← Back to homeDiyafah International School
Abu Dhabi, UAE · est. 2013 · Private
Illustration · Abu Dhabi
Diyafah International School opened in Abu Dhabi in 2013 as a continuation of Al Diyafah High School in Dubai, which Winnie D'Cunha began in 1982 with two children in a villa on Al Diyafah Street. In 2020 the school grew into a full secondary provision, and in August of that year it took its first Year 12 cohort. Teaching follows the National Curriculum of England, and at Key Stage 4 the school enters pupils with three boards at once - Cambridge, Pearson Edexcel and Oxford International AQA - and requires a minimum of five IGCSE passes at grade 3 or D for the equivalency certificate. The senior stage runs AS and A Level with routes into business, engineering, medicine, science, IT, law, languages and a dozen other fields. Among its accreditations the school names CAIE, Pearson Edexcel and the international association of college admission counsellors. The main thing a parent should know: the fee the school actually charges at the Foundation stages is markedly below the regulator's approved figure, 23,000 against 28,180 dirhams, while from Year 1 the two coincide.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $6 263–12 624 a year
23 000–46 360 AED
Programmes
Cambridge · IGCSE, A-Level · Pearson Edexcel
Languages of instruction
English
About the fees Fees for 2026/27: at the foundation stages the school charges less than the regulator has approved - 23,000 dirhams in the first year against an approved 28,180, and 24,500 in the second against 29,000. From Year 1 the amounts match those approved: 31,790 dirhams for Years 1 to 3, 34,380 for Years 4 to 6, 38,290 for Years 7 to 9, 42,100 in Years 10 and 11, and 46,360 in Years 12 and 13. The school warns that the scale may change by decision of the Abu Dhabi education authority, and asks families to ask the accounts office about discounts. Under the regulator's rules parents have to state the source of the funds when they pay.
Admissions The school writes that it considers every child and calls itself a truly inclusive national-curriculum school. The requirement for moving up to the senior stage is given in numbers: the certificate recognising the education is issued on at least five IGCSE examinations graded no lower than 3 or D in Year 11. The school takes pupils with additional needs and says so in a separate line on its fees page.
Stages and year groups The stages run right through: the foundation stage, Key Stages 1 and 2, Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4 - Years 10 and 11, with IGCSE examinations - and a senior stage of Years 12 and 13 with AS and A Level. The senior stage is young: the first Year 12 intake arrived in August 2020. At Key Stage 4 English, mathematics, science, Arabic for native speakers, Islamic studies for Muslims, moral education and physical education are compulsory, and the rest the pupil chooses.
Address Al Inarah Street, Gate 6, Mohammed Bin Zayed City, Zone 13
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · IGCSE, A-Level · authorised programmeCOBIS · membershipschool 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
CambridgeCambridge International Education
Part of the University of Cambridge. It allows a school to teach the Cambridge programmes and to enter pupils for the exams. There are four stages and they are authorised separately: primary, lower secondary, IGCSE and A Level. If the stages are known they are named in the line below; if that line is missing, the school does not publish them, and the Cambridge registry does not show stages either - it gives only the name of the centre, the country and whether private candidates are accepted. Cambridge calls what it does registration rather than accreditation, and the network holds about ten thousand schools.
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. At this school: IGCSE (ages 14-16), A-Level (ages 16-18). 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.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →COBISCouncil of British International Schools
An association of British schools abroad with a quality inspection of its own. It has nine membership categories, and the word "accredited" appears in seven of them, although COBIS does its own inspection in one: in the rest it recognises an accreditation granted by somebody else.
What the badge means for this school. The school belongs to this organisation but has not been through its accreditation. The difference matters: membership is usually paid for and has no external inspection behind it. The entry is confirmed in the organisation's open directory.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Pearson Edexcel
A British exam board, the second after Cambridge. It issues its own versions of IGCSE and A-Level: the programme is the same in substance, what differs is who sets and marks the exams.
What this means for this school. The exams are set and marked by Pearson, and the school acts as an exam centre. Universities accept IGCSE and A-Level from Pearson on the same footing as the Cambridge ones. One caveat about checking: the Pearson centre search shows only those centres that agreed to be shown, so the absence of a school from it proves nothing.
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 poolnot stated on the website
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
·Librarynot stated on the website
·Cateringnot stated on the website
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field
Campus:
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
✓Counsellor
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
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%)85 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 data70 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data60 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data55 "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