← Back to homeUptown International School
Dubai, UAE · est. 2005 · Private
Illustration · Dubai
The school has worked in Mirdif since 2005, has taken in more than 1500 pupils of over 80 nationalities and runs the whole International Baccalaureate line - primary, middle, diploma and career-related. It takes children very early: the school's home page promises admission from 45 days, and the fee schedule bears it out - it has a nursery with a flexible choice of two or three days a week and a toddler group of three-year-olds, and beyond that come the kindergarten and the school up to the twelfth grade; on the page about the school the same line is described as from three to eighteen years old. The Dubai education authority inspection for 2023-2024 gave the school a Very Good rating, and the school says separately that in Mirdif it is the only baccalaureate school with such a rating. The premises are set out in detail: an indoor pool of 25 metres and eight lanes, a separate pool for the youngest, a hall with a sprung wooden floor, two full-size football pitches, covered basketball courts, tennis courts, a 120-metre track, sectors for the long jump and the javelin, two libraries, a forest garden and a water-play area for the youngest, and a canteen from which nuts have been removed entirely. Graduates go widely: Oxford, Imperial College, King's College, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Cornell, Toronto, McGill, the National University of Singapore, Leiden, Groningen, Melbourne and universities of the Emirates. The fee depends on the stage and runs from 31,145 dirhams in the nursery to 78,420 in the eleventh and twelfth grades, in three instalments, and textbooks are included - they are issued on loan. The day is long only for the oldest: the youngest finish at 14:00, the primary school at 14:45, the middle and senior school at 15:00, and on Friday everyone leaves before noon. What is worth knowing in advance: its own examination results the school does not publish at all, and neither the number of teachers nor a child protection policy is on its pages either - the school policies page does not open.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $8 481–21 353 a year
31 145–78 420 AED
Programmes
IB · MYP, DP, CP
Admits from
1 month · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
English
Registration fee
≈ $136
500 AED
About the fees The fee for the 2026-2027 year: the nursery 31,145 dirhams, the toddler group of three-year-olds 35,045, the pre-kindergarten group 40,530, the first year of kindergarten 47,040, the second 52,455, the first and second grades 57,860, the third to the fifth 59,485, the sixth and seventh 67,600, the eighth to the tenth 73,005, the eleventh and twelfth 78,420. It is split into three instalments, and the first is larger than the two that follow: in the final grades that is 31,368, 23,526 and 23,526 dirhams, payable by 1 August, 1 December and 1 March. Compulsory textbooks are included in the fee and are issued on loan. For the nursery with extended hours the school charges separately. There is one discount and it is noticeable only to large families: 10 per cent for a third, youngest child and subsequent ones, counting all the children of the family in any school of the group; there are also corporate discounts for employees of two organisations the school names and the possibility of splitting the payment into interest-free parts by card. On top of the fee come Dubai education authority administrative charges of 120 dirhams per service, the bus by district, optional activities and external examinations.
Admissions Admission comes in three steps: an application through the site after checking the age group against the child's date of birth, a confirmation with a list of documents together with booking the assessment and paying a one-off non-refundable processing fee, then the assessment itself and, on acceptance, a deposit for the place. The decision the school assembles from three things and names them outright: the result of the placement assessment, an interview with the pupil and reports from the previous school. Restrictions by nationality, faith or sex the school does not set. Documents before the assessment: copies of the passports of the child and the parent, signed and attested reports for two years, reports of diagnostic or psychological assessments if there are any, copies of UAE identity cards, a birth certificate and a fee of 500 dirhams plus 5 per cent tax. After acceptance: a registration fee of 4,000 dirhams or 10 per cent of the annual fee, a photograph of the pupil and a transfer document. Before lessons begin: a transfer document attested by the Dubai education authority, a medical record with a vaccination card and a completed medical form. For children who need English support the school promises extra specialists and materials. Neither age cut-offs by date, nor application deadlines, nor waiting-list rules does the school name.
Stages and year groups Grades Nursery - Grade 12. The line runs from the nursery through the toddler group of three-year-olds, the pre-kindergarten group and two years of kindergarten to the primary school from the second year of kindergarten to the fifth grade, the middle school from the sixth to the tenth for eleven- to sixteen-year-olds and the final stage in the eleventh and twelfth for sixteen- to nineteen-year-olds. The school day: the nursery from 7:00 to 14:00, the toddler three-year-olds, the pre-kindergarten group and the first year of kindergarten from 7:30 to 14:00, the primary school from the second year of kindergarten to the fifth grade from 7:30 to 14:45, the middle and senior school from 7:30 to 15:00; on Friday the day is shorter - the nursery and the toddler three-year-olds until 11:30, the youngest and the primary school until 11:45, the middle and senior school until 12:00. In the nursery two or three days a week can be taken, and for extended hours the school charges separately. Class sizes, the number of classes in a year group and the number of teaching assistants the school does not publish.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · MYP, DP, CP · authorised programmeschool 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
IBInternational Baccalaureate
A Swiss non-profit, working since 1968. Its programmes are among the most widely recognised school programmes in the world. Authorisation is granted stage by stage, so a school with the final stage does not necessarily run the younger ones; which stages this school holds is set out in the line below.
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: MYP (ages 11-16), DP (ages 16-19), CP (ages 16-19, with a vocational slant). MYP is the middle stage, ages 11 to 16. There are no exams here either; at the end an optional electronic assessment of pupils' work is possible. DP is the final stage, ages 16 to 19: six subjects plus a compulsory core of theory of knowledge, an extended essay and CAS. The diploma is accepted by universities all over the world, and in a number of countries it counts for admission on the same footing as the local leaving certificate. CP is the final stage with a vocational slant, ages 16 to 19: some of the DP subjects plus an applied qualification. It is meant for those heading into a trade or an applied degree rather than an academic one.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Exams and destinations from the school's official website
Where leavers go: University of Oxford · Imperial College London · King's College London · Durham University · Dartmouth College · Emory University · Georgetown University · Johns Hopkins University · Cornell University · University of Toronto · McGill University · University of British Columbia
and others, 41 universities in the school's list in allThe list the school gives by country, and in the British part it names almost thirty universities, in the Canadian one fifteen; here stand those the school names individually. Neither years, nor shares of those admitted, nor numbers of graduates does the school give.
Facilities from the school's official website
✓Swimming poolAn indoor pool of 25 metres and eight lanes for the primary and middle school and a separate pool for the youngest
✓Sports hallA sports hall with a full-size court and a sprung wooden floor and a separate hall for the youngest
✓LaboratoriesComputer rooms and science laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓LibraryA primary and middle school library with a wireless network and study rooms, and a separate library for the youngest, from the pre-kindergarten group to the second year of kindergarten
✓CateringA canteen with hot and cold lunches, seating indoors and outdoors; nuts have been removed from the school entirely
✓School transportContractor's school buses with video surveillance and tracking; the price depends on the district
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Playground
Clubs and activities: Basketball · Rugby · Swimming · Athletics · Duke of Edinburgh's Award · Performing and creative arts · Student leadership · Inter-class competitions · Sports days and swimming galas
Teaching staff from the school's official website
✓Teachers listed by namepublished
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
By name the school lists nine people of the leadership team with their qualifications: master's degrees in history, in teaching and learning, in educational leadership, a doctorate in education sciences, a master's in teaching English as a foreign language, an engineering degree, British professional qualifications for headship and senior leadership, and service of between seventeen and thirty-one years. The total number of teachers, their composition by country, class sizes and the pupil-teacher ratio the school does not publish.
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%)91 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data70 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data85 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data85 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 "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