Nord Anglia International School Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi, UAE · PrivateNord Anglia International School Abu Dhabi stands on Al Reem Island - a new building put up specially for the school - and takes children from the age of three to the thirteenth year of schooling. A domain of its own the school does not have: its pages live as a section of the Nord Anglia network's site. The class is set strictly by age on 31 August: three-year-olds go into FS1, four-year-olds into FS2 and so on, a year per class, up to seventeen in the thirteenth year. The fee is in round figures and rises in blocks from 65 to 95 thousand dirhams. Numbers of pupils, examination results and a list of campus facilities are not on the pages.
Key facts
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
BSO · accreditationCambridge · authorised programmeBSME · part of the associationNord Anglia Education · 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 →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. Which stages - from the early years programme for three-year-olds up to A-Level - this school is approved for is not stated here.
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 →A group of international schools of the full cycle, day and boarding. The numbers on its site diverge: the "About Nord Anglia" page speaks of 89 schools in 37 countries, the "Our schools" and "Our global network" pages - of 90, the "All schools" page - of "90+"; pupils are more than 100,000 everywhere. Whether the group owns the schools, manages them under contract or gives its methodology under licence is not said on its pages. The year of foundation and the country of registration are not named 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.