Safa Community School
Outstanding Al Barsha South, 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
- FS1 to Year 13
As registered with KHDA. Typical ages about 3 to 18.
- Annual fees
- AED 54,437 to 89,440 a year
Varies by year group. 2026-27 fees are frozen by KHDA directive.
- Curriculum
- British (NCfE)
KHDA lists: UK (13 Y),UK/IB (13 Y).
- School transport
- No bus service listed
- Location
- Al Barsha South, Dubai
Open in Google Maps. KHDA records the community as Al Barsha South 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We do not publish schools' own contact details.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 37 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: Dubai British School Jumeirah Park (AED 55,350 to 83,015 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:
- First Outstanding rating, achieved this cycle - with the Wellbeing and Inclusive Education focus areas both judged Outstanding.
- Inspirational, highly committed leadership and an inclusive curriculum promoting academic success.
- Strong partnerships with parents and extensive community links.
- A PIRLS reading score of 610 against a target of 567.
What they asked the school to improve:
- Raise attainment by enhancing progress in Islamic Education and Arabic.
- Set measurable literacy-improvement goals.
- Identify students who would benefit from additional support, and provide it.
Inclusion (students of determination): Outstanding - inspectors state plainly that ‘the quality of support for students of determination is highly effective’, with very sound systems for identifying both students of determination and gifted students, and individual education plans incorporating expert advice. Around 15% of students are identified with SEND requirements, roughly 25% receive English as an Additional Language support, and the school has begun identifying ‘Arabic C’ students - those with Arabic passports who do not speak Arabic - a category most schools ignore entirely. The 2022-23 report credited it for giving students of determination a voice by involving them actively in designing their own education plans, and inspectors record that students of determination themselves speak enthusiastically about the breadth of the wellbeing curriculum. Outstanding from British Schools Overseas too. One practical warning: the school is heavily oversubscribed. 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 Community 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 Barsha South
- GEMS Dubai American Academy - Outstanding, To be updated
- Repton Al Barsha - Very Good, AED 53,540 to 89,774 a year
- Dhruv Global School - Acceptable, AED 18,000 to 26,400 a year
- Dubai Schools Al Barsha - Acceptable, 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.