International Community Schools - Mushrif Campus
Abu Dhabi, UAE · est. 1990 · PrivateICS Mushrif is the first school of the International Community Schools group in Abu Dhabi: founded in 1990 as the Ibrahimya School, it has since grown into six campuses. It teaches the American programme from KG1 to grade 12 against the California Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards, with Arabic, Islamic studies, social studies and moral education following the UAE Ministry of Education programme. At the senior stage the school offers two exits at once, AP courses and the IB diploma, which is unusual for an American school in the emirate. The campus is a large one: separate junior and senior libraries, two IT labs, science laboratories, an auditorium, an exam hall, a canteen, a clinic, a sports hall, a grass field, courts, art and music rooms, a prayer room and school buses. The main thing a parent needs to know about the fee: books and uniform are billed separately in the school's own table, and a two-way bus costs a further 5,000 dirhams a year.
Key facts
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cognia · accreditationIB · DP · authorised programmeCollege Board · authorised programmeInternational Community Schools · school is part of the networkWhat stands behind each entry
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 →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: DP (ages 16-19). 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.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →An American organisation that allows a school to put the letters AP on a pupil's transcript. The permission is granted course by course and tied to a particular teacher, it has to be renewed every year, and College Board reads the course syllabus before granting it.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run advanced AP courses - not the school as a whole, but one by one: by subject and by teacher. Governance, safeguarding and the primary years are not part of that check. Which subjects are actually approved is visible in the ledger. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. Authorisation here runs a year at a time: the register lists the school for the 2025-2026 school year.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Advanced Placement: American advanced courses for the senior years. The exam for a course is set and marked by the College Board, not by the school. A good result is counted by American universities as a first-year course already passed, which saves a student time and money.
What this means for this school. A school does not get to call a course AP automatically: the College Board reads the course syllabus and approves it separately for every subject and every teacher, and the permission has to be renewed each year. Every approved school in the world is listed in the open AP Course Ledger, and this school's entry there stands as a line in the accreditation block above. How many courses a school is approved for, and in which subjects, the ledger does not show in its general listing. AP has no leaving certificate of its own: it sits on top of the school's main programme rather than being a separate system.
The American school programme, with the High School Diploma at the end. It usually comes together with AP courses, which the College Board stands behind, and with an American accreditation - MSA, NEASC or Cognia.
What this means for this school. The diploma is written out by the school itself: the American programme has no common leaving exam, and the content of the senior years is set by the school. Outside checking therefore rests on two things here - the accreditation of the school, and the AP exams if the school runs them.
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.