Bilingual French International School
Very Good Al Barsha, Dubai · French
- KHDA rating
- Very Good
High quality across the board with minor areas to improve — often better value than Outstanding. Ratings are from the last full inspection cycle (2023–24).
- Annual fees
- AED 50,000 to 77,000 a year
Varies by year group; confirm current fees with the school. 2026–27 fees are frozen by KHDA directive.
- Curriculum
- French
- Established
- Founded 2020
- School transport
- Bus service available
- Location
- Al Barsha, Dubai
District-level pin for Al Barsha — use the Google Maps link for the exact gate.
We could not verify an official website for this school, so no link is shown.
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.
In context
Its mid-range fee is about 27 per cent above the median for French schools in this guide (AED 50,000). It is one of 46 schools in this guide currently rated Very Good.
Worth comparing: Australian International School (AED 40,000 to 75,000 a year) — a lower-fee option in the same area; Lycée Français Jean Mermoz (AED 40,000 to 65,000 a year) — a lower-fee school with the same Very Good rating and curriculum.
These comparisons are computed from the verified data in this register, not editorial opinion.
What the inspectors said
Paraphrased from the last full DSIB inspection (2023–24 cycle) and its published record — read the complete report on the official KHDA directory.
Strengths the inspectors named:
- Very Good in 2023–24 — a genuine climb: Acceptable on its first inspection in 2015–16, two Good years, a slip back to Acceptable in 2018–19, then Good in 2021–22 and 2022–23 before this breakthrough.
- The only school in Dubai offering Advanced Placement, the IB Certificate, the French-English bilingual IB Diploma and a bilingual French International Baccalaureate with an American pathway — an unusually wide set of exit routes.
- Genuinely bilingual by design: equal instruction in French and English with subjects shared between native-speaking teachers, the French programme accredited through AEFE and the IB taught in English.
- Now expanding through the senior grades after years capped at Grade 6 — Grades 7 to 10 opened in August 2023 and Première in 2024–25.
What they asked the school to improve:
- The senior school is very new: upper grades have only just opened, so there is no established Baccalaureate or Diploma track record — ask what results exist and how many students sat them.
- The rating history is genuinely volatile — up, down and up again across a decade — so ask what is different this time, and who is accountable for holding it.
Inclusion (students of determination): We have not found a separately published inclusion rating for this school in the sources we can verify, and we say so rather than infer one from its Very Good overall judgement. What the rating history does show is a school that has genuinely climbed — Acceptable in 2015–16, Good in 2016–17 and 2017–18, back to Acceptable in 2018–19, Good in 2021–22 and 2022–23, and Very Good in 2023–24. For a family whose child needs support the questions are therefore direct: how many students of determination are on roll, who leads inclusion, and what provision exists in the newly opened senior grades, which have only just been built out. 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 — 169 of 169 so far, dated per cycle, never invented. A school without a summary yet is unread, not unjudged.
Visit kit
Questions worth asking on a tour — tuned to this school’s rating and curriculum:
- 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?
- How long is the real waiting list for my child’s year group, and how does sibling priority work?
Saved only on this device — never uploaded, never shared.
Special educational needs? Read the inclusion guide before you visit.
Other schools in Al Barsha
- GEMS Albarsha National School — Acceptable, AED 10,000 to 20,000 a year
- Repton Al Barsha — Very Good, AED 53,540 to 89,774 a year
- Nord Anglia International School Dubai — Outstanding, AED 69,625 to 105,288 a year
- Kings School Al Barsha — Outstanding, AED 54,000 to 98,000 a year
Work at this school? Correct or update this record — verified corrections are made promptly and logged publicly.