← Back to homeNoya British School
Abu Dhabi, UAE · Private
Illustration · Abu Dhabi
Noya British School stands on the northern part of Yas Island, belongs to the Aldar Education network and teaches to the National Curriculum for England. The stages run right through, but not yet to the end: EYFS is FS1 and FS2, the primary school runs from Year 1 to Year 6 and the secondary school from Year 7 to Year 10, while the published fees go up to Year 13, so the school is still growing upwards. It calls its community a very mixed one - 96 nationalities. The principal is Sarah Isberg, with more than twenty-five years in education in Britain and the UAE behind her. Extra-curricular activities are run together with Infinite Sports: football, swimming, gymnastics, music, drama, robotics and coding, and the programme is reviewed every term. Learning also leaves the building: children have visited Garcia Farm, Masdar City and the Heritage Village. Support is arranged stage by stage: in the early years it is the class teacher and a learning assistant watching over a child's wellbeing, with regular wellbeing check-ins; in the primary school it is daily form time, the pastoral, inclusion and learning support teams, assemblies and small-group workshops; in the secondary school it is personalised support.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $8 713–12 798 a year
32 000–47 000 AED
About the fees The annual fee depends on the stage: FS1 and FS2 cost 32,000 dirhams, Years 1 to 6 between 32,000 and 37,000, and Years 7 to 13 between 40,000 and 47,000. Classroom materials are included. The school states plainly that fees may rise before or during the 2026/2027 academic year subject to approval by the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge. The fee does not cover books, uniform, food services, transport, examination fees or extra-curricular activities outside school hours.
Admissions The school places a child in the year group that matches their age and stage of development, and it sets out two cases separately. If a child moves from a grade system (Pre-K to Grade 12, used by the UAE federal, Canadian and American schools) into a year system (FS1 to Year 13, the British one), the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge sets the mapping: a child who completed Grade 2 in 2025-2026 moves into Year 4 in 2026-2027. A child moving from one year system to another simply moves up a year. The department requires every pupil to complete Year 13, the local equivalent of Grade 12.
Stages and year groups Grades FS1 - Year 10; fees are published up to Year 13. There are three stages: EYFS is FS1 and FS2, the primary school is Years 1 to 6 and the secondary school Years 7 to 10. Fees are published up to Year 13, so the senior stage is still being built up. The school day timetable is not on the website.
Address Yas Island, Yas North
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
BSO · accreditationBSME · part of the associationschool 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
BSOBritish government inspection of schools overseas
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 →BSMEAssociation of British schools in the Middle East
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 →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
There is no data for this section yet.
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%)60 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 data78 "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