← Back to homeGlendale International School, Dubai
Dubai, UAE · Private
Illustration · Dubai
Glendale International School is a British school in the Umm Al Hurair district of Dubai, in Oud Metha next to the American Hospital. It belongs to the Singaporean non-profit Global Schools Foundation, with 35 campuses and pupils of more than seventy nationalities, and under the Glendale name the group has three more schools in Hyderabad. The curriculum is the National Curriculum for England with the full set of subjects: English, mathematics, science, art and design, computing, technology, geography, history, languages, music and physical education; alongside them run Arabic, Islamic studies and social studies. The school is young and growing: the 2026-27 fee schedule runs from Foundation Stage 1 to Year 9, and Year 9 is marked in the table as opening in that very year - before it the top stage was Year 8. What sets it apart is the 'Leader in Me' leadership programme, built on Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and the wellbeing hours built into the timetable: for the youngest they run every morning from 7:30 to 8:20. The day is long and starts early: the gates open at 7:30, lessons begin at 8:30 for the Foundation Stage and Years 1 to 6 and at 7:40 for Years 7 to 9, ending at 12:45 for the youngest and 14:50 for the rest, and on Fridays everyone leaves at 11:30. Extracurricular activities are split by stage: for the youngest, art and craft, sport, music and dance built into the school day; for the older ones, robotics, design and technology, music and dance, gymnastics, art, football and cricket, with outside providers of further activities working on campus as well. The main thing a parent needs to know: the school still ends at Year 9, so it has no leaving examinations yet, and Glendale's discount on fees is large - twenty per cent off the approved amount across all year groups, with the approved price, the discounted price and the five-year saving printed next to every stage.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $11 436–15 684 a year
42 000–57 600 AED
Languages of instruction
English
Registration fee
≈ $136
500 AED
About the fees The annual fee in the table approved by Dubai's Knowledge and Human Development Authority for 2026-27: Foundation Stage 1 and 2 at 42,000 dirhams each, Year 1 46,800, Years 2 and 3 at 48,000 each, Years 4 and 5 at 51,600 each, Years 6 and 7 at 55,200 each and Years 8 and 9 at 57,600 each. Beside them the school publishes a discounted column - from 33,600 dirhams in Foundation Stage to 46,080 in Years 8 and 9, that is twenty per cent - and works out the saving over five years. On top of the fee: an application fee of 500 dirhams, non-refundable and not adjustable, and a registration deposit of 1,500 dirhams, non-refundable but deductible from tuition.
Admissions The application goes through the website, and there is a campus tour booking and an enquiry form. The 500-dirham application fee is payable on submission of the form and is non-refundable; the 1,500-dirham registration deposit is non-refundable but is deducted from tuition. The school names no entry age and no entrance tests on the pages we read.
Stages and year groups Grades FS1 from age 3 - Year 9. There are three stages: Foundation Stage 1 and 2, primary Years 1 to 6 and secondary Years 7 to 9; Year 9 is marked in the fee table as opening in 2026-27. The gates open at 7:30, lessons run for Foundation Stage and Years 1-6 from 8:30 until 12:45 and 14:50 respectively and for Years 7-9 from 7:40 until 14:50; on Fridays all grades finish at 11:30. The youngest have wellbeing time every morning.
Address Umm Al Hurair, Oud Metha (next to American Hospital)
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
MSA · accreditationBSO · accreditationBSME · part of the associationOn its own site the school names no accreditation at all: it speaks only of membership of the Global Schools Foundation, a Singaporean non-profit with 35 campuses, and of fees approved by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority of Dubai. A network gives no threshold in the rating. The school nevertheless stands in two registers at once - the Middle States Association and British Schools Overseas - and both entries in the card are taken from register listings rather than from the school's own words.
school 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
MSAMiddle States Association of Colleges and Schools
One of the oldest American accreditations, working since 1887 in more than a hundred countries and linked to the Office of Overseas Schools of the US State Department. It judges the school as an institution across twelve areas, including finances, governance, premises and student support.
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 →BSOBritish government inspection of schools overseas
A scheme of the UK Department for Education: a school abroad is inspected against the standards for independent schools in England, including safeguarding and the standards for boarding. The inspections are done by independent inspectorates approved by the department, and the inspectorates themselves are monitored annually by Ofsted. The reports are published in full on the government website.
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 →BSMEAssociation of British schools in the Middle East
One hundred and eighty schools in ten countries - Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE; more than half of the membership is in the UAE. It runs no inspections of its own at all. Instead it requires somebody else's accreditation, and the requirement is strict: a school not already accredited on joining must gain accreditation within two years and then maintain it. The inspectorates are EDT or ISI, which means the accreditation in question is the British government's BSO scheme. The organisation has withdrawn its former lighter routes in - one route remains.
What the badge means for this school. The school belongs to the association, and the association requires its members to hold a real accreditation: for Gulf schools that is almost always BSO. What to look at is that accreditation rather than this badge. Nor is the badge empty - there is no inspection of its own behind it, but a school is not admitted to the association without somebody else's accreditation. The entry is confirmed in the organisation's open directory.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →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
The school does not describe its premises on its website.
Teaching staff
The school publishes neither the number of its teachers nor their qualifications.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
The school says nothing on its website about security, medical care or pupil support.
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%)60 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 data55 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)90 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data55 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