British School Al Khubairat

Known as the best British school in Abu Dhabi, British School Al Khubairat currently serves 1,900 students aged 3 to 18 years. The school was established in 1968, making it one of the oldest schools in the capital city.
British School Al Khubairat started operations as a non-profit UK curriculum based primary school but later in 2005, it included a secondary section in the new building. It now offers classes from Foundation Year 1 (Nursery) to Year 13.

The co-education school welcomes students from over 50 different nationalities but most students belong to the UK, Australia, Canada and the UAE. Among enrolled students, a significant number is recognised as Gifted and Talented.

The staff-to-student ratio in the Foundation Stage is 1:8 ensuring undivided personal attention for each child.

British School Al Khubairat has been sponsored by His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the President of the UAE since 1980. The school developed extensively, especially in the last decade, and modernised its facilities. British School Al Khubairat has won many awards as the leading British school in the UAE.

British School Al Khubairat is mostly surrounded by villa communities. Some well-known residential neighbourhoods near the school include:

• Al Mushrif
• Al Bateen
• Al Nahyan

Al Mushrif is located between Al Khaleej Al Arabi Street and Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Street. The area was one of the leading choices for renting villas in Abu Dhabi in 2019. Al Bateen is an area filled with landscaped gardens. It is home to the city’s main fishing ports. Named after the ruling family of the UAE, Al Nahyan has become a central part of the capital city neighbouring Al Karamah and Al Mushrif.

The school has a purpose-built campus featuring excellent facilities. It has a theatre with a capacity of 340 students and a large auditorium with a capacity of 600 students. There is a grass pitch next to the school.

Two well-equipped libraries are also part of the school facilities. The classrooms are spacious and airy. The whole campus reflects modern architecture as it has gone through extensive redevelopment over the years.

British School Al Khubairat is close to Al Karamah Street and Umm Salamah Street near the Airport Road area. Umm Al Emarat Park is a short drive away while several other schools can also be spotted near British School Abu Dhabi.

British School Al Khubairat (BSAK) offers a high-quality academic program supported by a wide range of co-curricular activities. It is known as the best British school in the capital. Unlike other schools, BSAK Abu Dhabi publishes the results of its external examination to help parents and students understand how well students have performed at the school.

The 2018 GCSE results reveal the high education standards of the school as 126 students achieved passing grades. In 2016, the school made headlines because its students were accepted into the top 17 universities in the world including Harvard, Browns, John Hopkins, Stanford, Columbia and Princeton. The students received full merit scholarships from Boston and Fordham University. One student chose to study economics at Harvard University.

This school has its name in the list of best schools in Abu Dhabi.

British School Khubairat Abu Dhabi has won many awards. BSAK is the only school in Abu Dhabi to be awarded an Outstanding rating in the British School Overseas (BSO) Inspection. The inspection is commissioned by the Department of Education and it compares the standards of education among the leading private schools in the UK.

BSAK won the Best British School Award and the Best Post 12 Education in the UAE Top Schools Award. It is also the first school outside the UK to receive the Silver Status School Mental Health Award from the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools. The school achieved the top level of the British Council’s International School Award (ISA) in 2017.

The school offers the best Early Years Foundation Stage and the National Curriculum of England. The curriculum is modified keeping in mind the culture of the UAE.

A caring, learning environment is created for students in Nursery and Reception. The National curriculum subjects and all compulsory subjects by the Ministry of Education are integrated to build an academically enriched curriculum. Core subjects during primary and secondary years are Mathematics, English, Humanities, Geography, History and Social Studies and Science. Language options include French, Spanish and Arabic.

For Years 12 and 13, Sixth Form students are given the option to choose from 23 A-Level options and a BTEC Level 3 Diploma. Other than the traditional academic subjects, students at BSAK can opt for Drama, Product Design, Psychology, Photography, Fashion and Textiles.

