← Back to homeRoyal Grammar School Guildford Dubai
Dubai, UAE · est. 2021 · Private
Illustration · Dubai
Royal Grammar School Guildford Dubai is the Dubai sister of the English Royal Grammar School Guildford, which dates from 1509, and it opened in September 2021 in the Tilal Al Ghaf community. The campus was built large from the start: 40,000 square metres for 2,100 pupils. It takes children from three to eighteen, but the stages are still being built up: at present they run from FS1 to Year 10, with Year 11 opening in September 2026. The curriculum is British: Early Years 3-5, Key Stage 1 5-7, Key Stage 2 7-11, then the middle school, GCSE in Years 10 and 11 and A Levels in the Sixth Form - usually three subjects plus the Extended Project Qualification. Arabic is a core subject at every stage, taught by specialist teachers, and in the Early Years it is taught informally; Islamic Studies is for Muslim pupils. On top of this the school runs its own Riyada curriculum: UAE Social Studies, Moral Education, wellbeing and leadership development. Sport is built on a «sport for all» ethos so that a pupil of any ability can take part; there is a 25-metre indoor pool and a separate learner pool, sports halls and outdoor pitches. In music there is a choir, instrumental groups, music clubs and individual lessons with visiting specialists. Classes visit the library weekly and there are pupil librarians. Computing is a subject in its own right from Key Stage 1. The school's judgements are high from both sides: Outstanding under the British BSO scheme - the school says it was the first in Dubai to achieve this at its first inspection - and Very Good from the Dubai education authority for 2023/2024.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $21 445–32 597 a year
78 758–119 713 AED
Programmes
Cambridge · A-Level
Languages of instruction
English
Registration fee
≈ $143
525 AED
About the fees The annual fee by stage: FS1 is 78,758 dirhams, FS2 is 84,009, Year 1 to Year 4 are 95,560, Year 5 and Year 6 are 101,861, Year 7 and Year 8 are 101,861, Year 9 is 113,412 and Year 10 to Year 13 are 119,713. On top of the fee: an application charge of 525 dirhams with VAT, which is not credited against the fee; and a deposit on enrolment of 10 per cent of the fee for new pupils and 5 per cent for continuing ones, and neither of the two is refunded except in exceptional cases. It is paid in three parts: 40 per cent in August, 30 in December and 30 in March. School meals, transport and study trips are not included in the fee.
Admissions Admission runs in four steps: an enquiry and a conversation with the admissions team, a visit to the school and a meeting with its leadership, an application through the online form, and an assessment, which the school carries out not to select but to understand a child's learning needs. The year group is set by year of birth: in 2026-2027 children born in 2024 enter FS1, those born in 2023 FS2, 2022 Year 1, 2021 Year 2, 2020 Year 3, and those born between 2019 and 2010 Years 4 to 13. Children are taken from the age of three, once they are toilet trained. The school publishes no list of required documents and no English-language conditions.
Stages and year groups Grades FS1 (age 3) - Year 10; Year 11 opens in September 2026. The stages are: Early Years 3-5, Key Stage 1 5-7, Key Stage 2 7-11, the middle school, GCSE in Years 10 and 11, and the Sixth Form with A Levels and the EPQ. At present the school reaches Year 10, with Year 11 opening in September 2026. The school day: drop-off is between 7:30 and 7:50 for every stage; pick-up from Monday to Thursday is 14:00-14:05 for FS1 and FS2, 14:50-15:00 for Years 1 and 2 and 15:30-15:40 for Years 3 to 10. Friday is a short day: FS and Year 1 finish at 11:00, Years 2 to 6 at 11:15 and Years 7 to 10 at 11:30.
Address D 61 - Tilal Al Ghaf
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 →CambridgeA-Level
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.
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 from the school's official website
✓Swimming pool
✓Sports hall
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
·Cateringnot stated on the website
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: The campus in Tilal Al Ghaf covers 40,000 square metres and is built for 2,100 pupils. There is a 25-metre indoor pool and a separate learner pool, sports halls, an indoor gym and extensive outdoor sports facilities. The library is visited weekly by classes and has pupil librarians. The school gives its summer concerts at Dubai Opera and works with ISD Dubai Sports City on sport.
Clubs and activities (6): Football · Swimming · Choir · Instrumental ensembles · Music clubs · Individual music lessons
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%)82 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 data75 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data76 "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