Dubai National School Al Barsha
Good Al Barsha, Dubai · American
- KHDA rating
- Good
Good standards in most areas. The most common rating among Dubai schools. 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: Good · Inclusion: Good
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 Barsha, Dubai
Open in Google Maps. KHDA records the community as Al Barsha 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We do not publish schools' own contact details.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.
In context
It is one of 85 schools in this guide currently rated Good.
These comparisons are computed from the verified data in this register, not editorial opinion.
What the inspectors said
Strengths the inspectors named:
- Good in 2023-24 - the larger and older branch, established in 1988, with around 2,470 students, 58% of them Emirati and almost all Arab nationals.
- A long-established US-curriculum school aligned to Ministry of Education requirements alongside American state standards.
- Organised into clear phases from Kindergarten through Secondary, with a settled structure across a large campus.
What they asked the school to improve:
- Parent sentiment gathered independently is mixed: around two-thirds would recommend the school, with a meaningful minority unsure or negative - visit and ask current parents yourself.
- Boys and girls are taught separately from Grade 4 onward.
- As with its sister campus, ask specifically about consistency of teaching between phases and what the current improvement plan funds.
Inclusion (students of determination): 106 students of determination at the last inspection, and inspectors name strong provision for students of determination among the school’s strengths: students of determination are welcomed, there is a thorough system for identification and assessment, and intervention plans are appropriately targeted. The school publishes a detailed compliance statement covering the KHDA Inclusive Education Policy Framework, the Inclusion Handbook, the Parents Guide, Ministry of Education SEND laws and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Two honest findings sit against that. Inspectors record that ‘the progress of students of determination is variable and dependent upon the quality of teaching’, with not all teachers fully understanding the instructional practices and intervention strategies that promote good progress. And plans to install elevators to improve access for students with mobility needs had not been implemented at the time of the 2023-24 inspection - a practical accessibility gap worth asking about directly. 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?
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:
- 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 Dubai National School Al Barsha 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 Al Barsha
- Kings School Al Barsha - Outstanding, To be updated
- Nord Anglia International School Dubai - Outstanding, AED 69,625 to 105,288 a year
- Brighton College Dubai - Very Good, AED 50,830 to 80,780 a year
- Dubai Heights Academy - Very Good, AED 48,688 to 96,880 a year
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.