Al Dhafra Private Schools - Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi, UAE · PrivateAl Dhafra Private Schools - Abu Dhabi is the Al Dhafra group's school in Mohammed Bin Zayed City, and it is wholly American: from Pre-K to grade 12 on a single programme, without the British branch that its sister school in Al Ain has. Teaching is in English - the school says so plainly - except for Islamic studies, Arabic language and Arabic social studies, which are taught in Arabic as the UAE Ministry of Education requires. The programme is built as an integrated American one, with a range of electives and AP courses: in the senior years the school names AP mathematics and other AP subjects. The principal is Mr David Evans, and the admissions, accounts and IT departments are listed separately with their telephone numbers. The main thing missing from the site is the fee in figures. The year's schedule is published as one large scan, and neither fees nor charges appear in the text.
Key facts
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cognia · accreditationCollege Board · authorised programmeWhat stands behind each entry
The widest-reaching American accreditation: some forty thousand schools in over a hundred countries. It accredits both individual schools and whole school systems. It also sells a paid membership with no inspection behind it, and that membership is often passed off as accreditation.
What the badge means for this school. The school has been through this organisation's accreditation. It was judged as a whole: governance, safeguarding, staff, premises, teaching. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →An American organisation that allows a school to put the letters AP on a pupil's transcript. The permission is granted course by course and tied to a particular teacher, it has to be renewed every year, and College Board reads the course syllabus before granting it.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run advanced AP courses - not the school as a whole, but one by one: by subject and by teacher. Governance, safeguarding and the primary years are not part of that check. Which subjects are actually approved is visible in the ledger. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Advanced Placement: American advanced courses for the senior years. The exam for a course is set and marked by the College Board, not by the school. A good result is counted by American universities as a first-year course already passed, which saves a student time and money.
What this means for this school. A school does not get to call a course AP automatically: the College Board reads the course syllabus and approves it separately for every subject and every teacher, and the permission has to be renewed each year. Every approved school in the world is listed in the open AP Course Ledger, and this school's entry there stands as a line in the accreditation block above. How many courses a school is approved for, and in which subjects, the ledger does not show in its general listing. AP has no leaving certificate of its own: it sits on top of the school's main programme rather than being a separate system.
The American school programme, with the High School Diploma at the end. It usually comes together with AP courses, which the College Board stands behind, and with an American accreditation - MSA, NEASC or Cognia.
What this means for this school. The diploma is written out by the school itself: the American programme has no common leaving exam, and the content of the senior years is set by the school. Outside checking therefore rests on two things here - the accreditation of the school, and the AP exams if the school runs them.