Abu Dhabi, UAE · PrivateYasmina British Academy is an Aldar Academies school in Khalifa City, Abu Dhabi, formerly known as Al Yasmina Academy; it has been running since 2007 and now stands on a new campus. It follows the English National Curriculum from the early years to Year 13, with I/GCSE and A-level examinations, and builds it around STEAM - science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics as ways into investigation and discussion. Its ADEK rating is “Outstanding” across all six standards (2019 inspection), and its rating under the British BSO scheme is “Outstanding” as well. Among its facilities the school lists a multi-purpose sports hall and a separate hall for girls, a 25-metre swimming pool, a dance studio, running tracks, basketball and netball courts, two artificial-turf pitches, a full-time nurse and classrooms with technology; the parent package adds a canteen, a library and school buses. There are more than sixty extracurricular activities, from robotics and Model United Nations to performing arts, sports teams and language clubs, Chinese and Spanish among them. The school is divided into six houses: for the younger children Corniche Crocodiles, Marina Leopards, Mangrove Falcons, Yas Tigers, Raha Rhinos and Saadiyat Sharks, and for the older ones Malala, Luther, Ali, Williams, Nelson and Hawking. Drop-off starts at 7:15; the younger children finish between 14:15 and 15:00 and the older ones at 14:55, and on Fridays at 11:15-12:00 and 11:55.
Key facts
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
BSO · accreditationBSME · part of the associationWhat 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 →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 →Programmes of the University of Cambridge: the school teaches to Cambridge syllabuses and enters its pupils for exams that Cambridge marks itself. 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.
What this means for this school. The papers are marked by Cambridge, not by the school, so a leaver's grade does not depend on how strict their own teachers are with them. To enter pupils for these exams a school has to be registered as a Cambridge exam centre; registration as a centre is permission to run exams rather than accreditation of the school, and it says nothing about the quality of teaching. IGCSE is taken at around Year 10 or 11 and A-Level in the final years, and it is the A-Level results that carry a pupil into British and many other universities.