Dubai, UAE · PrivateArcadia School is a British school in Jumeirah Village Triangle, Dubai, with separate primary and secondary campuses. It follows the English National Curriculum and the EYFS, then Key Stage 3, 4 and 5: IGCSE at Key Stage 4 and A-levels in the sixth form, alongside BTEC and the ASDAN programme. There are 93 nationalities; the school puts the teacher-to-student ratio at one to twelve and the space at 15.1 square feet per student. It describes the primary campus through 18 specialist areas: a temperature-controlled swimming pool, a science laboratory, music and art rooms with their own specialist teachers, an indoor multi-purpose sports hall, a stage with lighting and surround sound, a dance studio, a library, a rooftop play area and outdoor areas for the Foundation Stage, a climbing wall, a language room with its own teachers, an Enterprise Hub and a plot for growing plants; there is also a semi-public plaza that serves as a meeting place. Listed separately are an after-school club for the Foundation Stage, school catering, transport and a counselling service. The school runs a number of its own programmes: a sports academy, a performing arts academy, a Junior MBA, the Duke of Edinburgh award and Junior Dukes, ASDAN and digital initiatives; it holds Apple Distinguished School status. Its seven values are altruism, respect, compassion, aspiration, determination, honesty and adventure.
Key facts
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
BSO · accreditationBSME · part of the associationWhat stands behind each entry
A scheme of the UK Department for Education: a school abroad is inspected against the standards for independent schools in England, including safeguarding and the standards for boarding. The inspections are done by independent inspectorates approved by the department, and the inspectorates themselves are monitored annually by Ofsted. The reports are published in full on the government website.
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 →One hundred and eighty schools in ten countries - Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE; more than half of the membership is in the UAE. It runs no inspections of its own at all. Instead it requires somebody else's accreditation, and the requirement is strict: a school not already accredited on joining must gain accreditation within two years and then maintain it. The inspectorates are EDT or ISI, which means the accreditation in question is the British government's BSO scheme. The organisation has withdrawn its former lighter routes in - one route remains.
What the badge means for this school. The school belongs to the association, and the association requires its members to hold a real accreditation: for Gulf schools that is almost always BSO. What to look at is that accreditation rather than this badge. Nor is the badge empty - there is no inspection of its own behind it, but a school is not admitted to the association without somebody else's accreditation. The entry is confirmed in the organisation's open directory.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Programmes of the University of Cambridge: the school teaches to Cambridge syllabuses and enters its pupils for exams that Cambridge marks itself. IGCSE means exams at around Year 10 or 11, the British counterpart of a lower secondary leaving certificate. A-Level is the senior years, and their results are what British and many other universities admit on.
What this means for this school. The papers are marked by Cambridge, not by the school, so a leaver's grade does not depend on how strict their own teachers are with them. To enter pupils for these exams a school has to be registered as a Cambridge exam centre; registration as a centre is permission to run exams rather than accreditation of the school, and it says nothing about the quality of teaching. IGCSE is taken at around Year 10 or 11 and A-Level in the final years, and it is the A-Level results that carry a pupil into British and many other universities.
A British vocational qualification from Pearson: not an academic course with an exam at the end, but a programme of practical assignments in a particular trade, from engineering and business to art and sport.
What this means for this school. Teaching and assessment work differently from A-level: instead of written exams there is a run of practical assignments marked by the school, while Pearson checks the school itself and samples the work. British universities do accept BTEC, but not all of them and not for every course: level 3 carries the same UCAS points as A-level, and that is what a family aiming at a particular university should look at. For a child who needs the classic academic route, BTEC is not a replacement for A-level but a different path.