Dubai, UAE · est. 2007 · PrivateRepton School Dubai opened in 2007 in Nad Al Sheba 3 and traces its line to Repton School in Derbyshire, England, founded in 1557, a year before Elizabeth I came to the throne; the founder of the Dubai school, Khaled Al Mheiri, built it on the British Repton model, and it calls itself the first UK independent school in the Middle East. It takes pupils from three to eighteen, from more than eighty nationalities, and there are three routes at the end: IGCSE, A Levels and the IB Diploma Programme, where a pupil takes six subjects - three at Higher and three at Standard Level - plus the core of Theory of Knowledge, the Extended Essay and CAS. What most sets the school apart is boarding: it is open to Years 7 to 13, full from Sunday to Saturday or weekly from Sunday to Thursday, boarders have their own supervised prep time with specialist teachers, and they live, in the school's words, on the largest campus in the Middle East. The campus is being rebuilt entirely: the Repton Sports Village will hold two full-sized rugby and football fields, a junior pitch, a 200-metre running track and a 100-metre sprint track, a large multi-sport astroturf area with a central cricket square and integrated nets, and shaded courts for netball, padel and pickleball, while the two indoor basketball courts are being fully refurbished and the swimming pools substantially upgraded. At the centre of the creative side stands the Repton Performing Arts Centre. The extracurricular programme is about leaving the campus: climbing in the French Alps, community service in the jungles of Thailand, cricket. The school's care and support have been rated Outstanding in all areas by the KHDA for ten years running, it follows the Cognita Be Well Charter, and it runs its own Dovecote Nursery.
Key facts
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · IGCSE, A-Level · authorised programmePearson · authorised programmeIB · DP · authorised programmeBSME · part of the associationCognita · school is part of the networkWhat stands behind each entry
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: IGCSE (ages 14-16), A-Level (ages 16-18). 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 →It gives a school approved centre status: that means Pearson exams can be sat in the school itself. What is checked is the premises, the equipment, the secure storage of papers and the presence of trained invigilators.
What the badge means for this school. The school can run Pearson exams on its own premises. The status says nothing about teaching, about results or about the school itself: any school able to run an exam securely holds it. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. Which Pearson qualifications this school is approved for is not stated here.
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 →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 schools launched in 2004; the legal entity in the footer of the site is Cognita Holdings Limited. The site names 90 schools in 21 countries, 14 curricula and more than 22,000 staff, and the numbers agree on all the pages read. The section on a school joining the group speaks of working with the owners of schools and of integrating the school, but does not say outright whether the school passes into ownership; the word "franchise" does not appear on the site. The majority owner of Cognita itself is named as Jacobs Holding AG.
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.