaching rigorously, and the inspectors’ specific request that parents of students of determination be involved more closely in transitions. One hundred and six written summaries live; fifty-two inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche seventy-three: GEMS Winchester School Dubai — Good confirmed in November 2023 after nine years at Acceptable, with a British Schools Overseas verdict of Good with Outstanding features where personal development, welfare and leadership were all judged Outstanding, and benchmark assessments improving by one to two levels in English, science and mathematics, at roughly AED 20,400–38,400. Published beside it, unsoftened: a PIRLS score 15 points short of target, Arabic attainment lower than other core subjects, and the specific published finding that Emirati students sustained a weak judgement in English. Also encoded: GEMS Al Khaleej International School, dated to its 2022–23 report, with Outstanding personal development, Islamic values and innovation skills in every phase alongside Good self-evaluation and facilities. One hundred and five written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche seventy-two: South View School — Good for a third cycle with Outstanding safeguarding school-wide, Very Good governance and Foundation Stage teaching, PIRLS reading 25 points above target and TIMSS results above Dubai, international and UK averages; published with the phase-by-phase truth that matters most to sixth-form families, that Post-16 teaching was rated only Acceptable and the school has been directed to address it, alongside evolving leadership capacity in the upper phases and a report conducted under the previous principal. And Dove Green Private School — Good for a third cycle after climbing from an Acceptable debut, with major senior-school investment, published beside the fact that enrolment slightly exceeded stated capacity at inspection and that full FS to Year 13 provision does not complete until September 2027. One hundred and three written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche seventy-one: The Arbor School — Good for three consecutive years with Outstanding personal development, curriculum quality and health and safety in the lower school, Outstanding social responsibility and innovation, and an ecological philosophy inspectors themselves singled out. It also charges below the KHDA-approved maximum at every year group, which we state because almost no school does. Published beside it: the call for more consistent practice in Secondary, the Arabic and Islamic ceiling, the fact that the inspection predates the Sixth Form so there is no inspected evidence or exam record for the senior phase, and the detail every SEN family needs — enhanced SEND provision is charged separately under its own contract. One hundred and one written summaries live; fifty-one inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche seventy — the American-curriculum tier: American School of Dubai, where 53 of 87 individual ratings are Outstanding yet the overall judgement is Good, held down by non-compliance in Arabic and Islamic Studies plus Weak governance and Acceptable leadership effectiveness — all four facts published together, because for some families the ceiling is the story and for others the 53 Outstandings are. GEMS Dubai American Academy — Outstanding for an eleventh inspection, the only US-curriculum school in Dubai at the top, with Outstanding inclusion covering more than 320 students of determination. And Al Maaref American School — Acceptable, published with the same care: real strengths in personal development and Islamic values, and the plain reasons for the rating. Also banked for the coverage sprint: Al Salam Private School’s verified findings, including that almost 19% of its students are students of determination — among the highest proportions in the UAE — for the day that school enters the register. One hundred and one written summaries live; fifty-one inclusion entries.
- Depth pass, tranche sixty-eight: two of the register’s earliest entries deepened with verified detail. GEMS Wellington International — inspected thirteen times since 2008–09 with twelve Outstanding results, every key measure now Outstanding except Arabic and Islamic Education, and an Outstanding inclusion verdict covering close to 180 students of determination in a school of 2,900. GEMS Wellington Academy Al Khail — rated Outstanding by British Schools Overseas in February 2023, a second inspectorate reaching a verdict KHDA has not yet awarded, with the report showing a school a hair’s breadth from Outstanding overall. Early tranches are revisited as better sources surface: a register improves by returning to its own work, not only by adding to it.
- Inspection sprint, tranche sixty-seven — the Al Mawakeb campuses: Al Barsha (Good for a seventh consecutive inspection after seven years at Acceptable, with the first recorded significant improvement in outcomes, Outstanding personal development in all four phases, and a trilingual English–Arabic–French programme well below premium pricing) and Al Khawaneej (Good on its third inspection with Very Good and Outstanding ratings inside, an established system for identifying and supporting students of determination, and around 974 of 1,200 students Emirati — a striking marker of community trust). Published beside both: the group’s standing question, whether these schools have the ambition to climb above Good or are content to meet the regulator’s minimum, plus the lighting and facilities details inspectors recorded. Ninety-seven written summaries live; forty-eight inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche sixty-six: American School of Creative Science Nad Al Sheba — Good confirmed in February 2024 after three consecutive Acceptable cycles, the rating that permitted its growth toward Grade 12, delivering the American curriculum alongside a deeply embedded Islamic ethos and Qur’an enrichment. Published beside it: the Acceptable history is recent enough to warrant asking what changed and whether those people are still there, and the campus and staffing settlement after its move. Ninety-five written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche sixty-five — the 2024–25 cycle completed: Bloom World Academy (Good on debut, personalised learning and curriculum adaptation Very Good, 103 students of determination supported by a named Integra team, with teaching at Good and premium fees stated plainly), Durham School Dubai and Dubai Schools Nad Al Sheba (both Acceptable on debut, published with the same care as any top-tier page). Every school inspected in that unusual four-school cycle is now in this register. Dubai International Academy’s entry has also been deepened with the report’s formal development points — including strengthening the inclusion improvement plan so barriers for students of determination are reduced — because an Outstanding school’s homework matters just as much. Ninety-four written summaries live; forty-six inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche sixty-four: Dar Al Marefa — Good for an eighth consecutive inspection, with Very Good health, safety and support across all four phases, Islamic values named by inspectors as the heart of the school’s culture, and a genuinely singular position as Dubai’s only bilingual Arabic–English IB school with an approximately 85% Emirati student body. Published beside it: a settled ceiling at Good with predominantly Good achievement ratings, a new principal arriving for 2024–25 from a school he had lifted to Very Good, and premium-band fees against a Good rating — a comparison worth raising directly with the school. Ninety-one written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche sixty-three: Raffles International School — Very Good for a fourth consecutive inspection after eight years at Good, carrying twenty-one individual Outstanding ratings inside a report whose headline says only Very Good, with Outstanding safeguarding in every phase, Outstanding facilities on a 315,000 square foot campus, and an Outstanding British Schools Overseas verdict across all categories in May 2025. Published beside it: wellbeing at Very Good rather than the top tier, premium fees running to nearly AED 84,000 at Year 13, and the question the numbers invite — which measures still stand between this school and Outstanding overall. Ninety written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche sixty-two: GEMS International School Al Khail — Good sustained since 2018, with Outstanding health, safety and child protection in every phase, Very Good teaching in KG and the Diploma Programme, a rising Diploma on strengthened pathways, and senior provision that is genuinely rare: an aviation and space Centre of Excellence and a first-in-the-UAE Embry-Riddle partnership worth a year of US university credits. Published beside it: declines in KG and Primary science attainment and Primary English progress, teaching only Good through