← Back to homeGEMS International School - Dubai Hills
Dubai, UAE · est. 2013 · Private
Illustration · Dubai
GEMS International School - Dubai Hills opened in September 2013 as a full-continuum IB school and holds all four programmes: the PYP, the MYP, the Diploma and the Career-related Programme, from kindergarten at three years old to Grade 12. The school has changed its name - in the registries and in the titles of some of its own pages it is still "GEMS International School - Al Khail". What distinguishes it is aviation and space: it has a centre of excellence in aviation, aeronautics and space with a Space Lab and a Flight Centre, a dedicated STEAM centre and specialist teaching in robotics, artificial intelligence and drones; the school calls itself the UAE's best school for STEAM and claims the world's first IB CP pre-med programme. Its community is multinational - more than a hundred nationalities - and learning runs on a bring-your-own-device programme with digital learning coaches. The KHDA rates it "Good", and it is CIS accredited. Child protection is described by name: a designated safeguarding lead and five deputies, training for all staff and the GEMS referral system, with the police and Ministry of Interior hotline numbers published alongside for emergencies.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $12 662–21 644 a year
46 500–79 488 AED
Programmes
IB · PYP, MYP, DP, CP
Languages of instruction
English
Registration fee
≈ $143
525 AED
About the fees The annual fee in UAE dirhams for 2026-27, as approved by the KHDA: 46,500 for Pre-KG, 54,301 for KG1 and KG2, 59,023 for Grades 1-4, 70,827 for Grades 5-8, 75,550 for Grades 9-10 and 79,488 for Grades 11-12. The fee is split across three terms, with the first payment larger than the others (for instance 20,965 dirhams in Pre-KG against 15,725 in the second and third). The application fee of 525 dirhams is refundable if the school does not offer a place, non-refundable if a place is offered and declined, and not deductible from the fee if the child joins. The registration deposit is 10 per cent of the total tuition, non-refundable and deductible from the fee; for continuing pupils the re-registration deposit is 5 per cent. English language learning support is charged separately. The school states plainly what the fee buys: the full IB continuum, the centre of excellence in aviation, aeronautics and space, a STEAM centre and specialist learning in robotics, AI and drones.
Admissions Admission runs in several steps: an enquiry through the apply page, an acknowledgement email with the next steps, then a registration fee of 500 dirhams plus 5 per cent VAT - non-refundable, non-transferable and non-adjustable - and submission of the documents to the registrar. The documents required are passport-size photographs of the pupil and both parents, school reports for the previous two years in English (a nursery report for KG), a birth certificate in English, a colour copy of the vaccination record, passports of pupil and parents, Emirates IDs, a completed confidential recommendation form, a transfer certificate (needed at enrolment rather than at application) and a completed admission declaration. The school warns that a complete set of documents and payment of the deposit do not guarantee a place. The registration deposit of 10 per cent of the total tuition is payable after a place has been offered and the parents have accepted it.
Stages and year groups Grades Pre-KG to Grade 12 (ages 3-19). The stages run right through: kindergarten from three to six on the IB PYP alongside the EYFS framework, the PYP from six to eleven, the MYP from eleven to sixteen (all eight MYP learning areas), and from sixteen to nineteen either the IB Diploma or the IB Career-related Programme, where a career-related study is combined with three Diploma courses and the CP core. In the kindergarten the day is built around a morning meeting, small-group work, problem-solving, self-initiated exploration and outdoor play, with mathematics, English, science and social studies woven into the schedule; music, art, library and PE come as weekly specials.
Address Al Marabea Street, Dubai Hills Estate, Exit 18 Al Khail Road
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · PYP, MYP, DP, CP · authorised programmeCIS · accreditationGEMS · school is part of the networkschool 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
IBInternational Baccalaureate
A Swiss non-profit, working since 1968. Its programmes are among the most widely recognised school programmes in the world. Authorisation is granted stage by stage, so a school with the final stage does not necessarily run the younger ones; which stages this school holds is set out in the line below.
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: PYP (ages 3-12), MYP (ages 11-16), DP (ages 16-19), CP (ages 16-19, with a vocational slant). PYP is the primary stage, ages 3 to 12. It is not a set of subjects but a frame for the whole school: learning is built around lines of inquiry, and there are no exams at the end. MYP is the middle stage, ages 11 to 16. There are no exams here either; at the end an optional electronic assessment of pupils' work is possible. DP is the final stage, ages 16 to 19: six subjects plus a compulsory core of theory of knowledge, an extended essay and CAS. The diploma is accepted by universities all over the world, and in a number of countries it counts for admission on the same footing as the local leaving certificate. CP is the final stage with a vocational slant, ages 16 to 19: some of the DP subjects plus an applied qualification. It is meant for those heading into a trade or an applied degree rather than an academic one.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →CISCouncil of International Schools
It accredits international schools and is a paying association at the same time. It examines governance and ownership, the curriculum, teaching, student wellbeing, staff and premises; a team of volunteers from other CIS accredited schools visits the school. Membership and accreditation are different things here, and schools confuse them more often than anything else.
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 →GEMSschool network
GEMS Education is a private school group that describes itself on its own site as one of the oldest and largest K-12 (to Grade 12 / Year 13) private education providers in the world. The site dates its start to 1959 («Our story began in 1959«, «65+ Years of Legacy«), while another page on the same site says «over 60 Years of Legacy«. School counts on the site disagree: the homepage says both «52 schools across the UAE, Qatar and Egypt« and «Choose from our list of over 47 schools«, while the Our Company page says GEMS has schools «in the Middle East, North Africa, Asia, Europe and North America«. Students: «200,000 students from over 176 countries« (Our Company) and «over 200,000« (homepage). On ownership the site is explicit: «GEMS Education own, operate and manage schools globally« — it both owns and manages, but does not say which schools fall into which category.
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.
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 hall
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Art studio · Playground · Makerspace
Campus: The campus was built around the programme: an early childhood library and a main library, art rooms and studios, a senior hub, a design and technology lab - which the school calls one of the most advanced resistant materials labs in Dubai - a food technology lab, a Space Lab for astronomy and astrophysics, a robotics lab, a PYP innovation hub, a Flight Centre of Excellence, science laboratories, a black box theatre, a dance studio, fully equipped music classrooms, a cafeteria, a parent café, a medical centre, an outdoor amphitheatre, a swimming pool, an indoor sports hall, a playground and outdoor learning spaces.
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 policy
✓Staff training
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
The school's safeguarding policy is aligned with UAE Federal Law No. 3 of 2016 (Wadeema's Law) and international best practice. The safeguarding team is led by a designated safeguarding lead - Ms Hannah Kelly, Vice Principal for Children's Services - with five named deputies. All staff are trained to recognise and report concerns through the GEMS safeguarding referral system, and the school is supported by the GEMS central safeguarding team through training, case management and community engagement. The school publishes emergency numbers directly - the police on 999 and the Ministry of Interior hotline on 116111 - and posts its safeguarding policy on its policies page. There is a medical centre on campus.
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%)95 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%)90 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data90 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