DubaiSchoolGuide.com

Al Maaref American School

Acceptable Al Qusais, Dubai · American

KHDA rating
Acceptable

Meets minimum standards; may be on an improvement plan. Read the full report before enrolling. From KHDA’s 2023-24 inspection - now more than two years old. Checked against KHDA’s directory on 14 September 2026.

Dubai focus areas
Wellbeing: Acceptable · Inclusion: Acceptable

KHDA’s separate judgements for student wellbeing and for inclusion, from the same inspection.

Year groups
Pre-primary to Grade 12

As registered with KHDA. Typical ages about 3 to 18.

Annual fees
To be updated

This school does not publish a fee schedule we can verify. Ask us and we will get the figure for your year group.

Curriculum
American

KHDA lists: American.

School transport
Bus service available
Location
Al Qusais, Dubai

Open in Google Maps. KHDA records the community as Al Qusais First.

Contacting the school
Ask us and we will ask them

We hold this school's details and put questions to it for parents - fees for a year group, whether there is a place, what happens next. KHDA's own page for the school, linked below, carries its published contact details if you would rather go direct.

Map not loaded. It comes from Google, so nothing is requested from them until you ask for it.

Pin from KHDA’s directory entry for this school. Check the entrance with the Google Maps link above before your first drop-off.

We do not publish schools' own contact details. Ask us a question below and we put it to the school; KHDA's page for this school carries its published details.

KHDA’s page for this school - every inspection report

Check travel time from your location

Opens live directions in Google Maps - real traffic from your own address beats any published estimate. School-run traffic peaks roughly 7-8am; test your route at drop-off time.

How far is this from another school? What the bus costs

If your children may end up at different schools, the distance that decides your mornings is the one between them, not from home to each.

Ask about fees or a place Enquire about a place

In context

It is one of 52 schools in this guide currently rated Acceptable.

These comparisons are computed from the verified data in this register, not editorial opinion.

What the inspectors said

Strengths the inspectors named:

  • Acceptable maintained in 2023-24, with notable strengths in students’ personal and social development and their understanding of Islamic values and Emirati culture.
  • Advanced Placement courses offered in the High School, and a curriculum that meets statutory requirements.

What they asked the school to improve:

  • Achievement is consistently Acceptable across all core subjects and phases, with learning skills varying - the plain reason for the overall rating.
  • The curriculum focuses more on knowledge acquisition than skill development, and adaptations do not always cater to higher and lower attainers - so ask specifically how a child at either end of the range is stretched or supported.

Inclusion (students of determination): Inspectors record inclusive admission procedures and improving support for students of determination, in a school with only a small cohort identified with additional learning needs at the 2024 inspection - a small cohort is itself worth asking about, because it can mean low need or low identification. Curriculum adaptations are noted as not always catering to higher and lower attainers, leadership roles lack clarity and self-evaluation is overly optimistic, which together constrain improvement planning. Safeguarding and child protection are comprehensive, and personal and social development is a genuine strength. Context a family should hold: enrolment of Emirati students has fallen from over 400 in 2020 to around 160, which follows the regulator’s guidance to Emirati families to move to schools rated Good or better - the mechanism our key-findings page explains. See the special educational needs guide for the questions to ask on a visit.

Inspector summaries are being added school by school as each report is read - 221 of 230 so far, dated per cycle, never invented. A school without a summary yet is unread, not unjudged.

Paraphrased from KHDA’s published inspection record for 2023-24. Read the dated report on KHDA’s page for this school.

Visit kit

Questions worth asking on a tour - tuned to this school’s rating and curriculum:

  • What did the last KHDA report ask you to improve, and what has changed since?
  • Who leads inclusion here - and may we meet them before enrolling?
  • How much staff turnover did you have last year, and why?
  • What are actual class sizes this term - not the maximum?
  • How and how often will I hear about my child’s progress?

Special educational needs? Read the inclusion guide before you visit.

What we don't know about this school

Every other page on this site tells you what we have verified. This one tells you what we have not, because a register you cannot calibrate is worth less than one you can. We do not currently hold:

  • its fees - this school has not published them
  • whether it is co-educational, boys or girls
  • how many children are on roll
  • its facilities - sports, arts, science, library
  • published exam results or university destinations
  • what registration, transport, uniform and meals add to the fee
  • the year it opened - the figure we held was wrong on every school we checked

None of it is guessed or filled in from a similar school. Ask for any of it using the form below and it moves up the queue - requests are how we decide what to collect next.

Ask this school a question - we'll do the asking

Tell us the year group, and we will ask Al Maaref American School what it costs, whether there is a place, and what the next step is. Then we send you what they say. Every answer we get is also checked into this school's record, so the next parent finds it already here.

Your details stay with us. We contact the school ourselves, and we do not pass your name or address to them, or to any agent, unless you ask us to. No school pays to appear in this guide, and none can pay to change what it says.

Would rather do it yourself? KHDA's page for this school, linked above, carries the contact details the school has registered with the regulator. We answer requests in the order they arrive, and we will tell you if a school does not reply - which is itself worth knowing before you apply.

Other schools in Al Qusais

Work at this school? Correct or update this record - checked against the source and answered within five working days. If you disagree with something we are not going to change, reply on the record and we publish your statement on this page.

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