the middle of the school, and the inspectors’ formal development point on inclusion — provision ‘effective but not fully consistent’. Eighty-nine written summaries live; forty-five inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche sixty-one: Jumeira Baccalaureate School — Very Good retained, with Outstanding Diploma English, an Outstanding curriculum meeting the needs of almost all students including students of determination, Outstanding safeguarding infrastructure, and wellbeing embedded rather than announced. Published beside it, with the arithmetic this register insists on: the Diploma profile is solid in the middle rather than top-heavy — about 74% of students scored 30 or more points in 2025, while 40-plus scores have generally run between 3% and 5% — and inspectors’ observation that some students are reluctant to participate in group work and some are still building confidence in English. Eighty-eight written summaries live; forty-four inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche sixty: Dubai International Academy Al Barsha — Very Good in 2023–24, reached in six years from a standing start, running the complete IB continuum including the Career-related Programme, on a 23-acre campus with institutional expertise drawn from its Outstanding-rated sister school. Published beside it: teacher turnover of 31% in 2022 falling to 20% by 2023 — improving, and still a question for a scaling school — the costs that sit outside tuition, and the year-group capacity question every growing school should be asked. Eighty-seven written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche fifty-nine: Greenfield International School — Very Good held after a climb that took seven consecutive years at Good before the step up, with core-subject attainment and progress now at least Very Good in every phase, all four IB programmes accredited, PISA targets exceeded, and mature behaviour and parent engagement named. Published beside it: Arabic and Islamic Education as the standing improvement area, teaching consistency between phases as the recurring parent concern, and a fee range so wide (roughly AED 33,700 to 89,000) that only the exact year-group figure means anything. Eighty-six written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche fifty-eight: Arcadia British School — Very Good again in 2023–24 after reaching that level on only its second full inspection, with an Outstanding inclusion judgement as the report’s strongest feature and an Outstanding British Schools Overseas verdict across all eight performance areas in October 2024. Published beside it: the Sixth Form opened only in 2024–25, so there is no A Level track record yet, and the open question of which academic measures must move for a school with Outstanding inclusion to reach Outstanding overall. Eighty-five written summaries live; forty-three inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche fifty-seven: Raffles World Academy — Very Good for a fifth consecutive cycle, with Outstanding governance, Outstanding parent partnership and Outstanding facilities, unusual leadership continuity (the same principal since 2016, coordinators in post since 2010), and a full IB continuum with mother-tongue teaching in five languages. Published beside it, because results deserve arithmetic rather than adjectives: Diploma averages have slipped from 35 points in 2021 to 32 in 2023, and the share of candidates scoring 40 or more fell from 29% to 6% — pass rates remain high, but the top end is a question to put to the school. Eighty-four written summaries live — exactly half the register now speaks with the inspectors’ voice.
- Inspection sprint, tranche fifty-six: GEMS Metropole Motor City — Good, held after a breakthrough that followed four consecutive Acceptable cycles, with Primary core subjects lifted to Very Good, Outstanding health, safety and child protection in every phase, and Very Good wellbeing and parent engagement. Its inclusion provision is among the largest documented anywhere in this register: 480 students of determination supported by a Head of Inclusion, two SENCOs, three counsellors, eight specialist teachers, three EAL specialists, therapy access and differentiated ASDAN and iBTEC pathways. Published beside it: most measures still sit at Good, and with nearly 3,900 students on roll, the question of how an unremarkable child gets noticed. Eighty-three written summaries live; forty-two inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche fifty-five: Nord Anglia International School Dubai — Outstanding overall, Outstanding inclusion and Outstanding wellbeing, with A Level, IB and BTEC pathways side by side, a British Schools Overseas Outstanding verdict in February 2025, and around 320 students of determination supported by an inclusion team of roughly twenty staff. Published beside it: the school began with a selective intake and now describes itself as wholly inclusive while still assessing applicants — so ask directly how admissions decisions are made for a child with additional needs — and a new principal arrived for 2025–26, meaning the rating was earned under previous leadership. Eighty-two written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche fifty-four: Deira International School — Outstanding overall, Outstanding inclusion and Outstanding wellbeing, with outstanding progress in English, mathematics and science across every phase, two independent British Schools Overseas Outstanding verdicts, and published results including a 100% IB pass rate in 2025. Its inclusion entry is now the fullest in the register: 246 students of determination, about 12% of students with identified needs and roughly 20% supported in total, a clear inclusive admission policy, and ASDAN pathways where they suit a student better. The school’s own principal frames the rating as particularly hard-won ‘considering our fully inclusive admissions’ — the standard every top-rated school should be asked to meet. Eighty-one written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche fifty-three: Dwight School Dubai — Good on its third inspection, with three core-subject ratings improved to Very Good, Diploma English rated Outstanding, the Primary Years Programme named a particular strength, and a rare, creditable jump in Arabic and Islamic Studies where almost all ratings moved up. Its wellbeing machinery is described in detail — surveys, weekly check-ins, wellbeing champions, an open-door culture parents value — and the honest counterweight is published too: wellbeing outcomes still rated Good rather than Very Good, a young school on its second campus, and most measures still sitting at Good rather than above. Eighty written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche fifty-two: Fairgreen International School — Good for a third cycle, with Outstanding safeguarding and health and safety, Very Good wellbeing, strong PYP and DP progress, and a genuinely singular offer: the only Dubai school running all four IB programmes, inside The Sustainable City, with a career-related post-16 pathway in sustainability fields no other school replicates. Published beside it: Arabic and Islamic Education at Acceptable across all phases with inspectors calling improvement a matter of some urgency, uneven use of assessment data between phases, and Diploma cohorts of six and fourteen students — averages of 31 and 32 points that are encouraging but far too small to read as a trend. Seventy-nine written summaries live; forty-one inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche fifty-one: Dubai British School Jumeirah Park — Outstanding for the first time in 2023–24 after two cycles at Very Good, with leadership Outstanding across all six sub-categories, science progress outstanding, and inspectors quoting an excellent student work ethic; a British Schools Overseas inspection in 2025 returned Outstanding too. Published beside it: Arabic and Islamic Education at Acceptable in the senior phases, teaching dropping to Very Good at Post-16 with consistency specifically requested, variable mathematics performance, and the note that matters to any family arriving mid-year — support for students new to the school is occasionally less successful at closing learning gaps quickly. Seventy-eight written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche fifty: Dubai British School Emirates Hills — Outstanding for a fifth consecutive inspection, with self-evaluation, governance, parent partnership and daily management all judged Outstanding, and a British Schools Overseas report independently calling it an outstanding school for pupils from three to eighteen. And because this register publishes improvement requirements at every tier, the page carries its homework too: Arabic grammar and sentence construction, literacy for the few lower attainers, higher-order thinking in the senior phases, and marking that tells students how to improve. Fifty tranches completed — seventy-seven schools now speak with the inspectors’ voice.
