Quick summary of key school information
All the details about this school in their own words
Number of students |
550 |
Number of nationalities represented in the school |
58 |
Most common nationality |
British |
Ratio of local students to international students |
We only have international students, our number 1 nationality is British, being 30% of the school, followed by Jordanian, American, Canadian, South African, Korean, Indian, Lebanese, Italian and Egyptian. French and Spanish are in our top 20, so a very Global feeling about the school. |
Max. number of students per class |
25 |
Average number of students per class |
Anything from 15-25 depending on the year group |
Does the school employ teaching assistants? |
Yes |
Native English speaking teachers |
Yes |
Language support for students not fluent in English |
We have an EAL department at Arcadia 'English as an additional language' that supports children with little or no English free of charge. |
Additional language classes offered by the school |
We offer Arabic, French and Spanish |
Use of technology in the classroom |
We are an Apple Distinguished School, one of 450 in the wold. This means we use Apple technology innovatively to support the child's learning. |
Do teachers assign homework to their students? |
We are a school that does homework in school, so the children have a slightly longer day than other schools in Dubai, meaning when they get home, all the homework is complete and the child can enjoy family time. |
Approximate hours of homework given |
We only recommend reading too or with parents when children get home. There is no homework as it will be completed in school. |
Uniform required |
Yes, we give the uniform free of charge every year, you get 2 sets of sports uniforms and 2 sets of school uniforms every year. |
Waiting list |
No, but the seats in FS2 and YR4 are limited |
Entry evaluation for students |
Yes, we run an assessment for children 3-5 years old that is play-based reviewing their development levels physically, emotionally, socially and academically. Then we run a paper test for children 5 years upwards in English and Maths apprpriate for their age that is supported by a teacher 1-1. The charge is AED500. |
Brief description of entry evaluation required |
We run an assessment for children 3-5 years old that is play-based reviewing their development levels physically, emotionally, socially and academically. Then we run a paper test for children 5 years upwards in English and Maths apprpriate for their age that is supported by a teacher 1-1. The charge is AED500 |
Deadline for registration (new academic year) |
There is no deadline, the school is open for enrollments at any time whilst there are seats available. |
Students can join after academic year begins |
Yes |
Percentage of students who pursue further education post-graduation |
Arcadia is currently FS1 to YR8 and has been open since September 2016. This is 3-year-olds to 12-year-olds. We have not had anyone graduate yet. The Senior School is opening organically and will open YR9 in 2021, YR10 & YR12 in 2022, YR11 & 13 in 2023. |
External examinations or assessments available |
GL Assessments are conducted at the year end from YR2 upwards |
Results in these examinations |
% of students working at or above expectations in the GL assessments for 2018/19 year-end were as follows in English: Year 2 96%, YR3 95%, YR4 80%, YR5 96%, YR6 96%. In Maths YR2 94%, YR3 86%, YR4 86%, YR5 88%, YR6 88%. In Science YR3 100%, YR4 93%, YR5 89%, YR6 88%. |
Do students practice religion at the school? What religion? |
All Students who are registered as Muslim attend Islamic studies from YR1 upwards 2-3 times a week. |
How does the school accommodate non-religious students or students of a different religion? |
When a Muslim pupil attends their Islamic class the other pupils are managed by a teacher and can choose from a number of activities, be it reading, revision, art, reviewing a topic or technology. This means that Muslim students do not miss out on any lessons. |
School bus service available |
Yes |
Dedicated staff/programs for students with special learning needs |
Yes, we have an 'Inclusive' team who support any children with learning needs free of charge. Should a child need a full time learning support teacher, we ask the parents to pay the additional cost of this whilst we help to recruit the LSA and employ them as our staff. |
Learning support offered |
We offer academic, physical and social support for a child. Plus we have a School Counsellor who is there to support the child emotionally. Should the child need Speech or language therapy, we work with some excellent providers or would be happy to work with the child's current therapist. |