The school was inspected by the ADEK from 14th to 17th October 2018 and was rated Outstanding. The report states that the school has improved since its last inspection. The school has received an Outstanding rating in all six aspects including:

• Students’ Achievement
• Students’ Personal and Social Development
• Teaching and Assessment
• Curriculum
• Protection, care and guidance
• Leadership and management
• According to the report, skills and knowledge of students in the Foundation Stage are above expectations. Students’ achievement in subjects in Arabic is also above expectation.

Key strengths of the school include:

• Very high attainment and rapid progress in the subjects shown by students
• Exceptionally positive behaviour towards learning demonstrated by students
• Students’ understanding of Emirati culture
• Teachers’ comprehensive knowledge and their skilful use of strategies to accelerate learning
• School’s curriculum that promotes strong academic progress and high aspirations
• High level of café and support provided by the school
• Determination amongst school leaders to further improve through incisive self-evaluation and effective planning

Key areas of improvement suggested by the ADEK are:

• Improvement of teaching and learning in Arabic subjects to match with those in English
• Raising students’ skills to listen, speak, read and write in Arabic
• Improvement in quality of feedback to help students understand and improve

British School Al Khubairat academic calendar is divided into three terms.

• The first terms starts in the last week of August and ends in the second week of December. It is followed by a 3-week of winter break.
• The second term begins in the first week of January and concludes in the last week of March. Students then enjoy spring break for 2 weeks.
• The third term commences in the second week of April and ends in the first week of July, followed by a 2-month summer vacation.

Applicants can use the online British School Al Khubairat admissions form available on the school’s website. The application form should be submitted with the required documents. The school contacts the applicants if any additional documents are needed. Once the application is submitted successfully, the school sends an acknowledgement email to the applicant.

If a candidate is offered a seat in school and he/she is not yet a resident of Abu Dhabi and does not have a residence visa, the residence visa and Emirates ID of the sponsor and child should be submitted at the school within 60 days.

Before starting the admission process, parents must ensure that your child meets the following age placement guideline.

This is based on the age of the students on 31st August (for schools beginning in September). Source: ADEK

* This is to cater to students transferring from systems that admit students of a younger age)

The above-mentioned annual fee can be paid in three parts.

• 1st term is the Autumn term
• 2nd term is the Spring term
• 3rd term is the Summer term

The British School does not have additional charges for textbooks and other materials. For more information regarding the admission and British School Al Khubairat fee, visit the official website.

The BSAK Scholars Programme is developed by the school to support the most talented students. This is usually referred to as the gifted and talented programme.

Scholarships are awarded for academic, music and sports programmes. These scholarships guarantee that the ‘most able’ students have the opportunity to exceed their expectations and achieve their highest potential at the school. All external scholars’ applications are assessed through document checks, school reports and references in line with the school’s general admission policy. All interested applicants should apply for the scholarships at least a year before.

Academic scholarships are awarded without considering any application. However, music and sports scholarships are awarded based on applications.

A Khubairat British School Abu Dhabi partnered with Food Nation in 2019 to provide hygienic food to students, staff, parents and visitors.

Food Nation is a well-known school catering company that provides nutritious and tasty food through the Eat Bright Programme. All food items are created in-house without artificial colours, flavours, sweeteners, chemicals, additives, preservatives and trans-fats.

The head chef, Magnus Mumby has more than 30 years of experience of working in food allergy clinics and high-end restaurants at a Michelin level.

Primary Dining Hall is situated adjacent to the Jubilee Building where hot meals are served. Students can take light snacks from the dining hall.

Parents can discuss meals with the Food Nation staff during the Back to School event. Pre-payments for the food can be made online through Food Nation’s official website.

BSAK Abu Dhabi has collaborated with Shanawaz Transport Services to provide excellent school bus services. Shanawaz Transport has a large fleet of buses. All buses have internal and external CCTV and GPS location systems. Parents can track the timing of the bus and the exact location of the bus through an app.

