Dubai, UAE · PrivateThe Oxford School stands on Beirut Street in the Muhaisnah 4 area of the Al Qusais Industrial Area in Dubai and belongs to the LEAMS Education group, which has worked in the region for more than forty years with affordability as its selling point. The school takes children from the Foundation Stage to Year 13 and teaches the British curriculum: Key Stages 1 to 5, with option booklets for IGCSE and for the post-16 programmes. Among its accreditations it names BSME and the BTEC qualifications. The main thing a parent should know: this is one of the cheapest British schools in Dubai, from 11,856 to 20,128 dirhams a year, and within that price the school still promises subject laboratories, technology-enabled classrooms and enrichment programmes.
Key facts
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · IGCSE, A-Level · authorised programmeBSME · part of the associationLEAMS Education · 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 →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.
LEAMS Education is a Dubai school group; the site calls it «a premier group that administers schools across Dubai« and says it was «founded in the UAE more than 4 decades ago«. It dates its history to 1981 and the opening of The Apple Nursery in Karama, Dubai, and dates the corporate entity LEAMS Education Management Services to 2013 — «a full-fledged team of experienced professionals to centralise school management«. Five schools are listed, all in Dubai: Apple International School (Primary Campus, Al Qusais 1), Apple International School (Secondary Campus, Al Qusais 2), The Oxford School (Muhaisnah 4), The Apple International Community School (Al Karama), The Indian Academy (Muhaisnah 4). Students: «10000+ students across all our schools in the UAE«; the homepage counters render as «0 +«, i.e. the figures do not load. The site does not spell out what LEAMS stands for.
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.