Dubai English Speaking School is located in Oud Metha, near St Mary’s in ‘older’ Dubai. It teaches students from KG to Grade 6.

It is one of the most established schools in the UAE, opening its doors in 1963 and was the first school to offer a British based curriculum – the school itself has recently celebrated its 50th anniversary.  A considerable milestone.

The Oud Metha branch has 844 pupils (flat on the academic year) come from a mix of nationalities, but the majority are British. The 54 full time and 14 part time teachers are also largely from the United Kingdom. The school has a sister branch – Dubai English Speaking College with 760 students, which brings the size of the school up to 1700 plus. DESC picks us where DESS leaves off, and offers education for 11 years up to 18 (Grade 12).

The school is nothing if not consistent, with a KHDA ranking of Good, the Dubai education regulator’s second highest grade, since inspections began.

In more detail the KHDA notes “outstanding vision” of the leadership team leading to successful development of the school and sustained high performance; exceptional provision in the Foundation Stage and the consistently maintained high standards in mathematics and English leading to very high performance by all students; learning opportunities offered to all groups of students which result in an exceptional desire to learn; outstanding attitudes and behaviour of students throughout the school and the active part they play in their community and environment; outstanding facilities and management of staff leading to a high level of staff retention and their development.

For improvement, the report noted the need to improve Arabic and Islamic Education, to capitalise on the outstanding practice in primary and the Foundation Stage to improve the less effective aspects of teaching and learning in the school, and to improve self-evaluation practices by consistently using student’s’ outcomes to define school priorities.

To its credit the school publishes its external SAT based examination results, which may be found here. In general, the school performs very well, with results well above the UK average.