Schools near Dubai Hills: 27 schools, fees, ratings and buses

This site places each school where its building is and shows KHDA's area name beside it when the two differ. Here the two differ more often than in any other area guide on this site: 13 of the 27 schools stand outside the area KHDA files them under.

Neither is a mistake: KHDA registers the official community name, this site the name families use for the same ground, and the two overlap only partly. In practice, search by the school's name or on the map, not by the KHDA area alone.

Kings School Al Barsha is the clearest case: KHDA files it under Al Barsha Second, its building is in Dubai Hills, and this site lists it on the Dubai Hills page with «KHDA area: Al Barsha Second» on its row. The Al Barsha guide on this site states plainly that it is not one of the 21 schools there.

In Al Barsha South, 9 of the 13 schools carry a different KHDA name: Australian International School Dubai, Bloom World Academy, Brighton College Dubai, Dubai Heights Academy, GEMS Al Barsha National School, GEMS Founders School – Al Barsha South and Nord Anglia International School are Al Barsha Second to KHDA; GEMS World Academy is Al Barsha First; Lycée Français Jean Mermoz South is Meadows. The Al Barsha guide explains why one neighbourhood has five KHDA names.

In Al Quoz, Credence High School is Al Qouz First to KHDA and stands in Al Quoz 4; Dewvale School is filed under Al Quoz 3 and stands in Al Quoz 4; Ambassador International Academy is Al Qouz Second to KHDA and stands in Al Quoz Industrial 2. The Al Quoz page prints each KHDA name on the school's row.

Dubai Hills, the area KHDA calls Al Khail, has 4 private schools; Al Barsha South, 5.1 km away, has 13 and Al Quoz, 5.2 km away, has 10: 27 schools in all. Tuition for the first year of primary in 2026–27 runs from AED 7,209 to AED 88,960 a year at the 26 schools that publish it. Of the 25 schools KHDA has rated, 20 hold Good or better at their latest inspection (2023–24 to 2025–26).

The table lists every school on the three pages with its curriculum, its latest KHDA rating and the year of that inspection, and its 2026–27 tuition for one stage: Year 1 at British schools, KG2 at IB, American, Indian CBSE and Australian schools, Grande section at the two French schools. That is the first year of primary in each system, the same stage the fee pages use, so the column compares like with like.

What the table shows

• Fees for this stage range from AED 23,143 to AED 60,656 in Dubai Hills, from AED 14,000 to AED 88,960 in Al Barsha South and from AED 7,209 to AED 46,420 at the 9 Al Quoz schools that publish one.
• Of the 26 schools with a figure, 6 list it under AED 20,000, 15 between AED 20,000 and AED 60,000 and 5 above AED 60,000. All six under AED 20,000 are in Al Quoz or Al Barsha South; the five above AED 60,000 are in Dubai Hills and Al Barsha South.
• Ratings: 3 schools are Outstanding, 10 Very good, 7 Good and 5 Acceptable; 2 have no rating yet. No school here is rated Weak or Very weak. Of the ratings, 22 date from 2023–24; Bloom World Academy's is from 2024–25, and Dhruv Global School's and Dewvale School's are from 2025–26.
• Eight schools list a 2026–27 fee for this stage below the figure KHDA approved; the table shows both.

Al Khail Road also divides the fees

KHDA's register shows the same gap in medians, not only at the ends of a range. For Year 5 (Grade 4) in 2024–25 the median fee was AED 57,668 in Al Khail and AED 59,977 in Al Barsha South First, but AED 20,942 in Al Qouz First (Areas). The three areas are neighbours; their fee levels are not.

Al Barsha South is the larger part of Al Barsha on this site: 13 of Al Barsha's 21 schools stand here, 7 of them British and 5 IB, with one American, one Australian, one French and one Indian CBSE school. The area has two curriculum lists: British curriculum schools in Al Barsha South and IB schools in Al Barsha South.

The full story of the area is in Choosing a school in Al Barsha: why one neighbourhood carries five KHDA names, what each of the 13 schools says about its buses, and the areas next door on that side. This guide keeps the 13 as rows in the table and does not repeat that page.

