DubaiSchoolGuide.com

The City School International

Good Nad Al Hamar, Dubai · British (NCfE)

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: Acceptable · Inclusion: Good

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
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
British (NCfE)

KHDA lists: UK (13 Y).

School transport
Bus service available
Location
Nad Al Hamar, Dubai

Open in Google Maps. KHDA records the community as Nadd Al Hamar.

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We do not publish schools' own contact details.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.

Ask about fees or a place Enquire about a place

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

Paraphrased from the last full DSIB inspection we could verify (2023-24 cycle) and its published record - read the complete report on the official KHDA directory. These findings are from the 2023-24 cycle and are now more than two years old. Leadership, staffing and provision can change substantially in that time - see the note below on why every rating in Dubai is older than it looks.

Strengths the inspectors named:

  • Good in 2023-24, and held consistently since 2017-18 after years at Acceptable - genuine upward momentum rather than a static rating.
  • Attainment rated Very Good in English, mathematics and science at both Primary and Secondary, with above-average performance in the PIRLS international reading benchmark. For a school at this fee level those are unusually strong academic foundations.
  • A complete British pathway from FS1 to Year 13 including A Levels and BTEC Diplomas - few schools at the affordable end offer both.
  • Arabic from Foundation Stage and French from Year 3, which is rare at this price point, in a community of over 50 nationalities in Nad Al Hamar.
  • Part of the City School group founded in Pakistan in 1978, serving a largely Pakistani community in Dubai since 1989.

What they asked the school to improve:

  • Enrichment is weighted toward academics rather than the arts, and the compact campus limits extracurricular options compared with other British schools - a real constraint if your child’s life is in music, drama or sport.
  • Arabic, wellbeing and inclusion provision are the named challenge areas.
  • Leadership changed recently - which brings opportunity, and also means the record you are reading was earned partly under different management. Ask who is leading now and since when.

Inclusion (students of determination): Good for provision and outcomes for students of determination. The school has strengthened its assessment systems, enabling earlier identification of needs and the creation of individual education plans, with parents more involved in that process. Two published caveats matter and are precise: the quality of those plans varies, and provision is not consistently monitored across phases. 38 students were registered under SEN requirements at an earlier count. Inclusion is also named among the school’s challenge areas alongside Arabic and wellbeing - so a family whose child needs support should ask specifically how plan quality is checked, and by whom. 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.

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?

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 The City School International 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.

Would rather do it yourself? KHDA's page for this school, linked above, carries the contact details the school has registered with the regulator. We answer requests in the order they arrive, and we will tell you if a school does not reply - which is itself worth knowing before you apply.

Other schools in Nad Al Hamar

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.

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