Dubai English Speaking College
Outstanding Academic City, Dubai · British (NCfE)
- KHDA rating
- Outstanding
The highest KHDA rating - consistently excellent teaching and outcomes. 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: Outstanding · Inclusion: Outstanding
KHDA’s separate judgements for student wellbeing and for inclusion, from the same inspection.
- Year groups
- Year 7 to Year 13
As registered with KHDA. Typical ages about 11 to 18.
- Annual fees
- AED 84,325 to 90,633 a year
Varies by year group. 2026-27 fees are frozen by KHDA directive.
- Curriculum
- British (NCfE)
KHDA lists: UK (13 Y).
- School transport
- Bus service available
- Location
- Academic City, Dubai
- 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We do not publish schools' own contact details.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.
In context
Its mid-range fee is about 67 per cent above the median for British (NCfE) schools in this guide (AED 52,500). It is one of 23 schools in this guide currently rated Outstanding.
Worth comparing: Nord Anglia International School Dubai (AED 69,625 to 105,288 a year) - a lower-fee school with the same Outstanding rating and curriculum.
These comparisons are computed from the verified data in this register, not editorial opinion.
What the inspectors said
Strengths the inspectors named:
- Another consecutive Outstanding in a run stretching back over a decade - as a not-for-profit trust.
- Attainment in English, mathematics and science Outstanding in both Secondary and Post-16.
- Wellbeing judged Outstanding - a long-developed house system with very respectful staff-student relationships.
- Inclusion judged Outstanding, with gifted-and-talented support alongside.
What they asked the school to improve:
- Improve students’ reading literacy skills across all subjects.
- Secondary English and mathematics progress slipped to Very Good - identified and being addressed.
- Islamic Education and Arabic sit at Good against the otherwise top-tier profile.
Inclusion (students of determination): Outstanding - and structurally so: 208 students of determination enrolled under a fully non-selective admissions policy with no academic entry criteria, in a not-for-profit school that has held Outstanding continuously since 2012-13. Support comes at no additional cost to parents, with gifted and talented provision alongside, and wellbeing also rated Outstanding. The results make the point this register keeps returning to: 60% of GCSE students achieved grades 7 to 9 in 2025 and 45% of A Level students achieved A or A*, with a value-added residual of +1.14 - achieved across a cohort the school did not select. 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:
- 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.
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:
- 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 Dubai English Speaking College 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.
Other schools in Academic City
- German International School Dubai - Very Good, AED 33,650 to 44,050 a year
- DESS Primary Academic City - Not yet rated, To be updated
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.