← Back to homeCanadian International School Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi, UAE · Private
Illustration · Abu Dhabi
Canadian International School Abu Dhabi stands in Khalifa City A, about thirty kilometres from the centre of Abu Dhabi, and teaches the Canadian curriculum of the province of Alberta from kindergarten to grade 12. The leaving certificate is Canadian: a hundred credits of the Alberta programme, provincial achievement tests in grades 3, 6 and 9, and Alberta diploma examinations in grade 12. On top of the Alberta programme, grades 10 to 12 take AP courses - the College Board register lists thirteen of them for 2025-2026, while the school itself names fifteen: biology, Calculus AB and BC, chemistry, microeconomics, psychology, music theory, world history, French, physics, computer science, European history, drawing, English language and comparative government and politics. Arabic, Islamic studies and social subjects follow the programme of the UAE ministry of education, and French belongs to the Alberta set. The pupil body is a very mixed one: about eighty nationalities, thirty per cent Canadian, fourteen per cent Emirati, eight per cent American. The main thing a parent needs to know: the school does not demand fluent English on entry, but it may set a test of the level. The building is new and three storeys high, divided into six wings by stage; the school has a pool, a sports hall, a grass football pitch, two libraries, a laboratory, a computer room, a music room and art rooms, a canteen and indoor and outdoor play areas for the kindergarten. Sport is set up broadly - more than thirty teams from U9 to the senior age group across fourteen sports.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $10 622–14 110 a year
39 010–51 820 AED
Programmes
AP · Canadian programme
Languages of instruction
English
Languages taught
Arabic, French
About the fees The 2026-27 fee is reckoned together with the registration fee and three termly payments: AED 39,010 for KG1, 41,510 for KG2, 45,210 for grade 1, 45,090 for grade 2, 45,210 for grade 3, 45,090 for grades 4 and 5, 48,240 for grades 6-9 and 51,820 for grades 10-12. The registration fee is part of those totals and runs from AED 1,850 to 2,491 by grade; it is non-refundable. The fee covers textbooks. It does not cover transport, uniform, field trips or special student activities. The bus costs AED 5,000 a year at every stage - 2,000 in the first term and 1,500 in each of the second and third. The second and third payments fall due on 1 December 2026 and 2 March 2027; payment is by transfer or cheque, and by card only at the school.
Admissions The grade is set by date of birth. For 2025/2026 KG1 took children born between 1 September 2020 and 31 August 2021, KG2 between 1 September 2019 and 31 August 2020, and grade 1 between 1 September 2018 and 31 August 2019. For 2026/2027 the rule is rewritten as age by 31 December: four for KG1, five for KG2, six for grade 1. The application goes through an admissions portal with step-by-step instructions. The school does not require fluent English, but a pupil may need a placement assessment.
Stages and year groups Grades KG1 from age 4 - grade 12. There are three stages: early childhood, elementary and secondary. Within the secondary school the school separates the middle grades 5-8 from grades 9-12. Alberta provincial achievement tests fall in grades 3, 6 and 9 and the diploma examinations in grade 12; the Alberta certificate requires a hundred credits. AP courses run in grades 10, 11 and 12 as an extension of the Alberta programme, and their examinations are sat in May.
Address Khalifa City A
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
College Board · 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
College BoardCollege Board, the AP programme
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 →AP
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.
Canadian programme
The programme of one of the Canadian provinces, with that province's own secondary school diploma. The province licenses the school and requires its teachers to hold Canadian certification.
What this means for this school. Which province stands behind this school, and how far its licence runs, is not stated here. Each province keeps its own register of schools abroad; a common Canadian one does not exist.
Exams and destinations from the school's official website
The school publishes nothing about where its leavers go: no share going on to university, no exam results, no list of universities.
Facilities from the school's official website
✓Swimming pool
✓Sports hall
✓Laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Art studio · Playground
Campus: A new three-storey building in Khalifa City A, divided into six wings by grade level, with walls of windows and natural light in the classrooms; classrooms have interactive smart boards. There is a swimming pool, a gymnasium, a grass soccer field, two libraries, a science laboratory, a computer lab, a music room, elementary art rooms, a courtyard, a cafeteria and indoor and outdoor kindergarten play areas. The centre of Abu Dhabi is about thirty kilometres away.
Clubs and activities (18): Photography · Theatre · Orchestra · Art · Swimming · Touch rugby · Basketball · Volleyball · Football · Netball · Cricket · Underwater hockey · Zumba · Gymnastics · Softball · Badminton · Cross-country · Triathlon
Teaching staff
The school publishes neither the number of its teachers nor their qualifications.
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 roomnot stated on the website
·Counsellornot stated on the website
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school publishes a child protection policy (CIS Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy) and an anti-bullying policy (CIS Anti-Bullying and Healthy Relationships Policy), as well as a health and safety policy in English and Arabic, a student behaviour policy, an inclusive education policy, a substance abuse policy, a transportation policy and a traffic management plan for the site. The school names no medical room, no medical staff, no psychologist and no security staff.
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%)75 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 data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data90 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 "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 8 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