- Inspection sprint, tranche forty-nine: Safa British School — Very Good for a third cycle, with leadership, wellbeing, inclusion and behaviour among the measures rated Outstanding, a documented climb from Acceptable in 2009–11, and two separate British Schools Overseas inspections (2022 and 2025) both returning Outstanding, at fees well below the top-tier schools whose outcomes it rivals. Published beside it: Arabic and Islamic Education at Acceptable in both phases — the clearest reason the headline rating is not Outstanding — teaching consistency to be improved by sharing best practice, and improvement plans carrying too many unprioritised actions. Seventy-six written summaries live; forty inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche forty-eight: Jebel Ali School — Very Good since 2015–16, with Outstanding Foundation Stage and Primary, international benchmarks risen to outstanding in English and mathematics, a PIRLS score 36 points above target, A Level, GCSE and BTEC breadth with strong GCSE value-added, and close to AED 60 million invested since the ownership change with AED 25 million more expected. Published beside it: Arabic and Islamic Education carry increased weight in the final rating and are the school’s own stated route to Outstanding — so ask what the plan is and who leads it. Seventy-five written summaries live; thirty-nine inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche forty-seven: Victory Heights Primary School — Outstanding retained, with Outstanding teaching, assessment, wellbeing and inclusion, and a second inspectorate (British Schools Overseas) reaching the same verdict independently. Its inclusion entry is among the strongest in the register: meticulous identification, bespoke pathways, and students of determination making more than expected progress. Published beside it, because even an Outstanding school has homework: marking and feedback to be applied consistently across all subjects — and the practical planning note that this is a primary-only school, so the Year 6 move needs thinking about early. Seventy-four written summaries live; thirty-eight inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche forty-six: American International School — Good in 2023–24, its first in over a decade after thirteen consecutive Acceptable cycles, with Outstanding social responsibility and innovation in the upper phases, Very Good personal development, an inclusion cohort of 197 students of determination judged a genuine strength, and fees well below the American-curriculum median. Published with equal weight: inspectors’ formal recommendation on deficiencies in staffing, resources and facilities across science, music, art, digital learning and sport; management and facilities rated in the second-lowest band; a specific call to recruit suitably US-experienced staff; and thin subject choice for teenagers drawn to the arts, humanities or economics. Seventy-three written summaries live; thirty-seven inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche forty-five: Little Flower English School — Acceptable for a tenth consecutive cycle, which the page frames honestly in both directions: it is a ceiling, and it is also a recovery from three years rated Weak at the start of inspections. Published in full: a Kindergarten where children make good progress in every subject, a Good governance rating, a purpose-built campus and among the lowest fees benchmarked in Dubai — alongside teaching that drops to Acceptable in Primary and Middle, a 1:20 ratio in a KG and Primary setting, and inspectors’ request that individual education plans specify small, measurable steps and that all teachers, not only some, support students of determination. Seventy-two written summaries live; thirty-six inclusion entries.
- Sector update, verified today: KHDA inspections resume in 2026–27 under a two-tier model — a school will receive either a full inspection or a shorter monitoring visit, a differentiated approach closer to the Abu Dhabi and Sharjah cycles. The official key-findings page now carries this, along with the note that two Dubai schools, Clarion and Renaissance, are closing at the end of the current academic year. Neither sits in this register’s coverage, so no page here changes — we publish it because a school closing is the most decision-critical fact a family can be given, and because it is exactly why a register must be maintained rather than published once. Our ratings-day protocol stands ready: full reconciliation within 48 hours of any new publication.
