GEMS Our Own English High School
Very Good Al Quoz, Dubai · Indian (CBSE/ICSE)
- 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 9,000 to 16,000 a year
Varies by year group; confirm current fees with the school. 2026–27 fees are frozen by KHDA directive.
- Curriculum
- Indian (CBSE/ICSE)
- Established
- Founded 1968
- School transport
- Bus service available
- Location
- Al Quoz, Dubai
District-level pin for Al Quoz — use the Google Maps link for the exact gate.
Link verified against a live domain, July 2026.
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 17 per cent below the median for Indian (CBSE/ICSE) schools in this guide (AED 15,000). It is one of 46 schools in this guide currently rated Very Good. As a CBSE school, its academic year runs April to March — plan relocation timing around this.
Worth comparing: GEMS Our Own Indian School (AED 7,000 to 14,000 a year) — a lower-fee option in the same area.
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 for a seventh consecutive inspection since 2015–16 — the oldest school in the GEMS group, founded in 1968.
- Student achievement in the Secondary school improved to Outstanding this cycle — English, mathematics and science all at the top rating.
- Personal and social development and innovation skills Outstanding across the entire school.
- Teacher turnover of about 7% is remarkably low for an international school — continuity a parent can count on.
What they asked the school to improve:
- A student-to-teacher ratio around 22:1 is the honest trade-off of scale at these fees — roughly 10,500 students at about 99% of capacity.
- Heavily oversubscribed: apply early, and ask where your child’s year group actually stands.
Inclusion (students of determination): Very Good, and at a scale unmatched in this register: approximately 13% of students have an additional learning requirement, which in a school of around 10,000 means well over a thousand students of determination supported through graduated systems of intervention aligned to the Dubai Inclusive Education Policy. Inspectors record that ‘the school is highly inclusive and welcomes students of all abilities’, with comprehensive systems identifying students of determination and those with gifts and talents through an extensive range of internal assessments, an inclusion team suitably experienced and qualified to ensure consistent implementation, and school leaders and an inclusion governor communicating a well-developed vision that policies are monitored against. The published caveat is specific and worth carrying into a meeting: ‘the implementation of the modified curriculum for all students of determination is variable’. 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?
- How do you handle children joining outside the April intake?
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Special educational needs? Read the inclusion guide before you visit.
Other schools in Al Quoz
- GEMS Our Own Indian School — Very Good, AED 7,000 to 14,000 a year
- The English College Dubai — Very Good, AED 41,000 to 68,265 a year
- Safa British School — Very Good, AED 45,428 to 73,550 a year
- Greenfield International School — Very Good, AED 34,470 to 82,865 a year
Work at this school? Correct or update this record — verified corrections are made promptly and logged publicly.