The school supports gifted, able and talented students |
We have a Gifted and Talented program and we are a member of NACE, National Association For Able Children In Education, so follow their guidelines with several programs set up throughout the academic year. |
Student access to education psychologist |
We do not have an educational psychologist in the school, but we can guide parents on where to go should they need one. |
School start time |
8 am |
School finish time |
FS1 and FS2 finish at 2 pm every day. YR1 upwards finishes at 4 pm Sunday to Wednesday and 2 pm on a Thursday |
Supervised care before/after school |
Every day we offer an after school care club for FS1 and FS2 from 2 pm to 4 pm which costs AED100 per day. On a Thursday we offer an older after school care club for children from year 1 upwards from 2-4pm that costs AED100. |
Extracurricular activities or clubs offered |
We offer various extra-curriculum activities sport and non-sport related and we include 3 within the school fees that run during the school day. The sports activities on offer range from Ballet, Football, Dance, Gymnastics, Rugby, Dodgeball, Basketball, Tennis Skills, Martial Arts and Yoga. The child can choose 2 of these per week, included in the fees and they are run by professional coaches. The non-physical activities range from a choice of Robotics, Movie Making, Reading Club, Origami, Art and Craft, Islamic Art, Choir, DJ Skills and our very famous Junior MBA Club. Again your child can choose 1 of these to do per week and they are included in the fees. The majority of the sports extra curriculum activities are also run at 2 pm for 3-5-year-olds and 4 pm for 5-year-olds upwards, these sessions are additional on top of the 3 included and are chargeable. |
School provided lunches |
Yes, we have a lunch provider in the school called 'Slices'. The food is nutritional and healthy and costs around AED26 per day for a meal that includes soup, salad, a veg or meat main meal option, a piece of fruit and a choice of a bottle of water, laban or milk. You also have the option of sending your child to school with a packed lunch. |
Food alternatives for special dietary needs (ie. vegan, kosher, halal etc) |
We are a no nut, Halal meat, no sugar school and the lunch provider offers a vegetarian option for the child's main meal. |
Sports activities included |
We follow the English National Curriculum that includes 1 lesson of PE a week and 1 swimming lesson a week from FS2 term 3 upwards. We have a swimming squad, Netball team and football team from year 2 upwards that play competitively with other British schools. |
Sports facilities at the school |
We have a temperature-controlled swimming pool, a 5 a side football field, a Dojo room for martial arts and a dance studio with a ballet bar and sprung dance floor along with a fabulous multi-purpose sports hall with electric scoreboards. |
Sports teams or sport competitions available for students |
Yes, we have trials for Netball, Football and swimming squad from YR2 upwards. Once the team is formed they play against other British schools in Dubai competitively. |
Qualities and characteristics best defining the school |
The unique areas that define us are a school that makes parents life easier, teaching the children in academics, social and sport skills from 8 am to 4 pm. We include homework within the school day, we include extra curriculum activities in the fees, we include uniform in the fees and all textbooks are included in the fees. we only use Apple products when introducing the children to technology and we are an Apple distinguished school. We have a wonderful entrepreneurial spirit throughout the school and have already established one of the lessons that enrich the curriculum named 'The Junior MBA' class. We also offer specialist teachers from 3 years old upwards, who get to meet a music teacher, an IT teacher, an Art teacher, A PE teacher, A swimming instructor and language teachers. |
Teaching approach of the school |
We follow the EYFS and English National Curriculum programs from the UK, but the curriculum is enhanced and enriched with Arabic, choices of languages in Spanish and French, Islamic studies (for Muslim students), food technology and additional sports and business skills. The school is modern with state of the art technology methods but they don't dominate from traditional reading and writing. We want the children to fall in love with paper books, be great writers and have super writing and beautiful vocabulary. With this varied approach, the children are taught confidence in their personality and the ability to be an all-round global student that is future-ready. |