A leading British school steeped in centuries of royal history is to open in Dubai next month, in time for the new academic year.
Queen Elizabeth's School, Dubai Sports City will be the latest addition to the emirate's growing premium education sector. Annual fees will range from Dh93,000 to Dh136,604 in its initial age groups of nursery to Year 8 (age 12).
Founding families – the first group of parents and pupils to enrol – will receive a 25 per cent discount on those tuition costs.
Queen Elizabeth's is the first branch of a UK state, rather than private, school to open in the Emirates.
Developed in partnership with global education provider Gedu, it will be the inaugural Gulf outpost of Queen Elizabeth’s School in Barnet, north London, which was founded in 1573, when Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne.
Class of its own
The Dubai school’s founding principal, Dan Clark, said that one reason why no other state schools had opened in the Gulf was launches were “a hard thing to do”.
“First of all, you’ve got to have the kind of educational positioning – I wouldn’t say brand – but you’ve got to have enough significance nationally to be able to take your brand internationally,” he said.
“Queen Elizabeth’s certainly has that. It’s been three or four times Sunday Times school of the year and regularly is at the top or very close to the top of any league table academically, not just in terms of raw outcomes, but actually in terms of the progress children make in the school. That’s a very, very difficult thing to do.”
What facilities are on offer?
The Dubai school has more than 80 classrooms, science, robotics and innovation labs, a creative arts wing with studios and a theatre, wellness zones and E-sports labs.
Pupils will also have access to world-class facilities within Dubai Sports City, including five outdoor football pitches, a full-sized indoor football pitch, an athletics stadium with a 400-metre track and all-weather tennis courts and a table tennis centre of excellence.
Mr Clark said many families who have enrolled children – most of whom he has met since he moved to Dubai in February – have told him they are looking for “a British prep school feeling”. Prep or preparatory schools are British private schools that prepare younger children for secondary school.
“I think what they’re looking for is a school in which they feel part of a community and where their child is well known by the team around them. We’re definitely aiming for that.”
Best of British
About three-quarters of the pupils enrolled so far are UK nationals and Mr Clark said the school would feel “exceptionally British”, with uniform, homework and discipline prioritised.
“Families want that structure and rigour and that’s what we’re very keen to bring,” Mr Clark said.
He also said the school, which will teach GCSE and A-level courses, would be “unapologetically and relentlessly focused on academic ambition for young people”.
“Schools in Dubai tend to have very, very good facilities – they’re the envy of the world in that regard – and we will have something similar, but we’re also exceptionally focused on what good teaching and learning looks like,” he said.
Entrepreneurial vision
The emphasis on academic achievement and Britishness does not mean that the school expects to funnel all its pupils in to top UK universities.
Mr Clark’s previous experience has made him familiar with entry processes for US universities, and he believes not all students will look to enter tertiary education.
“AI is driving the economy in a way that I think is unprecedented,” he said. “My strongly held view is that many more young people will enter the world of work not as graduates necessarily, but as entrepreneurs, setting up their own businesses.
“We’re working really hard to build a programme to incubate that culture of entrepreneurship and innovation in the school.”
Other UK branch schools opening in the UAE include an outpost of Rugby School, which launches in Nad Al Sheba next month in partnership with Aldar Education. It is taking over Kent College Dubai’s former campus.
Also debuting in the coming academic year is Harrow Abu Dhabi on Saadiyat Island, which will be a day and boarding school, and Harrow Dubai.
Others include Epsom College’s Abu Dhabi school, which launches in 2028, and its Dubai branch, which follows in 2030.
British-linked schools that have opened in the past, and that continue to operate, include Repton Dubai, which dates back to 2007, and UAE branches of Brighton College, which opened in Abu Dhabi in 2011, in Al Ain two years later, and in Dubai, a further five years later.
The UAE’s historical ties to the UK, the large British expat population, the popularity of British universities and the continuing population growth in the UAE are all thought to be fuelling demand for places at UK-affiliated schools.
Queen Elizabeth’s School, Dubai Sports City will be coeducational and will ultimately take pupils from nursery up to age 18, although when it opens next month it will go up to only Year 8, with an extra year opening annually.
There will be a maximum of about 2,000 pupils, although when the school opens numbers are likely to be between 350 and 400.
Mr Clark said that enrolment, after being affected in March by the regional conflict, has picked up in recent months.
Maximum class sizes will range from 12 for the youngest children up to 20 for more senior pupils.
Focus on pupil well-being
Through a partnership with King’s College Hospital Dubai, the school will have an on-site health and wellness co-ordinator, who will help parents as well as students and staff.
“Young people are under unprecedented pressure from things like social media, technology, other social pressures,” Mr Clark said.
“We want to be able to support them in the best possible way with the best possible expertise in navigating those many challenges.”
The school has been set up by Gedu, a UK-headquartered company that runs educational institutions, mostly at university or equivalent level, in more than a dozen countries. The company’s founder and chief executive is Vishwajeet Rana, a US-educated Indian businessman.
Opening simultaneously is Queen Elizabeth’s School, Gurugram in a satellite town near New Delhi, and Mr Clark said there were “more ambitious growth plans in the pipeline”.
There will be strong links between Queen Elizabeth’s School, Dubai Sports City and its parent institution, and both the headmaster and the chairman of the board of governors of the Barnet school – which Mr Clark described as being “exceptionally well run” – are on the executive governing body of the UAE school.
“Old Elizabethan’s across the world are a very tight-knit community and we are determined that our children will play as significant a part in that old boy and old girl community as those emerging from the school in London do,” Mr Clark said.
