← Back to homeSharjah American International School - Dubai
Dubai, UAE · est. 2005 · Private
Illustration · Dubai
The Dubai campus of Sharjah American International School opened in 2005 as an American curriculum school from KG-1 to grade 12, starting with sixty pupils. It is part of the SAIS group, with campuses in Sharjah (the first, from 1997), Abu Dhabi and Umm Al Quwain, and the group is owned by a private individual. The school teaches the American curriculum within a framework of traditional Islamic values. Assessment is not only internal: the school runs MAP, CAT4, PSAT, SAT, the NGRT reading test and the Arabic IBT from ACER in order to measure its pupils against international benchmarks. Like every private school in Dubai the campus goes through an annual inspection by the Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau within the KHDA, and the parent contract is approved by the KHDA each year. It has school transport of its own, with seating by route and a daily record of who travels.
Key facts
Programmes
American programme
Languages of instruction
English
Admissions The school considers applications without regard to race, colour, sex, disability, religion or national origin, and says plainly that first priority in admission goes to students of determination who already have siblings at the school. Admission follows KHDA rules: after an interview the registration department takes the family through documents, transport, books, uniform and fees, and every parent signs a contract approved by the KHDA. The school warns separately that a student with a consistently poor behaviour record, after significant support, may be refused admission for the following school year - that too is a KHDA rule.
Stages and year groups Grades KG-1 - grade 12
Address Al Warqa 1
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
NEASC · accreditationSAIS · school is part of the networkschool 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
NEASCNew England Association of Schools and Colleges
An American accreditation working since 1885. For international schools it uses an approach where the visitors look first at live lessons rather than at folders of paperwork: the team works in the school for about a week. It is the only one here whose public directory honestly separates accredited schools from candidates.
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 →American programme
The American school programme, with the High School Diploma at the end. It usually comes together with AP courses, which the College Board stands behind, and with an American accreditation - MSA, NEASC or Cognia.
What this means for this school. The diploma is written out by the school itself: the American programme has no common leaving exam, and the content of the senior years is set by the school. Outside checking therefore rests on two things here - the accreditation of the school, and the AP exams if the school runs them.
SAISschool network
SAIS is a group of American-curriculum schools in the UAE which, on the pages of its own campuses, calls itself «the SAIS group of schools» and «The SAIS educational network». The group has no separate site: what follows is taken from the Dubai campus pages About and Contact, which also carry the addresses of the others - saissharjah.com, saisabudhabi.com, saisuaq.com. The geography is stated plainly: «The SAIS educational network spans four Emirates across the UAE: Sharjah, Dubai, Umm Al-Quwain, and Abu Dhabi». The count starts with the Sharjah campus: «The SAIS journey began with the establishment of our flagship Sharjah campus in 1997»; the Dubai campus «opened in 2005» and began «with 60 students and a dedicated core faculty». Two private individuals are named as founders and heads: the group is «founded and led by Dr. Aysha Sayyar and Dr. Nawaf Fawaz», who also «serve as the Governing Board for all SAIS institutions» - the surname is spelled two ways on one page, «Sayyar» and «AlSayyar». No group-wide student number is given, and ownership is not separated from management: the words «own», «operate» and «manage» do not appear.
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.
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 poolnot stated on the website
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
✓Laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
·Cateringnot stated on the website
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: The school names a library, laboratories, an ICT network and space for extracurricular activities, as well as its own transport with safe-transport protocols: seating to a route plan, boarding from the rear forward, a daily record of riders and regular cleaning of the buses. It has no detailed list of campus rooms: the campus section is taken up with a description of the community and the Hero Points reward system.
Teaching staff
The school publishes neither the number of its teachers nor their qualifications.
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%)72 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 data55 Value for money (6%) scored at the median65 "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 7 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