All the buses are regularly inspected and comply with DoT (Department of Transport) and ADEK (The Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge) regulations. Both bus drivers and supervisors are professionally trained and certified.

Bus service payments can be made directly at the BSAK accounts departments. Please send an email to bsak@shanawazgroup.com to learn more about the school bus service.

Spring, summer and winter camps are offered to students.

BSAK offers holiday sports camps during the October half-term and December holidays and may offer more such camps during other breaks in the future.

The camp is arranged for students from Year 3 to Year 9 and runs 5 days a week from 07:30 am to 03:30 pm. The sports camp includes a range of activities such as swimming, dodgeball, football, fun games, basketball, obstacle challenges and water slides. External service providers such as H2O Swim Club also offer holiday camps at BSAK during spring, summer and winter holidays.

As a part of the curriculum, holiday camps extend to international trips for secondary school. Overseas trips organised by the school in the past include visits to:

• Iceland
• Germany
• San Francisco, USA
• UK
• Borneo
• Malaysia
• Tanzania

Sports are an integral part of student life at the British School Al Khubairat, Abu Dhabi and it provides outstanding sports opportunities. The school has an inclusive Physical Education and Games curriculum that’s part of its extensive extracurricular programme.

British School Al Khubairat Abu Dhabi has a good reputation across the Middle East and has one of the well-established and strongest sports teams. The sports team takes part in the Abu Dhabi School Sports Association (ADISSA) and Dubai Athletic Schools Sports (DASSA) competitions held every week.

BSAK Abu Dhabi is the only school that’s part of regular fixtures in the Dubai network. It also competes in British Schools Middle East (BSME) and Council of British International Schools (COBIS) matches. The school team is the current champion in three out of five major sporting competitions hosted by BSME and COBIS.

Some key sports offered at the school hub are:

To enrich the educational experience, an extensive range of co-curricular activities are offered at BSAK. Students can sign up for their desired activities via the online co-curricular management system.

These include academic, recreational, instrumental and sports activities for each term. Team building and confidence are developed through these activities. Some activities are invite-only while others involve trial selections.

Art and Music departments are an important part of BSAK. More than 450 instrument lessons are planned every week and are delivered by ten full-time and three part-time music teachers. Arts is incorporated into the curriculum to increase creative skills in students. Photography, graphic designing and fine arts are part of GCSE and A-Level sections. Students can also take part in the prestigious Duke of Edinburgh award and full-time Model United Nations (MUN).

To support teaching and learning, a range of trips and visits are offered at BSAK. All year groups get the opportunity to participate in age-appropriate trips.

Education-based overseas trips are scheduled for the secondary section. In the past, students went to Iceland, San Francisco, Germany, the UK, Malaysia and Tanzania. Students are also taken on local trips.

British School Abu Dhabi has a variety of after-school activities scheduled after regular school hours. Some activities are offered after school in collaboration with external providers. These include:

BSAK’s school clinic is managed by three HAAD registered school nurses and two administrators. Nurses are responsible for providing first-aid and emergency care in addition to ensuring the safety of students at all times. Other responsibilities include:

• Following tailored care plans for students with particular health needs
• Working with families to manage chronic health condition such as Asthma and Diabetes
• Conducting annual health screening as a requirement stated by the Health Authority Abu Dhabi
• Monitoring and keeping a record of height, weight, vision screening of students from Year 2 to Year 13
• Carrying out the UAE vaccination programme in collaboration with Abu Dhabi Health Services nurses
• Providing health-related knowledge and education to students and staff
• Promoting health and wellness in the school community
• Providing first aid and medical kits during field trips and sports events

The school website has a dedicated tab for the parent-portal. Here, parents can get news about the school or get in touch with the school.

• Telephone: +971-2-204-0200
• Email: registrar@britishschool.sch.ae
• Website British School Al Khubairat
• Facebook British School Al Khubairat
• Instagram British School Al Khubairat
• Twitter British School Al Khubairat

Note that the cover image belongs to British School Al Khubairat