Al Diyafah High School, which has been operating since 1982, is located in Al Qusais / Al Ghusais. It serves a predominantly Indian expatriate demographic, but with 29 plus other nationalities also represented at the school.  The school teaches the UK’s national curriculum, but “modified”, with International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) examinations at Grade 10/11, and Advanced/Subsidiary Level examinations at the post-16 phase.

About 28 per cent of the students study Islamic Education. Kindergarten (Foundation Stage) comprises about 5 per cent of the school’s population and the post-16 phase about four per cent.

The school is presently attended by 1547 students, and served by 136 full-time teachers. The school has recently celebrated 30 years – its current headteacher has been in the role for the last two. The school suffers from a relatively high teacher turnover – currently running at 26%.

The school had identified 17 students as having some type of special educational need.

Al Diyafah High School has been rated Good by the KHDA for the last four years, up from Acceptable for the three years before that. Improvement had come from the school’s action on the recommendations in the previous inspection report, including improvements in teaching, learning and developing the role of parents in supporting the Board of Governors.

Dubai’s education regulator commended the school for improving the quality of education in all core subjects for its students. The curriculum had a greater focus on teamwork and problem-solving skills through recently introduced enrichment programmes. In addition, increased course options were offered to senior students.

In its latest report the KHDA notes as strengths that:  Post-16 students make outstanding progress in English; Secondary and post-16 students show outstanding personal and social development qualities; Curriculum design is outstanding in most parts of the school; The school’s arrangements for students’ health and safety as well as the quality of support are outstanding; and the school’s links with parents and the community is outstanding.

In previous reports the inspection team has noted that in general students display a positive attitude toward learning, and that the school has a warm and purposeful atmosphere, as well as excellent guidance and support – including careers advice – given to the students.

Current weaknesses of the school include the need to improve all aspects of provision for children in the Foundation Stage to ensure that they make good progres; to ensure that students make good progress in Arabic as an additional language by improving subject leadership and improving the quality of teaching, learning and assessment; to improve governors’ monitoring of school leaders’ evaluation of the quality of teaching, improvement plans, and the time allocation for the teaching of Arabic as a first language.

The school has a very good web site, but unfortunately does not publish its academic results. Like many schools in the UAE it cherry picks and publishes only the attainment of its best students, its “toppers”. While it’s good to acknowledge success, this is meaningless in terms of understanding how good the school is when it comes to  academic achievement across the board.

WSA strongly believes all schools should be transparent about the results of their students. It urges schools to take leadership and unilaterally make the move for others to follow.

The last data we have available is from 2014. Then students achieved a 43% A*-C (2014) at A’ Level, and  87% A*-C including English and Mathematics (2014) at IGCSE.

Parents are satisfied with the quality of education in the school. WhichSchoolAdvisor.com has had limited feedback for its survey, but so far results show that of those responding most were pleased with their children’s academic attainment, and school discipline. Students feel they are treated fairly, feel safe and enjoy being at school – and are largely proud of it, though they did speak out against homework.

Facilities at the school include interactive boards in each classroom, a library located in the senior school, science laboratories, and a canteen. The school offers a wide range of after school activities – the long list of both sports and more cerebral activities is available here.