Dubai, UAE · PrivateStar International School, Al Twar is a British school in the Al Twar district of Dubai, part of the International Schools Partnership, and it has two sites: the early years and primary school in Al Twar 2, the secondary and post-16 in Al Twar 4. It takes children from three to eighteen: EYFS 3-5, primary 5-11, secondary 11-16 leading to GCSE, and after sixteen A Levels or BTEC. The school calls its curriculum an enhanced British one, with STEAM laid over the National Curriculum for England. It runs more than sixty co-curricular activities, and that is its strength: Arabic reading and writing, arts and crafts, board games, creative writing, drawing, dance, debating, gardening, gymnastics, phonics, science experiments and a French club, alongside basketball, football, netball and swimming - plus pupil roles: head boy and head girl and their deputies, house captains, sports leaders, subject ambassadors and sustainability and wellbeing ambassadors. On top of this the school plugs into the ISP international programmes: Artists, Changemakers, Chess Masters, Cultural Exchange, Scientists, Filmmakers, Virtual Exchange and Model United Nations. There are four houses, and points are earned for sport, academics, creativity and living the school's values. The primary site has a sound-proofed music room with recording equipment, outdoor play areas, a STEAM room, a multipurpose hall, a library and a separate inclusion room for pupils who need extra support. The school describes its security concretely: staff-only access doors, ID checks for every visitor, and regular fire and lockdown drills. The bus covers several districts of Dubai, and the Green Line metro stations Al Nahda and Al Qusais are nearby.
Key facts
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
BSO · accreditationPearson · A-Level · authorised programmeBSME · part of the associationInternational Schools Partnership · school is part of the networkWhat 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 →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 this status would mean. 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 school is not in the organisation's register: the status comes from the school's own words. At this school: A-Level (ages 16-18). 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 →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 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.
A group of private international schools, founded in 2013 by five leaders from international education. The numbers diverge: the home page gives 121 schools in 26 countries and "132,000+" pupils, the "About us" page - 106 schools in 25 countries, the "Who and where we are" page - 121 schools in more than 26 markets and 118,000 pupils. The site writes that schools keep their own character, brand and curriculum when they join ISP, but does not say whether ISP buys the schools, manages them under contract or brings them together by membership.
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.