- Inspection sprint, tranche forty-four: Woodlem Park School — the most serious findings this register has published. Acceptable overall, with real strengths recorded (a calm, happy environment, strong behaviour, very good attendance, good Islamic Education and upper-phase English, a PIRLS target exceeded, and unusual curricular breadth at some of the lowest fees in the sector) — and, in the same section, the facts a family must have: mathematics downgraded to Weak in Middle and Secondary, science to Acceptable, wellbeing leadership judged underdeveloped, no grades permitted beyond Grade 10 until the rating improves, and a permanent principal not appointed until January 2024. We publish this the way we publish an Outstanding school: completely, without softening and without contempt. Seventy-one written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche forty-three: Oxford School — Good for the first time in its entire inspection history, after a Weak rating in 2008–09 and eleven straight Acceptable cycles. A school open since 1988 finally crossing the line the regulator sets for every Dubai school, with Very Good health, safety, care and support in all four phases. Published beside it: Primary mathematics still the exception, earlier findings on laboratories, Arabic library stock and Foundation Stage layout that a visitor should check personally, and a campus that is functional rather than premium — judge it against the fee. Seventy written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche forty-two: Nibras International School — one of the most striking turnarounds in Dubai’s inspection record: Good in 2023–24 after twelve consecutive cycles at Acceptable stretching back to 2008–09, with personal development Very Good in every phase, Very Good health and safety, and Very Good parent partnership. Published beside it: achievement still ranging from acceptable to good, writing skills flagged, and support for students of determination and gifted learners named as an area for improvement with 99 students of determination on roll. Sixty-nine written summaries live; thirty-five inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche forty-one: Universal American School — Very Good with inclusion and wellbeing also Very Good, strong English and science across every phase, Outstanding facilities and Outstanding parent regard, and a culture inspectors singled out. Published with it: Arabic as a first language needing sharper focus in Middle school, self-evaluation needing to measure strategic impact, and IB Diploma averages in the low-to-mid 30s — solid, above the UAE average, and worth asking about the spread rather than the headline. Sixty-eight written summaries live; thirty-four inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche forty: North London Collegiate School Dubai — Very Good with 33 Outstanding ratings, Outstanding English, mathematics and science, a 1:8 ratio and a wellbeing culture inspectors described as care, courtesy and consideration. Published with the same prominence, because at AED 91,700–143,700 a family is entitled to all of it: teaching quality judged inconsistent with differentiation still a work in progress, Islamic Education and Arabic at Acceptable across every phase, three previously Outstanding ratings dropping this cycle, and Diploma cohorts small enough that average scores flatter — so ask for the full distribution, not the mean. Sixty-seven written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche thirty-nine: Uptown International School — Very Good since 2016–17 across six inspections, with an Outstanding inclusion judgement that is the school’s defining strength: inspectors named provision for students of determination and for students learning English among the best things it does. Its IB pathway breadth and post-16 improvement are recorded, and so is the honest question the record raises — which academic standards must move for a school this stable to reach Outstanding overall. Sixty-six written summaries live; thirty-three inclusion entries, and the students-of-determination dataset now spans every rating tier from Outstanding provision to schools inspectors told to do better.
- Inspection sprint, tranche thirty-eight: Dubai Gem Private School — Good, with achievement above expectations in Secondary and Post-16, National Agenda science attainment outstanding, a PIRLS target exceeded, outstanding behaviour, and a 1:8 ratio that is among the most generous anywhere in this register. Published beside it: Arabic needing development, reading-literacy interventions applied inconsistently, self-evaluation needing sharper data rigour, and a governing board improving infrastructure under stated financial constraints. Also banked for the coverage sprint: Dubai Scholars Private School’s verified findings — twelve inspections at Good, with most individual measures at Very Good — the school is not yet in this register, so nothing publishes yet. Sixty-five written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche thirty-seven — the Ambassador pair: Ambassador School (Very Good for a third time after climbing Acceptable to Good to Very Good, a 1:9 ratio, 9% staff turnover, Outstanding Secondary assessment, 162 students of determination supported by 38 assistants — published with the Arabic weakness, the KG variability, and the governance ask to name who owns each improvement goal) and Ambassador International Academy (Good with Very Good features, 85% of standards at Good or better, a blended UK and IB curriculum at below-IB fees, with its youth stated plainly). Sixty-four written summaries live; thirty-two inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche thirty-six: Cambridge International School — Good every year since 2009–10, Very Good wellbeing embedded in what inspectors call a highly inclusive school, high achievement in Secondary and Post-16 English and mathematics, and facilities maintained to a very high standard. Published with it: teaching is Good rather than Very Good in Primary and Secondary, so the strongest practice sits at both ends of the school and the middle is where to ask questions — plus the plain observation that fifteen years at one rating is both stability and a ceiling. Sixty-two written summaries live; thirty-one inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche thirty-five — the Star International pair: Mirdif (Good since 2017, Very Good personal development and facilities, with Arabic and lesson differentiation the asks, and its fee range placed honestly against the British-curriculum median) and Al Qusais (Good, very strong learning skills, Very Good Secondary English and parent partnership, at a 1:11 ratio — published with the marking, curriculum-continuity and IEP-precision recommendations, and the turnover history stated in full: 45% in 2017, 22% in 2020, 33% in 2023). Sixty-one written summaries live; thirty inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche thirty-four: Regent International School — Very Good for a third consecutive cycle after eight years at Good, every Foundation Stage rating Outstanding, small capped class sizes, and an Outstanding British Schools Overseas inspection corroborating the picture from a second inspectorate. Published beside it: Arabic as the recurring development area, inspectors’ recommendation to strengthen support for students of determination, and the plain fact that its rebuilt Secondary and Sixth Form have no exam track record yet. Fifty-nine written summaries live; twenty-nine inclusion entries.
- A new page most guides would never build: /coverage — a live, computed account of what this register verifies and what it still lacks. Schools covered, fees published, inspector summaries written, inclusion judgements recorded, and the honest remainder: how many schools are still unread, that no campus has been visited, that inspections are paused until 2026–27, and that verified findings for schools outside our coverage sit written but unpublished until those schools have pages. Every figure is calculated when the site builds, so it can never quietly drift — and it can never flatter us.
