Taryam American Private School
Sharjah, UAE · est. 2014 · PrivateTaryam American Private School (TAPS) has worked in the Al Azra district of Sharjah since 2014, under the direct supervision of the Sharjah private education authority. The school is accredited by Cognia and runs an American curriculum from Pre-KG to grade 12; on top of it the school offers Advanced Placement courses as separate subjects, at the level of a university course. It describes the programme as international paired with a strong Arabic strand, and puts the emphasis on readiness for university and for a career, writing the fast-changing local and global agenda into the course of study. An inspection by the authority in 2023 rated the school “Good”, and before that the school was recognised as a child-safe environment. Among its own figures the school gives 71 certified teachers, 1,100 students, 97 per cent going on to university and 97 per cent of parents satisfied. A separate inclusion department works with students of determination. Among its achievements the school shows third place at a mathematics olympiad, second place for an “AI irrigation system” project and first place in a team competition, and among its links, agreements with the American University of Ras Al Khaimah, the University of Dubai, RIT and OUS.
Key facts
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cognia · accreditationCollege Board · authorised programmeWhat stands behind each entry
The widest-reaching American accreditation: some forty thousand schools in over a hundred countries. It accredits both individual schools and whole school systems. It also sells a paid membership with no inspection behind it, and that membership is often passed off as accreditation.
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 →An American organisation that allows a school to put the letters AP on a pupil's transcript. The permission is granted course by course and tied to a particular teacher, it has to be renewed every year, and College Board reads the course syllabus before granting it.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run advanced AP courses - not the school as a whole, but one by one: by subject and by teacher. Governance, safeguarding and the primary years are not part of that check. Which subjects are actually approved is visible in the ledger. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. Authorisation here runs a year at a time: the register lists the school for the 2025-2026 school year.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Advanced Placement: American advanced courses for the senior years. The exam for a course is set and marked by the College Board, not by the school. A good result is counted by American universities as a first-year course already passed, which saves a student time and money.
What this means for this school. A school does not get to call a course AP automatically: the College Board reads the course syllabus and approves it separately for every subject and every teacher, and the permission has to be renewed each year. Every approved school in the world is listed in the open AP Course Ledger, and this school's entry there stands as a line in the accreditation block above. How many courses a school is approved for, and in which subjects, the ledger does not show in its general listing. AP has no leaving certificate of its own: it sits on top of the school's main programme rather than being a separate system.
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.