Dubai, UAE · PrivateGEMS Wellington International School stands in Al Sufouh on Sheikh Zayed Road by Interchange 4 - the school the Pearson registry still calls by its old name, The Wellington School Dubai. Its stages run from the Foundation Stage to Year 13: Lower School is Years 1 to 4, Middle School Years 5 to 8, Upper School Years 9 to 11, and the whole leaving stage belongs to the International Baccalaureate: the IB Diploma and the Career-related Programme, with separate pages on the diploma core, subject choice and where leavers go. Among its facilities the school is proudest of its 472-seat theatre and an observatory for looking at the stars, and it calls its classrooms smart - Wi-Fi, interactive whiteboards, multimedia projectors. The annual fee runs from 47,527 dirhams in FS1 to 103,399 in the final years, which makes it one of the most expensive schools in this batch.
Key facts
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Pearson · authorised programmeGEMS · school is part of the networkWhat stands behind each entry
It gives a school approved centre status: that means Pearson exams can be sat in the school itself. What is checked is the premises, the equipment, the secure storage of papers and the presence of trained invigilators.
What the badge means for this school. The school can run Pearson exams on its own premises. The status says nothing about teaching, about results or about the school itself: any school able to run an exam securely holds it. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. Which Pearson qualifications this school is approved for is not stated here.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →The International Baccalaureate: programmes of a Swiss organisation, among the most widely recognised school programmes in the world. Each stage is authorised separately, so a school may hold one of them, two, or all four. 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.
What this means for this school. Authorisation for each stage is granted by the organisation itself after an on-site visit, and a school has to go through it again every few years. Every authorised school in the world stands in the open register at ibo.org, where the status can be checked independently. The IB diploma is awarded by the organisation rather than by the school, and the papers are marked by external examiners, so a leaver's grade does not depend on how strict their own school is with them.
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.