- Inspection sprint, tranche thirty-three: Apple International School — Good since 2016–17, with wellbeing rated a full grade higher than the school itself, assessment Very Good across every phase, and an ASDAN pathway supporting 164 students of determination. Published with equal weight: inspectors’ direct finding of weak attainment in IGCSE and A-Level examinations — a recommendation that has recurred across cycles — plus Acceptable Post-16 core subjects, inconsistent teaching quality, insufficient challenge for able students, and punctuality concerns in the sixth form. A school can be genuinely caring and still not be delivering results; parents deserve both halves of that sentence. Also banked for the coverage sprint: The Apple International Community School’s verified first-inspection findings — not yet in this register. Fifty-eight written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche thirty-two: Gulf Model School — the hardest kind of page to write well, and the reason this register exists. Acceptable retained, told with the context that changes its meaning: eight consecutive years rated Weak before reaching Acceptable in 2022–23, an inspection conducted four months into a new principal’s tenure, a dual Kerala State Board and CBSE pathway at a low fee — published beside the plain warnings: Acceptable is the regulator’s minimum, class sizes run into the mid-twenties and above, and independent parent sentiment has been poor. We do not soften these pages and we do not sneer at them; families in this fee bracket get the same evidence and the same respect as everyone else. Fifty-seven written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche thirty-one: Pearl Wisdom School — Good in 2023–24 after an Acceptable debut, one of the fastest single-cycle improvements in the register, with Kindergarten transformed, Middle-phase core subjects lifted to Very Good, benchmark judgements moving from weak to outstanding, and small classes underpinning behaviour. Published in the same breath: Middle-school Arabic judged Weak, and curriculum adaptation for students of determination and gifted learners only Acceptable across every phase — an inclusion entry we have written plainly, because a family whose child needs adapted lessons must not learn this after enrolling. Fifty-six written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche thirty — the Acceptable tier, treated with the same care as the Outstanding one: Buds Public School, where the report shows good progress in Islamic Education in the middle and secondary phases and strong personal development, published alongside the plain reasons for the rating — core subjects at Acceptable across phases, benchmark progression below expectations, and investment constraints that other schools at similar fees have overcome. Families choosing at this fee level deserve the same quality of information as families choosing at the top, and they have almost never had it. Also banked for the coverage sprint: Sabari Indian School’s verified Good-tier findings — the school is not yet in this register. Fifty-five written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche twenty-nine: Bright Riders School — one of the clearest improvement stories in the register, moving from two Acceptable cycles to Good with indicators at Good-or-better rising from 41% to about 88%, Very Good personal development and safeguarding throughout, and the inspectors’ wellbeing verdict quoted. Published beside it: Arabic still at Acceptable, wellbeing overall at Good, and the fact that its senior grades do not exist yet — Grade 11 opens in 2026, Grade 12 in 2027 — so there are no senior results to judge. Fifty-four written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche twenty-eight: Our Own High School Al Warqa’a — Good for ten consecutive years at enormous scale, with core-subject achievement sitting above the overall rating and more than 3,500 students taking part in the regulator’s wellbeing survey; published with the two questions scale always raises. Fifty-three written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche twenty-seven: GEMS Our Own Indian School — Very Good retained, with Outstanding science in Primary and Secondary, Outstanding personal development in every phase and Outstanding curriculum quality throughout, at fees starting near AED 7,200. Recorded plainly beside it: this is a school that was rated Acceptable a decade ago and climbed back, which is the kind of trajectory a single-word rating can never show. Fifty-two written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche twenty-six: Global Indian International School — the inspectors’ own verdict quoted (‘a good school; it meets the expectations of the UAE’), Kindergarten its strongest phase, students of determination identified and supported effectively — published with the science dip in KG, the Arabic ask, and a detail no brochure would print but every commuting family needs: attendance is high at 96%, yet inspectors recorded students arriving late because of school transport. Fifty-one written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche twenty-five: Pristine Private School — ten consecutive cycles at Good, and a report that shows why families stay: Outstanding Early Years, Outstanding safeguarding and personal development in every phase, maths and science Very Good or Outstanding throughout, a PIRLS score of 651 at the Advanced International Benchmark, and a 1:12 ratio rare at this fee level. Published alongside: Secondary Arabic at Acceptable, Post-16 English at Good, and the inclusion caveat that lesson-level curriculum adaptation is not yet consistently secure. Fifty written summaries live — and the value tier keeps proving that a one-word rating is the least interesting thing about a school.
- Inspection sprint, tranche twenty-four: Amity School Dubai — Good, and climbing from an Acceptable start in 2019–20, with Outstanding safeguarding and personal development, English a named strength across three phases, and leadership rated a full grade above the school’s overall mark — which the regulator itself treats as the leading indicator of where a school is going. Published beside it: the self-evaluation rigour, reading-capacity and wellbeing asks. Forty-nine written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche twenty-three: GEMS Legacy (Good, with the middle phase its strength and the honest detail no brochure prints — several KG measures slipped a grade this cycle, and class sizes have been flagged as too large in places), GEMS Royal Dubai (Very Good with outstanding features: care, support and curriculum design all Outstanding), and GEMS World Academy, whose summary is dated to the 2022–23 cycle it comes from, because a verdict is only as good as its date. Forty-eight written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche twenty-two — the JSS siblings: International (Very Good since 2019–20, Outstanding personal development and safety in every phase, 149 students of determination supported by therapists and parent-built IEPs — and the asks published: Arabic, a more tailored wellbeing programme, deeper personalisation) and Private (a third Very Good with standards rising to Outstanding, and student attitudes named the defining strength). Forty-five written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche twenty-one: The Millennium School — seven straight Very Goods, KG and now Secondary Outstanding in the core subjects, English and science Outstanding in every phase at AED 18,000–27,000 — with the value-tier trade-off stated plainly: average classes around 35, and the question of how support reaches a large class’s quiet middle. Sector context from the same cycle: of 32 Indian-curriculum schools, 83% of students now attend Good-or-better — and this register’s pages increasingly explain why. Forty-three written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche twenty: GEMS New Millennium — Very Good since 2019–20 with five Outstanding sub-ratings, a rare dual CBSE-and-A-Level track at mid-range fees, and an inclusion entry that matters to families’ budgets: around 250 students of determination supported with no additional fees for learning support. The honest column holds the A-Level ceiling, the tight footprint, and the turnover question. Forty-two written summaries live; twenty-two inclusion entries.
