DubaiSchoolGuide.com

DESS Primary Academic City

Not yet rated Academic City, Dubai · British (NCfE)

KHDA rating
Not yet rated

Newly opened or not yet through a full inspection cycle. This school has not yet been inspected by KHDA, so there is no rating to date.

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
British (NCfE)

KHDA lists: UK (13 Y).

School transport
Bus service available
Location
Academic City, Dubai

Open in Google Maps.

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.

District-level pin for Academic City - we have not recorded exact gate coordinates, so use the Google Maps link above for the entrance.

We do not publish schools' own contact details.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 has not yet completed a full KHDA inspection cycle - no rating is not a bad rating, but there is no inspection evidence yet either.

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

What the inspectors said

This school has not yet been inspected by KHDA, so there is no rating and no inspection findings to report. What follows is verified public record about the school itself - what it has committed to, and what remains unproven - kept clearly separate from anything a regulator has judged.

What is known and committed:

  • Opened August 2025 as a primary-only school following the English National Curriculum, extending the Dubai English Speaking family into Academic City.
  • The DESS name carries a strong record: the original Dubai English Speaking School holds Outstanding, as does Dubai English Speaking College - both not-for-profit, both with Outstanding inclusion ratings in the regulator’s published table.

What is not yet proven:

  • No KHDA rating: a full inspection normally follows in the third year of operation, so nothing about this campus has been independently judged.
  • Primary-only - plan the Year 6 transition before you enrol, and ask what priority, if any, its students receive at the family’s senior schools.
  • A new campus with a new staff body: the reputation belongs to the schools that earned it, not automatically to this one.

Inclusion (students of determination): No KHDA rating yet - but this is the best-documented inclusion provision of any new school in this register, because the school has published it. The Inclusion team works from a dedicated Learning Zone and comprises nine staff: an Inclusion Champion, two Inclusion teachers, a Student Advisor and five learning support assistants. By January 2026 the team had identified approximately 48 students, around 6% of the roll, receiving SEN support, with a further 65 students at 8% designated with Gifts and Talents and 16 receiving English as an Additional Language support. The support model is explicit: school staff determine provision for Wave 1 needs, while for Wave 2 or 3 needs the school works with parents to arrange a customised plan - so establish in writing what ‘customised’ covers and who pays. One structural advantage worth knowing: children here are guaranteed places at DESS College at the end of Year 6, provided paperwork is completed, which removes the secondary-transfer problem most primary-only schools leave families to solve. 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.

Visit kit

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

  • Which facilities are open today, and which are still ‘coming soon’?
  • 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?
  • If the school is not full, what happens to fees and staffing next year?

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
  • the age range it takes
  • 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 DESS Primary Academic City 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 Academic City

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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