← Back to homeMerryland International School
Abu Dhabi, UAE · Private
Illustration · Abu Dhabi
Merryland International School stands in Mussafah, in Sector 9 of Mohamed Bin Zayed City, and runs the Cambridge curriculum in full: Early Years in the kindergarten, then Primary, Secondary, IGCSE and Advanced - AS and A level. It is a coeducational school with mixed classes, and the stages run from Foundation Stage to Year 13. Cambridge progression tests are sat at the end of every stage, the external Checkpoint in the seventh and ninth years, IGCSE in the eleventh, AS in the twelfth and A level in the thirteenth. The school speaks loudly of itself: it calls itself the only Cambridge brand ambassador in the Middle East. What a parent needs to know about its arrangements: transport is not the school's - the routes are run by an outside carrier, Zenith, and parents sign the contract with them, not with the school; uniform is sold by another supplier, NOVEL HOUSE; and Cambridge examination fees fall on parents. And separately: parents are not allowed onto the school grounds - entry is restricted to staff and students.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $7 134–12 694 a year
26 200–46 620 AED
Programmes
Cambridge · Early Years, Primary, Lower Secondary, IGCSE, A-Level
About the fees Fees for 2026-2027, approved by ADEK, as an annual total (AED): FS2/KG1 - 26,200, Year 1/KG2 - 27,020, Years 2 and 3 - 30,640, Year 4 - 31,380, Year 5 - 31,480, Years 6 and 7 - 33,620, Years 8 and 9 - 37,580, Year 10 - 39,410, Year 11 - 39,980, Year 12 - 45,210, Year 13 - 46,620. The first term is paid in cash together with two post-dated cheques for 1 December and 1 March. Returning students pay a re-registration fee of about 5 per cent of the tuition, which is set against fees. On top of the fee: Ministry of Education books from 60 to 310 AED depending on grade and on the language and religious combination; uniform from the supplier NOVEL HOUSE; transport from the carrier Zenith, with routes only where a single trip takes under an hour; and Cambridge examination fees from kindergarten to grade 12 on the parents. A bounced cheque costs 500 AED.
Stages and year groups Grades FS2/KG1 - Year 13/Grade 12. The curriculum is divided into five stages: Cambridge Early Years in the kindergarten, Cambridge Primary, Cambridge Secondary, Cambridge IGCSE and Cambridge Advanced. Cambridge progression tests are sat at the end of every stage; the external Checkpoint in Year 7 and Year 9, IGCSE in Year 11, AS in Year 12 and A level in Year 13. Classes are mixed for boys and girls at every stage.
Address Plot 13, Musaffah Sector 9, MBZ City
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · Early Years, Primary, Lower Secondary, IGCSE, A-Level · authorised programmeschool 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
CambridgeCambridge International Education
Part of the University of Cambridge. It allows a school to teach the Cambridge programmes and to enter pupils for the exams. There are four stages and they are authorised separately: primary, lower secondary, IGCSE and A Level. If the stages are known they are named in the line below; if that line is missing, the school does not publish them, and the Cambridge registry does not show stages either - it gives only the name of the centre, the country and whether private candidates are accepted. Cambridge calls what it does registration rather than accreditation, and the network holds about ten thousand schools.
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: Early Years (ages 3-6), Primary (ages 5-11), Lower Secondary (ages 11-14), IGCSE (ages 14-16), A-Level (ages 16-18). Early Years is the nursery stage, ages 3 to 6. There are no exams at the end: the stage describes what the youngest children are taught and how, and it follows the Cambridge frame rather than a national nursery programme. Primary is the primary stage, ages 5 to 11: English, mathematics and science to Cambridge syllabuses. At the end of the stage a school may run the optional Checkpoint test, which is marked in Cambridge. Lower Secondary is the middle stage, ages 11 to 14, with the same optional Checkpoint test at the end. IGCSE means exams at around Year 10 or 11, the British counterpart of a lower secondary leaving certificate. A-Level is the senior years, and their results are what British and many other universities admit on.
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%)95 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%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data55 "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