- Inspection sprint, tranche nineteen — the Good tier begins, where the rating most undersells the school: Springdales Dubai, Good on the headline but Very Good through KG and Primary core subjects, Outstanding personal development and safeguarding in every phase, a rare Outstanding for management and facilities, ASDAN pathways for its 115 SEND students — and the honest asks: the Middle school catching up, Arabic at Acceptable, and how quality holds as a half-full campus grows. This is why the register reads reports, not just ratings. Forty-one written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche eighteen: The Winchester School, Jebel Ali — nine straight years at Very Good after a climb from Acceptable unique in this market, science and curriculum design Outstanding in every phase at AED 15,000–33,000 fees, around 400 students of determination supported at scale — and the operational truths published beside the triumph: a 1:18 ratio, turnover that ran above average, and the consistency challenge every 4,300-student school must answer. Forty written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche seventeen — into the value heartland: Delhi Private School Dubai, where wellbeing is judged Outstanding (‘an exceptional wellbeing vision, fully embedded’), inclusion is Very Good with 228 students of determination and a thirty-strong specialist team, and the honest gap is published — pastoral excellence beside an Acceptable ceiling in Islamic Education and Arabic. Forty written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche sixteen — the Emirates International siblings: Jumeirah’s breakthrough to Very Good after more than a decade at Good, with its Outstanding Foundation Stage and inspector-highlighted culture of inclusion; and Meadows, Very Good since 2019–20 with previously Outstanding Post-16 core outcomes — plus the inspectors’ repeated ask, published: add the IB Career-related Programme as a true vocational route. The newly-Very-Good cohort of 2023–24 is now fully read. Thirty-eight written summaries live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche fifteen: German International School — Very Good after nine consecutive cycles at Good, thirty-seven indicators improved, Outstanding personal development with bullying described as very rare, the wellbeing-vision gap quoted verbatim from the report, and an honest fit note: German is the language of instruction, the right choice for German-connected families and a demanding path for others. Also banked for the coverage sprint: Dubai International School Garhoud’s verified Acceptable-tier findings — the school is not yet in this register, and the log records only what is published.
- Inspection sprint, tranche fourteen: Ranches Primary School — four consecutive Very Goods, Outstanding parent partnership, a Very Good inclusion verdict with real texture (109 students of determination, dedicated spaces, external therapists) — and the plateau published: consistent, not accelerating, with the report’s own wellbeing-monitoring and FS-transition asks alongside. Thirty-five written summaries now live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche thirteen: Swiss International Scientific School — Very Good with Outstanding features, the climb from an Acceptable debut completed with every prior recommendation implemented, the bilingual promise independently verified by inspectors, and a Very Good inclusion verdict with sensory spaces and individualised plans — plus the classroom-level asks published: MYP ownership of learning, research technology, and stronger learning-support roles. Thirty-four written summaries now live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche twelve: Dubai Heights Academy — the watershed Very Good with outstanding features, 47 measures improved in one cycle, wellbeing Outstanding as ‘a cornerstone of its culture’ — and the phase-level honesty most summaries hide: teaching Very Good in FS and Primary, Good in the newer Secondary as it grows into its building. Thirty-three written summaries now live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche eleven: Royal Grammar School Guildford Dubai — the first school in Dubai’s inspection history to earn Very Good on debut, with Outstanding parent partnership, pastoral care and safeguarding — and the honest chapters told alongside: leadership turnover through the very years that built the result, and a senior school still in formation. Also logged: Kent College Dubai’s verified Very Good (with its fully-inclusive verdict) is banked for the coverage sprint — the school is not yet in this register, and we encode nothing we cannot page. Thirty-two written summaries now live.
- Inspection sprint, tranche ten: Brighton College Dubai — Very Good with Outstanding features on its third inspection, Outstanding National Agenda standards, a rare safeguarding commendation — and the governance homework published verbatim in spirit: sharpen self-evaluation, and align admission and inclusion policy with the stated vision. The movers audit also continued: Dubai British School Jumeirah Park’s rise to Outstanding is confirmed already correct in this register; AFLEC Lycée Français International is noted as a coverage gap for the expansion sprint, not an error.
- Inspection sprint, tranche nine: GEMS FirstPoint — the breakthrough to Very Good on its sixth inspection, with 79% of areas at the top two levels, exemplary behaviour culture, a Very Good SEND verdict, and the honest pairing: inspectors still asked for inclusion support to strengthen further. Alongside it, a register audit: the published 2023–24 movers list (thirteen schools newly Very Good, three decliners) was cross-checked against every affected entry in this register — all consistent, including the two Weak-rated schools that sit outside current coverage, exactly as our tier pages state.
- Inspection sprint, tranche eight: Credence High School (Very Good — the full climb from an Acceptable debut told, Outstanding safeguarding and personal development, and the Arabic weakness published), and Citizens School — the first entry from the 2024–25 cycle, when only four schools received full inspections; its Good rating confirms this register’s existing data, and its fee range is corrected to the school’s published 2025–26 schedule (AED 45,000–80,000). Inspector summaries now state their cycle per school.
- Inspection sprint, tranche seven: Sunmarke (a third Very Good with outstanding features — and its reading-skills homework published alongside), Horizon English (Outstanding since 2018–19, nothing below Good, now paired with its official Outstanding inclusion rating), and Horizon International (Very Good after twelve inspections at Good — the climb and the plateau both told). Thirty school pages now carry inspector verdicts; fifteen carry inclusion judgements.
- Inspection sprint, tranche six: Hartland International (Very Good with a band of Outstanding judgements — and the honest note that the step up runs through teaching and leadership) and Kings’ School Al Barsha (a first Outstanding, wellbeing Outstanding, and an inclusion verdict worth quoting: ‘an exceptionally inclusive learning community’, 259 students of determination on roll). Twenty-eight schools now carry inspector verdicts; fourteen carry inclusion judgements.
- From KHDA’s published Key Findings 2023–24 report, supplied by a reader: a full official-numbers page — the 23/48/85/51/2 rating distribution, 81% of students in Good-or-better schools, the wellbeing spread (only 7% of schools Outstanding), the inclusion sector picture (76% Good or better), and which habits the 26 improving schools shared — every figure sourced to the regulator, decoded into what it means for a shortlist.
- Inspection sprint, tranche five — the value segment and the improvement journeys, because honesty matters most in the middle of the market: GEMS Founders Dubai (Very Good at 6,000-student scale, with around 860 students of determination and inclusion a defining strength), GEMS Founders Al Mizhar (broad improvement, rating held at Good — both facts published), and GEMS Al Barsha National School (new leadership, early climb, 21% of indicators at the top tiers — stated plainly). Twenty-six schools now carry verdicts.
