← Back to homeAbu Dhabi Grammar School
Abu Dhabi, UAE · est. 1994 · Private
Illustration · Abu Dhabi
A Canadian school in Abu Dhabi, in the Tourist Club Area, and the oldest of its kind: it works to the programme of the province of Nova Scotia and calls itself the oldest operating school of the Nova Scotia international programme in the world. It was founded by Fatima Asad and licensed by the UAE ministry of education on 1 October 1994, and has been on its present campus since January 2008. It now has around 1,080 pupils from fifty countries, on a path from pre-school to grade 12. The accreditation is recorded in the Nova Scotia programme register under the name "Abu Dhabi Grammar School", while the school calls itself "Abu Dhabi Grammar School (Canada)", and the discrepancy is one word. Lessons are in English, with French and Arabic taught as separate courses and Islamic studies for Muslim pupils. The leaving document is the Nova Scotia high school diploma, and the requirements for it are the same as in the province's public schools; transcripts are issued by the Nova Scotia department of education, not by the school. Pupil records the school keeps in a secure electronic system. Teachers the school counts as "75+" and lists by name, divided by department; the largest department is Arabic and Islamic studies, with a head and twelve teachers. There is one school counsellor, full-time nurses and a part-time doctor. Prices the school does not name: on its payment page stand only the shares of the payments by month, and the only sum on the whole site is 1,995 dirhams for the laptop that is compulsory from grade 7. About the campus the school writes only that it is in the heart of the capital, and it lists no laboratories, no halls and no grounds. Clubs, examination results, a list of universities and a summer camp are not on the site. In place of results the school shows three Canadian awards that it gives its leavers: the Queen Elizabeth II medal to a grade 12 leaver for outstanding achievement in grades 10, 11 and 12 together with taking part in the life of the school and the district; the Governor General's academic medal to the leaver who finishes with the highest average across all courses of grades 11 and 12; and the Lieutenant Governor's medal to one boy and one girl from grade 11 for qualities of leadership and service to school and district alongside commendable achievement. The school day starts at 7:45, ending at 14:15 for the youngest and at 15:15 for the rest; on Friday everyone finishes at 11:35, and the week runs Monday to Friday.
Key facts
Languages of instruction
English
Languages taught
French, Arabic
About the fees Sums the school names on none of its pages: instead of a price list its payment page sets out only the order of the payments. A new family pays a deposit of 30 per cent of the fee, which is set against it, then 3 per cent in August together with the cost of transport and books, 33 per cent in December and 34 in March. For families continuing the deposit is 5 per cent, then 35 per cent in August with transport and books, 35 in November and 25 in January. The only sum named on the site is 1,995 dirhams for the Chromebook laptop, compulsory from grade 7 to grade 12. Its school year the school counts from September to June.
Stages and year groups Grades Pre-School - Grade 12. The school runs the whole path from pre-school to grade 12 and divides it into three stages: primary from kindergarten to grade 6, middle from grade 7 to grade 9, senior from grade 10 to grade 12. Each stage has its own vice-principal: there are three of them, and their division is slightly different - kindergarten to grade 4, grade 5 to grade 8, grade 9 to grade 12. The school day differs too: from kindergarten to grade 2 it runs from 7:45 to 14:15, from grade 3 to grade 12 to 15:15, and on Friday everyone finishes at 11:35. Class sizes and a total number of classes the school does not give.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Nova Scotia programme · authorised programmeschool is in an official registryconfirmed by a school document, by membership or by taking part in a networkclaimed by the school, no confirmation, not counted in the scoreGuide to all organisations → What stands behind each entry
Nova Scotia programmeProgramme of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia
Permission to run the curriculum of the province and to award its high school leaving certificate - the very document that leavers receive in Canada itself. The teachers must hold Canadian certification. The programme usually occupies the senior years and runs alongside the national curriculum of the country.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run this programme and to award its certificate. This is a confirmation of the programme, not a judgement on the school as a whole. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Exams and destinations from the school's official website
The domain without www does not open at all, and the school's former domain agsgrmmr.sch.ae, listed in the Nova Scotia register, does not answer.. We have asked the school for the data directly.
Facilities
The domain without www does not open at all, and the school's former domain agsgrmmr.sch.ae, listed in the Nova Scotia register, does not answer.. We have asked the school for the data directly.
Teaching staff from the school's official website
✓Teachers listed by namepublished
✓Teacher qualifications
✓Number of teachers75
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
What the listings show: qualifications next to names the school does not state; of its leadership it says that the principal has worked 42 years in education, 31 of them in administrative posts
The staff the school posts by name and arranged by stage and department: about eighty people in the list in all, counting administration and support staff, while the teachers themselves the school counts as "75+". The Arabic and Islamic studies department is the largest - a head and twelve teachers. Physical education has a head and four. In the senior school English language, literature and social studies have seven teachers, mathematics and science four, plus single subject teachers for technology, art, French, and film with music; the same subject teachers work in the middle school, while the primary school has specialists of its own for French and music. Qualifications next to individual names the school does not publish. Besides teachers there is one school counsellor at the school, full-time nurses and a part-time doctor. A ratio of pupils to teachers the school does not give, and class sizes it does not give either.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
·Security staffnot stated on the website
·Access controlnot stated on the website
✓Nurse or medical room
✓Counsellor
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
The school keeps full-time nurses and a part-time doctor, and pastoral care rests on one school counsellor for the whole school from kindergarten to grade 12. A separate child protection policy, anti-bullying rules and information about staff training the school does not publish: there is no section of documents for parents on the site.
Reviews
No reviews yet. The community rating counts towards the score once a school has five verified reviews - until then we do not show a zero, so as not to mislead.
Criteria breakdown criterion weight in brackets
Academics and programmes (16%)60 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data65 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data90 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data55 Value for money (6%) scored at the median68 "Scored on disclosed data" stands where we count only what the school has written about itself on its own site: exams and destinations, safety and wellbeing, teaching staff, facilities, clubs and activities. A low score here means the school does not write about this, not that the school does not have it: a school with good security and a sparse site will score low. A school can fill in its profile, and the score will be counted again.
The score is counted from 7 of the 9 criteria.Only those with checkable data count: programmes and accreditations from official registers, the fee from a published price list. Where it says "scored on the median", the school has no data and the middle of the list is put in its place, so that a gap gives no advantage. Admissions, teaching staff and reviews come in as their data arrives.
The full methodology → Similar schools in the country