← Back to homeDubai International Private School - Al Quoz
Dubai, UAE · est. 1985 · Private
Illustration · Dubai
Dubai International School was founded in 1985 and runs two branches, one in Al Garhoud and one in Al Quoz; this card is about the Al Quoz branch, on Meydan Street. The curriculum is American: the Californian Common Core standards and the NGSS for science, while Arabic, Islamic studies, social studies and moral education follow the UAE Ministry of Education programme. It takes pupils of all nationalities and all abilities, the leaving qualification is the American high school diploma, and the senior school has Advanced Placement courses in calculus, physics, biology and chemistry. The KHDA's DSIB inspection rated the school Good for 2023-2024, and the same rating stands in the 2026-2027 fee fact sheets. English is the language of instruction, Arabic is compulsory and the school teaches French from the kindergarten onwards. There is a great deal of external testing, set out in the calendar: CAT4, NGRT, MAP in four subjects for grades 3-9 and the Arabic and Islamic ABT. The school's robotics team took second place at the FLL Open Asia championship among 350 teams.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $4 350–6 829 a year
15 974–25 080 AED
Programmes
AP · American programme
Admits from
4 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
English
Languages taught
Arabic, French
Registration fee
≈ $143
525 AED
About the fees The annual fee goes by grade: 15,974 dirhams for KG1 and 25,080 for grade 12. The school has applied not to raise the fee for the 2026-2027 school year. On top of the fee come the required education supplies: uniform 650-1,575 dirhams, books 2,400 in KG1 and 4,900 in grade 12, stationery 840. Optional: transport 6,000-8,700 dirhams, extracurricular activities 525-1,785, medical services 420, school trips 840, international trips 4,000-15,000, skill development programmes 2,730-3,885, special needs support 16,800 and the graduation ceremony 2,940. Children of school employees get a discount of up to 85 per cent.
Admissions Applications are made at the campus during school hours: the admissions team sees parents Monday to Thursday from 8:00 to 15:00 and on Friday from 8:00 to 11:30. The application fee is 525 dirhams, non-refundable, non-transferable and not deductible from tuition. The entrance examination for grades 1-10 covers three subjects - Arabic, English and mathematics - and physics and chemistry are added for grades 11 and 12; the Arabic exam is required only of Arab students. The grade is set by age: KG1 takes four-year-olds, and then a year per grade up to seventeen in grade 12.
Stages and year groups Grades KG1 - grade 12, ages 4-18. The stages: KG1-KG2 the kindergarten, grades 1-5, the middle school, and the high school with AP courses and the American high school diploma. The age table is strict: KG1 at 4, KG2 at 5, grade 1 at 6 and so on a year per grade.
Address 69 Meydan Street, Al Quoz 1
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
NEASC · accreditationCognia · accreditationCollege 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
NEASCNew England Association of Schools and Colleges
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 →CogniaCognia, formerly AdvancED
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 this status would mean. The school has been through this organisation's accreditation. It was judged as a whole: governance, safeguarding, staff, premises, teaching. The school is not in the organisation's register: the status comes from the school's own words.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →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. 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 →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.
American programme
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.
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 hallnot stated on the website
✓Laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
·Cateringnot stated on the website
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: The school names a STEM lab, a library and a swimming pool (swimming stands as a separate item on the home page). The kindergarten campus is separate: a sensory room, a library, a STEM room, an ICT room, art and music rooms and a UAE museum. The school does not run transport itself: it is provided on request by an outside company, Bright Rider, which has its own counter in the school.
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 room
·Counsellornot stated on the website
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
The school has a medical service of its own: three registered school nurses, first aid, monitoring of pupils with chronic conditions, health education and counselling. It also names a student counsellor for grades 1-12 and a career and college counsellor for grades 9-12. The school publishes no child protection policy, no security staff and no CCTV.
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 data60 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)90 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data80 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