- Inspection sprint, tranche four — and a primary-source breakthrough: KHDA’s published 2023–24 table of official per-school Inclusion and Wellbeing ratings. Nine schools now carry the regulator’s own inclusion verdict (all Outstanding in this batch — Deira International, both DESS schools, GEMS Jumeira Primary, GEMS Wellington International, Horizon English, Jumeirah College, Nord Anglia and Safa), and Jumeirah College and GEMS Jumeira Primary join the inspector-summary set: twenty schools with verdicts, eleven with official inclusion ratings. The full-register inclusion sweep continues from the same published table.
- By request of Spanish-speaking families: a native Spanish welcome page joins the guide — nine languages now, with the full hreflang mesh extended. All maps are now Google Maps, on every school page and the city map. Link shadows removed sitewide per the design brief, and a formal copyright notice added. Every change re-audited across all pages before sealing.
- Inspection sprint, tranche three: DESS Primary, DESS College and Dubai International Academy — seventeen schools now carry inspector verdicts, and the inclusion dataset reaches seven, recording among other things that DESS College’s Outstanding-judged provision for 215 students of determination comes at no additional cost, and DIA’s honest development note on engaging every parent of identified students. Strengths and improvement asks published together, as always.
- Inspection sprint, tranche two: seven more schools now carry ‘What the inspectors said’ — both JESS campuses, GEMS Wellington International and both Wellington Academies, and both Repton campuses — fourteen of 169 in total, each with strengths and required improvements from the last full cycle, including the honest ones (Repton’s Arabic concern, JESS’s wellbeing-data note). The inclusion dataset grows to four schools, now recording that JESS Jumeirah charges no additional fees for SEN provision — the kind of verified fact that changes a family’s shortlist.
- The inspection sprint begins — the roadmap’s single biggest lever: ‘What the inspectors said’ now appears on the first seven school pages, with strengths and required improvements paraphrased from each school’s last full DSIB inspection and its published record, dated per cycle and linked to the official report. Verified inclusion judgements are now shown for three schools — the first entries in the students-of-determination dataset. Summaries are added only as each report is actually read: a school without one is unread, not unjudged.
- Roadmap Phase 3 opens its intake: parents can now share first-hand school experience through a structured, human-moderated submission — anonymised excerpts, balanced per school, schools given a right of reply, never purchasable by anyone — and Abu Dhabi’s expansion page is live with an honest status (verification not yet begun; no date promised before the data work is done) and a be-first-to-know list.
- Roadmap Phase 2 begins: the compare tool now takes up to four schools, fills itself from your shortlist in one tap, and marks the rows where schools actually differ so decision points find your eye first; and a full interactive map — every district’s school count and strongest-rated school in one view, honestly labelled to district level until the exact-coordinate sprint, each circle linking into its area guide.
- Roadmap Phase 1 build: best-value lists computed from the register with the formula published (no school can pay to appear — that’s the point); explainable match scores in the Family Decision Pack (every match now shows its 0–100 score and exactly why); a private admissions tracker — stage, deadline and notes per application with downloadable calendar reminders, stored only on your device; and every area page upgraded with computed intelligence: rating mix, curriculum mix, fee span and the nearest alternative areas.
- Walking further with families, in both directions: an honest curriculum-decision guide (British, Indian, American, IB — destinations at 18, learning styles, price bands, and the five lenses that actually decide it), an early-years guide for the question before the register begins (including the guarantee-versus-priority question to ask school nurseries in writing), and a first-90-days guide for the hardest month no directory covers — the one after enrolment.
- For families of students of determination: a dedicated special educational needs guide — admission rights under Dubai’s inclusive education framework, how to read the inclusion section of KHDA inspection reports, the support-cost truth, and six visit questions that reveal real provision. The inclusion-lead question now opens the Visit Kit on every school page. We state plainly what we have not verified per school, and invite documented parent experience to shape what we verify next.
- Design consistency pass across all pages: every guide and tool now shares the same structure (breadcrumb, kicker, title, closing link); the shortlist now shows each saved school’s true rating colour instead of neutral grey; printing any page — including your family plan — yields clean content without forms or navigation; and keyboard focus is clearly visible on every button and the language switcher.
- The Family Decision Pack: enter your arrival date, children and budget, and the guide computes — privately, on your own device — correct year groups under the 31 December cut-off, matched schools from the verified register, an honest all-in family budget and a personalised application timeline, printable to share. Plus a plain-English jargon decoder covering every acronym admissions emails assume you know.
- Post-launch brutal audit of our own FAQ: corrected two rating claims that contradicted this register (Brighton College and NLCS are Very Good, not ‘Outstanding or Good’), rebuilt the affordable-schools answer to name only register-verified fees, resolved a self-contradiction on when inspections resume (expected 2026–27), rounded estimated fees to sensible precision, and linked the cut-off, mid-year and budgeting answers to their dedicated guides. We hold our FAQ to the same standard as our register.
- Correction, caught before the main domain served it: the year-group chart now reflects the UAE’s new admissions age cut-off — 31 December of the admission year from 2026–27 (moved from 31 August; April-start schools keep 31 March; new admissions only, per the Ministry of Education’s December 2025 decision). Our own FAQ already carried the correct rule; the new page briefly contradicted it. Fixed within the hour — this log exists precisely for moments like this.
- Three answer guides added — the questions every relocating family asks: a year-group equivalence chart (UK Year, US Grade, Indian Class and IB stage by age, on the 31 August cut-off), the honest admissions timeline including the CBSE April track and mid-year entry, and the moving-to-Dubai schooling checklist in the right order. Also: breadcrumb structured data on every school page, hardened security headers, and an email list for register updates — factual, occasional, no marketing.
- Cost calculator upgraded: pick any school and its mid-range fee fills in automatically from the verified register — no typing, no guessing — and results now include an approximate per-term figure alongside the yearly range.
- App v2, all device-local and account-free: save schools to a private shortlist with side-by-side comparison; the entire register now caches for full offline use; every school page gains a Visit Kit — rating-aware questions to ask on a tour — with private notes saved only on your device; a true-cost calculator (extras and transport, honestly ranged); native share buttons; app shortcuts; and a ‘what changed since your last visit’ badge.
- The app: the guide is now installable on iPhone, Android, tablet and desktop — home-screen icon, full-screen standalone mode, and offline access to previously viewed schools via a service worker. Free, no store account, no extra permissions; see /app.html.
