International Community School, Al Manhal
Abu Dhabi, UAE · PrivateThe International Community School on the Al Manhal campus is the fourth branch of the Abu Dhabi ICS network, and it is identified by its reception address: br4reception, that is branch 4, exactly as the entry stands in the British inspection registry. It teaches the National Curriculum of England, from the EYFS early years with its seven areas of learning up to the secondary school. The school describes its campus through its equipment: science and IT labs with interactive boards, multi-purpose rooms for lessons that use movement and practical analysis, and outdoors football pitches, basketball courts and running tracks. It shows no fee figures on its site, and no pupil numbers or year of foundation either.
Key facts
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
BSO · accreditationCognia · accreditationBSME · part of the associationInternational Community Schools · 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 →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 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 →International Community Schools (ICS) is a school group in Abu Dhabi. The site dates its start to 1990, when it opened as Al Ibrahimiyah School with 130 students, and says it now has «over 6000 academic minds«. It lists six campuses: ICS Mushrif, ICS Al Danah, ICS Al Falah City, ICS Khalifa City, ICS Al Manhal, ICS Al Maharat — some American, some British curriculum, covering Pre-KG/FS1 to Grade 12/Year 13. The group also has a separate nurseries site (nurseries.icschool-uae.com). The site names Mohamed Al-Shamma as Managing Director & CEO. The homepage student counter renders as «0+«, i.e. the figure does not load there.
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.