Dubai, UAE · PrivateHorizon International School stands on Street 9A off Al Wasl Road in Umm Al Sheif and takes children from three to eighteen; like the nearby Horizon English School, it is part of the Cognita group. The stages run straight through: early years, primary, secondary and Post-16, with GCSE and A-level as the exit examinations. After-school provision splits in two: clubs run by the school's own staff and an after-school club through the partner Star Club; LAMDA (speech and drama) and the ENRICH ME booking platform run separately. For sport the school names basketball, gymnastics and netball. It does not state pupil numbers or a year of foundation on its pages.
Key facts
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
BSO · accreditationBSME · part of the associationCognita · school is part of the networkWhat stands behind each entry
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 →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 The organisation has withdrawn its former lighter routes in - one route remains.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 →Programmes of the University of Cambridge: the school teaches to Cambridge syllabuses and enters its pupils for exams that Cambridge marks itself. A-Level is the senior years, and their results are what British and many other universities admit on.
What this means for this school. The papers are marked by Cambridge, not by the school, so a leaver's grade does not depend on how strict their own teachers are with them. To enter pupils for these exams a school has to be registered as a Cambridge exam centre; registration as a centre is permission to run exams rather than accreditation of the school, and it says nothing about the quality of teaching. IGCSE is taken at around Year 10 or 11 and A-Level in the final years, and it is the A-Level results that carry a pupil into British and many other universities.
A group of schools launched in 2004; the legal entity in the footer of the site is Cognita Holdings Limited. The site names 90 schools in 21 countries, 14 curricula and more than 22,000 staff, and the numbers agree on all the pages read. The section on a school joining the group speaks of working with the owners of schools and of integrating the school, but does not say outright whether the school passes into ownership; the word "franchise" does not appear on the site. The majority owner of Cognita itself is named as Jacobs Holding AG.
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.