- Cross-device sign-off round: comparison table now scrolls within itself on narrow phones instead of stretching the page, language flags enlarged to the 44px touch-target guideline, and the header releases its sticky position on small screens to give parents their full viewport back.
- Rating colour system revised on the client’s brief: Outstanding now gold, Very Good green, Good light green, Acceptable amber, Weak blue, not-yet-rated grey — applied across every tag, tier card, rating page and the social card, with all pairings kept accessibility-compliant.
- Launch build finalised: live travel-time directions from every school page (real-time Google Maps routing from the reader’s own location), a guided School Finder — a chat-style assistant matching families against the verified register in three questions — and a correction link on every school page so schools can update their own record.
- Translation launch: human-written welcome pages in Arabic, Russian, Hindi, French, German and Chinese, with a language switcher on every page of the site and a full hreflang mesh. School names remain in English by editorial policy; full localisation of the register follows. Manrope subsets extended with Cyrillic so Russian renders in the brand typeface.
- Pre-launch board additions: a public About & Methodology page — verification process, independence policy and a formal corrections route for schools — and an Arabic welcome page (/ar/) with hreflang links, ahead of full Arabic localisation.
- Interface modernised for 2026 on the brand team’s brief — palette and typeface untouched: sticky solid-white header with animated navigation, large display headline, stat pills, fully rounded buttons and tags with soft elevation, card-style rows, tiers and controls, and refreshed section markers. Native dropdowns replaced with custom-styled selects — white fields, brand-green chevrons and hover states, matching search icon — no more system-grey controls.
- Brand accent unified to deep forest green (#083819) on a pure-white ground — every link, button, rule and mark; the wordmark now sets ‘School’ in the brand colour. Semantic rating-tag colours deliberately unchanged so Outstanding, Very Good and Good stay instantly distinguishable.
- Typeface moved to Manrope (400/700/800, self-hosted, ~46KB) — a screen-first face with stronger numerals for fee scanning — with heading weight raised to extra-bold and tracking retuned. Earlier that day: editorial re-voice (palette, rounded controls, district pins, preview fix). Every school page now carries a district-level OpenStreetMap location pin (honestly labelled) plus geo-coordinates in structured data. The standalone preview file now explains itself and carries its own scripts.
- Launch-day audit: merged a duplicate GEMS FirstPoint entry (and removed its wrong Motor City location), corrected Bloom World Academy to Al Barsha South, unified split area spellings (Jumeira/Jumeirah, Garhoud/Al Garhoud), and added two missing top-tier schools — Dubai British School Emirates Hills (Outstanding) and Royal Grammar School Guildford Dubai (Very Good) — with sourced fees.
- New: a dedicated guide to affordable schools (under AED 20,000), serving the majority of Dubai families that premium-focused guides overlook. Brand de-dated — the year is now a data attribute, never the identity. Build-time integrity guards added: the site now refuses to build if ratings drift above the market’s real tier counts.
- Coverage expanded to 168 schools: 24 rated schools added with sourced locations and ratings (including Dubai English Speaking College, Raffles World Academy, The Winchester School and both Al Ittihad campuses); 53 fee ranges refreshed against current published figures; Jumeirah College and Bilingual French International School locations corrected.
- Every school page now carries a computed ‘In context’ analysis — fee position against curriculum medians, rating-tier context and data-derived alternatives — generated from the verified register, never from opinion.
- Street addresses added for 25 schools where a verifiable source exists (source typos corrected); these now sharpen the Google Maps links and structured data. All other schools keep their verified district-level location — street addresses will be extended from the official KHDA directory rather than guessed.
- Added six confirmed new-campus openings from the regulator’s not-yet-inspected list (Dubai British School Jumeira and Mira, DESS Primary Academic City, GEMS Founders Dubai South, Victory Heights City of Arabia, Lycée Français International Mudon). Coverage expansion to the remaining rated schools is scheduled against the official KHDA directory — no locations will be guessed in the meantime.
- Full ratings reconciliation: every school cross-checked against the complete June 2026 KHDA ratings table. 61 ratings corrected — the register now shows 20 Outstanding, 42 Very Good, 49 Good, 21 Acceptable and 6 not-yet-rated schools, matching the regulator’s published distribution. 26 fee ranges replaced with sourced figures.
- Removed a phantom entry (Al Mawakeb School ‘Al Khail’ — no such branch exists) and added Lycée Libanais Francophone Privé (Meydan), rated Very Good after its 2024–25 post-relocation inspection.
- Register grown to 138 schools: added Emirates International (Jumeirah and Meadows), GEMS FirstPoint, Horizon English, Horizon International and Ambassador International Academy, each with sourced ratings and average fees.
- Very Good tier expanded from 3 to 14 schools after cross-checking listings against the 2023–24 cycle (including the Kings group, GEMS World Academy and both GEMS Wellington Academies); the tier remains under verification against a market total of roughly 28.
- Fee data corrected where sourced averages contradicted listed ranges — notably Dubai College (around AED 101,000), GEMS New Millennium (around AED 26,000, double the previously listed level) and Victory Heights Primary (around AED 49,000). Where a listed range disagreed with a sourced average by more than 20 per cent, the range was removed rather than kept.
- Full register review completed: every school website re-verified against a live domain; 42 dead links replaced with official URLs; 9 unverifiable links removed rather than guessed.
- Clarion School removed — closing at the end of the 2025–26 academic year; its Al Quoz campus reopens as The Scholars School in August 2026.
- Added KHDA-confirmed 2026 openings: Harrow International School Dubai, Rugby School Dubai, Queen Elizabeth’s School Dubai and The Scholars School (no ratings or guessed fees shown).
- Ratings corrected against the 2023–24 DSIB cycle: Victory Heights Primary → Outstanding; Safa British School and Dubai Heights Academy → Very Good; Ranches Primary → Very Good.
- 51 duplicate entries removed; nine wrong locations fixed (including Dubai College → Al Sufouh and Jebel Ali School → Damac Hills); rating scale corrected to KHDA’s real six-point scale.
- KHDA fee freeze for 2026–27 confirmed and reflected across the guide.