Safa British School
Very Good Al Safa, Dubai · British (NCfE)
- KHDA rating
- Very Good
High quality across the board, with minor areas to improve. 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
- FS1 to Year 13
As registered with KHDA. Typical ages about 3 to 18.
- Annual fees
- AED 45,428 to 73,550 a year
Varies by year group. 2026-27 fees are frozen by KHDA directive.
- Curriculum
- British (NCfE)
KHDA lists: UK (13 Y).
- School transport
- No bus service listed
- Location
- Al Safa, Dubai
Open in Google Maps. KHDA records the community as Al Safa 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We do not publish schools' own contact details.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
Its mid-range fee is about 13 per cent above the median for British (NCfE) schools in this guide (AED 52,500). It is one of 48 schools in this guide currently rated Very Good.
Worth comparing: Regent International School (AED 49,076 to 69,730 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
Strengths the inspectors named:
- Very Good in 2023-24 - a third consecutive cycle at that level - but with many individual measures rated Outstanding: leadership, wellbeing, inclusion, student behaviour, and much of English, mathematics and science.
- A documented climb: Acceptable around 2009-11, Good through most of the 2010s, Very Good from 2019-20 onward.
- Independently rated Outstanding by British Schools Overseas, in both 2022 and 2025 - two separate inspectorate visits reaching the top verdict.
- Privately owned by two parents rather than a corporate group, with fees from roughly AED 45,000 to AED 73,500 - well below the top-tier British schools whose inspection outcomes it rivals.
- A PIRLS 2021 average of 597 - 69 points above the school’s target - with benchmark outcomes very good in English and outstanding in science and mathematics, and lesson time inspectors describe as used productively with strong teacher subject expertise.
What they asked the school to improve:
- Arabic and Islamic Education attainment sits at Acceptable in both Primary and Secondary - the clearest reason the overall rating is not Outstanding.
- Teaching in Primary and Secondary is Very Good rather than Outstanding; inspectors ask for more systematic sharing of best practice to improve consistency.
- Improvement plans contain too many actions that are not prioritised - a small but telling note on how the school steers itself.
Inclusion (students of determination): Outstanding - judged so by both KHDA and British Schools Overseas, with inspectors commending secure identification systems, targeted interventions and an inclusive ethos that permeates the whole school. Pupils with SEND and with English as an additional language make progress in line with their peers, teachers and specialists collaborate to personalise provision, and gifted students receive curriculum modifications designed to stretch them. Provision is tiered, with a Bridge Learning Centre for complex needs - and both wellbeing and inclusion are rated Outstanding while the school’s overall rating is Very Good, which is a meaningful signal in its own right. 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 Safa British School 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 Safa
- Jumeirah College - Outstanding, AED 78,946 to 98,681 a year
- Jumeirah English Speaking School - Outstanding, AED 54,131 to 65,098 a year
- Al Ittihad Private School Al Safa - Good, 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.