Abu Dhabi, UAE · est. 2013 · PrivateRepton School Abu Dhabi is a British school on Al Reem Island, founded in 2013 by Khaled Al Mheiri on the model of Repton in England, which dates from 1557. The link with Britain is more than words: the campuses are named after Repton alumni - Rose after Sir Christopher Rose and Fry after C. B. Fry - and the house system was carried over from there. There are two campuses, both on Reem Island: Rose is the Foundation School, from nursery to Year 1, and Fry the Junior and Senior School, Years 2 to 13. More than 85 nationalities are represented. The curriculum is British, from three to eighteen: Early Years 3-5, Key Stage 1 5-7, Key Stage 2 7-11, Years 7 to 9 with an emphasis on the creative and expressive arts, Years 10 and 11 for GCSE, and after sixteen A Levels, BTEC or a combination of both plus the Extended Project Qualification. Pupils usually take nine subjects at GCSE, six of them compulsory - mathematics, English language, English literature, biology, chemistry and physics - and three optional. Arabic runs through every stage and is compulsory at GCSE for native speakers; Islamic Studies is compulsory for Muslim pupils. The school's judgements are the highest from both sides: Outstanding from the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge and Outstanding under the British BSO scheme. There are sports academies and a house system that includes staff as well as pupils.
Key facts
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
BSO · accreditationBSME · part of the associationWhat 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 →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 →Programmes of the University of Cambridge: the school teaches to Cambridge syllabuses and enters its pupils for exams that Cambridge marks itself. A-Level is the senior years, and their results are what British and many other universities admit on.
What this means for this school. The papers are marked by Cambridge, not by the school, so a leaver's grade does not depend on how strict their own teachers are with them. To enter pupils for these exams a school has to be registered as a Cambridge exam centre; registration as a centre is permission to run exams rather than accreditation of the school, and it says nothing about the quality of teaching. IGCSE is taken at around Year 10 or 11 and A-Level in the final years, and it is the A-Level results that carry a pupil into British and many other universities.
A British vocational qualification from Pearson: not an academic course with an exam at the end, but a programme of practical assignments in a particular trade, from engineering and business to art and sport.
What this means for this school. Teaching and assessment work differently from A-level: instead of written exams there is a run of practical assignments marked by the school, while Pearson checks the school itself and samples the work. British universities do accept BTEC, but not all of them and not for every course: level 3 carries the same UCAS points as A-level, and that is what a family aiming at a particular university should look at. For a child who needs the classic academic route, BTEC is not a replacement for A-level but a different path.