Al Ittihad National Private School 2 - Shakhbout
Abu Dhabi, UAE · est. 2018 · PrivateAl Ittihad National Private School - Shakhbout opened in 2018 as the fifth school of the Al Ittihad network, the first of which has run in Dubai since 1975. The school is licensed up to and including grade 12 and teaches an American curriculum with an emphasis on cultural identity: the network's stated line is "a generation of heritage guardians and global thinkers", and the school ties its work to the UAE's 2071 vision. The Arabian Education Development group has five schools in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Al Ain and more than eight thousand pupils. Of its rooms the school names classrooms, laboratories, a library, outdoor play areas and common areas. An ADEK rating is claimed on the page, but the site does not serve its value.
Key facts
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
NEASC · accreditationCollege Board · authorised programmeArabian Education Development · school is part of the networkWhat stands behind each entry
An American accreditation working since 1885. For international schools it uses an approach where the visitors look first at live lessons rather than at folders of paperwork: the team works in the school for about a week. It is the only one here whose public directory honestly separates accredited schools from candidates.
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. Authorisation here runs a year at a time: the register lists the school for the 2025-2026 school year.
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.
Arabian Education Development (AED) Company is a UAE school company, founded, per its own site, in 1996; the site separately notes that the group's oldest school, Al-Ittihad Private School, first opened in the Al-Mamzar area of Dubai in 1975. The site says the company «proudly manages five schools« and «oversee[s] five private schools« across Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Al Ain. Students: «over 8,000 talented students«. The school brand is Al-Ittihad Private School.
What this means for this school. The network owns or operates the school. Its accreditation and programme authorisation the school obtains separately, in its own name.