Top Rated Schools in the UAE
Outstanding & Very Good rated.
Top Rated covers the two highest inspection bands, Outstanding and Very Good, and 139 UAE schools currently hold one of them: 37 Outstanding and 102 Very Good. They are not all judged by the same authority. 66 are Dubai schools inspected by KHDA, 55 are in Abu Dhabi under ADEK, 15 are in Sharjah under SPEA and 3 are in Ras Al Khaimah under RAK DOK. Those are four separate frameworks with their own inspectors and their own reports, so a Very Good in one emirate is not a converted Very Good from another. Inspectors judge attainment and progress, teaching, student wellbeing, leadership and the curriculum over several days, and a school can lose a band as well as gain one.
A top band implies nothing about the fee. The cheapest school in this list is The Indian High School in Bur Dubai, a CBSE school founded in 1961 and rated Very Good, at AED 5,525 to AED 10,465. The dearest is North London Collegiate School Dubai at AED 91,735 to AED 143,681, which holds that same Very Good band. Their starting fees differ by about sixteen times and the inspection outcome is identical, which is the single most useful thing this list can tell a parent.
The two bands are worth keeping apart. Outstanding is the top of a six-point scale and only 37 schools in the country hold it; Very Good is the band below and covers 102, nearly three times as many. A Very Good school is not a near miss, it is the second grade of six, but the two are not interchangeable when a list mixes them. Among the longest established at the top band are Dubai English Speaking School in Oud Metha, open since 1963, and Dubai College in Al Sufouh, open since 1978.
Nor is the band tied to one curriculum. 71 of the 139 teach a British curriculum, 32 offer the IB, 19 follow CBSE and 17 are American, with French, SABIS, CISCE and the UAE Ministry of Education curriculum making up the rest. GEMS Modern Academy in Nad Al Sheba pairs an Indian CISCE base with an IB Diploma finish, holds Outstanding, and starts at AED 30,983, below most British-curriculum schools sharing its grade.
All 141 institutions
Fees at a glance
| School | Curriculum | Annual fees from | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bateen World Academy | IB | AED 54,000 | Outstanding |
| Yasmina British Academy | British | AED 49,740 | Outstanding |
| GEMS Jumeirah Primary School | British | AED 44,200 | Outstanding |
| Dubai International Academy | IB | AED 44,979 | Outstanding |
| Dubai British School Jumeirah Park | British | AED 55,350 | Outstanding |
| The Sheikh Zayed Private Academy for Boys | American | AED 45,000 | Outstanding |
| Horizon English School | British | AED 43,849 | Outstanding |
| Nord Anglia International School Dubai | British | AED 69,625 | Outstanding |
| Lycée Français International | French | AED 29,488 | Outstanding |
| Muna British Academy | British | AED 52,973 | Outstanding |
Fees shown are annual starting tuition, read from each school's own published fee schedule and not estimated or interpolated; ratings come from KHDA, ADEK, SPEA and other regulator publications. How Talem verifies → Talem holds 5,698 published fee rows, one for every year group a school publishes, and 362 of the 416 schools listed publish 2026/2027 fees. Open a school's fee page for its full year-by-year ladder and the academic year it covers, or browse the UAE school fee index, every school that publishes a fee structure, grouped by emirate.
All 141 institutions, A to Z
Frequently asked questions
How many top-rated schools are there in the UAE?
Talem lists 141 schools holding Outstanding or Very Good at their most recent inspection: 37 Outstanding and 104 Very Good. They are judged by four separate authorities, KHDA in Dubai, ADEK in Abu Dhabi, SPEA in Sharjah and RAK DOK in Ras Al Khaimah.
Does a top rating mean higher fees?
No. Starting fees inside this one rating band run from AED 5,525 to AED 97,415 a year, and the highest senior-year fee reaches AED 143,681. The cheapest top-rated school in the country costs a small fraction of the dearest, so rating and price are close to independent.
Is an Outstanding in Dubai the same as an Outstanding in Abu Dhabi?
They are the same word rather than the same test. Four inspectorates run four frameworks with their own inspectors and reports, and a rating from one does not convert into a rating from another. Compare within an emirate before comparing across emirates.
How is this list ordered?
By inspection band first, then by parent star rating. It is rebuilt from the database rather than maintained by hand, so it changes when a rating changes, and no school pays to appear here or to sit higher.