GEMS World Academy, Dubai is a private Pre K-12 international school located in Al Barsha, Dubai. The school was first established in September 2007 by GEMS Education and follows the IB curriculum. It currently has 1853 students (up quite sharply on 1500 pupils last year), and 172 teachers (up from 150 last year), giving it one of the better teacher to student ratios. All teachers have academic degrees; 84 per cent of them have a teaching qualification according to the KHDA.

Note: this is the third year in a row of quite substantial growth – the school’s student size increased by almost one-third in 2012/13 on the 2011/12 academic year, as did the number of teachers.

While the single largest demographic in the student body comes from the UK, it is very much a minority representing just 8% of total numbers. Some 80 nationalities are represented within the school, making it one of the most demographically diverse and truly international schools in the emirate – as perhaps befits its IB curriculum.

GEMs World Academy, Dubai is authorized by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) to offer all three IB programs – the Primary Years Program, Middle Years Program and Diploma Program – to students aged 3 – 18. The Academy is also a member of the Council of International Schools (CIS) and was accredited during the 2012-2013 school year.

For the 2013-2014 the school received the KHDA inspection rating of Good, the fifth year in a row it has achieved the KHDA’s second highest ranking. The school’s kindergarten provision is deemed “Outstanding” for a second year in a row, as is the attainment and progress in the Primary Years Programme (PYP) for Science and English.  In the 2011/12 but not the 2012/13 report, the school’s leadership was also singled out for high praise by the KHDA. In 2013/14 the KHDA rates leadership as Good.

The school’s latest report notes an improvement in attainment and progress in Islamic Education and Arabic (as a first and second language) – but there seems some work to do. Attainment is deemed Unsatisfactory for the Diploma Mid Year Programmes.

A recommendation that the school deepen students’ understanding of the heritage, culture and Islamic values of the UAE has been dropped for 2013/14 suggesting this has now been addressed. However recommendations that school leaders at all levels should prioritise the improvement of learning and teaching remains, as does the need to improve analysis of student assessment data and self-evaluation for Islamic Education and Arabic; to share best practice in teaching to ensure consistency and improvement; and to improve learning by enabling students to explore their own questions and ideas, to think critically and to inquire.

GEMs World Academy, Dubai has yet to release any IB results. Its achievements page on its Web site details GEMs’ successes generally.

The school is very rich in facilities: 50m covered swimming pool, tennis and squash courts, a fully equipped gymnasium with fitness centre, junior gym, indoor climbing wall, auditorium, symphony centre and peace garden. Impressively, if not also a little oddly, GEMS World Academy also comes equipped with a state-of-the-art planetarium for teaching astronomy subjects to students.

The planetarium is no joke. It produces a high resolution 360 degree view of the night sky with over 300,000 stars within its database. The school uses it to encourage pupils to learn and explore about the solar system, star constellations, and deep space objects through the interactive display.

All this of course costs – this is after all a GEMs profit making school, with a business plan no doubt based on attracting parents who want everything for their children, and can afford to pay. Interstellar fees (as of 2010-2011) range between 56,800 AED per year for kindergarten students to 98,649 AED per year for grade 12 students. This makes it,with Repton, the most expensive school that we have reviewed.