Counting a school that teaches two curricula under each, the 27 schools break down as 13 British, 7 IB, 7 Indian CBSE, 2 American, 2 French and 1 Australian. The British and IB schools sit mostly in Dubai Hills and Al Barsha South; five of the seven Indian CBSE schools are in Al Quoz. If the curriculum is already decided, this section says which page to open next.

British

Thirteen schools follow the British curriculum, 3 in Dubai Hills, 7 in Al Barsha South and 3 in Al Quoz, each group listed with map and fees: British curriculum schools in Dubai Hills, British curriculum schools in Al Barsha South, British curriculum schools in Al Quoz. Two of the thirteen, GEMS New Millennium School and Springdales School, also hold an Indian CBSE registration and run the April-to-March year.

The city-wide fee table is British school fees in Dubai 2026–27.

IB

Seven schools offer the IB: GEMS International School – Dubai Hills in Dubai Hills; Bloom World Academy, Dubai Heights Academy, GEMS World Academy, Nord Anglia International School and Safa Community School in Al Barsha South, listed together at IB schools in Al Barsha South; and Ambassador International Academy in Al Quoz. Three of the five in Al Barsha South teach the British curriculum as well.

Every IB school in Dubai is at IB schools in Dubai; the fee table is IB school fees in Dubai 2026–27.

Indian CBSE

Seven schools are Indian CBSE: GEMS New Millennium School in Dubai Hills, Dhruv Global School in Al Barsha South, and five in Al Quoz, listed together at Indian CBSE schools in Al Quoz: Credence High School, Dewvale School, GEMS Our Own Indian School, Global Indian International School and Springdales School. Six of them are on the CBSE board's SARAS register; Dhruv Global School's CBSE affiliation is stated on the school's own website.

The Al Quoz CBSE page uses Grade 1 as its stage, so its range, AED 8,250 to AED 26,723, differs from the KG2 figures in the table. All seven run the April-to-March school year; see «Dates and applying» below. Every CBSE school in Dubai is at Indian CBSE schools in Dubai; the fee table is CBSE school fees in Dubai 2026–27.

American, French and Australian

Two schools are American curriculum, Dubai Schools Al Barsha in Al Barsha South and Dubai International Private School – Al Quoz in Al Quoz; both are on American curriculum schools in Dubai. Two are French, Lycée Français Jean Mermoz in Al Quoz and its second campus Lycée Français Jean Mermoz South in Al Barsha South. One, Australian International School Dubai in Al Barsha South, follows the Australian curriculum.

The French and Australian schools have no curriculum page of their own on this site; their pages are linked in the table, and all curricula are counted at Curricula.

What each system means, which exam it ends with and how a child moves between them: Choosing a curriculum in Dubai.

Routes are set by each school and its operator, so this page repeats only what each school's own website says. Of the 27 schools, 19 say something about transport: four publish their service areas with a fee, one a single fee for all areas, and the rest name an operator or a rule. Pages were read on 11 October 2026; one site that did not open that day shows its reading of 22 September 2026 on its card. Routes and prices change yearly, so confirm with the school before you sign a tenancy.

The websites of the other 8 did not describe their buses when we read them on 22 September 2026. They may still run buses, so ask the school's admissions team.

Three of the four Dubai Hills schools describe their buses on their own websites, and each names an operator, not zones or a fee. The published bus facts that name Dubai Hills as a place come from Dubai Heights Academy and Springdales School in the two neighbouring areas, and from schools outside the three areas in the second group below.

The schools here, in their own words

Al Barsha South, the other schools: Australian International School Dubai, Brighton College Dubai, Dhruv Global School, GEMS Al Barsha National School, GEMS Founders School – Al Barsha South, GEMS World Academy and Safa Community School describe their buses too. Their cards, with page addresses, are in the Al Barsha guide.

Schools elsewhere whose published routes name Dubai Hills, Al Khail, Al Quoz or Al Barsha South

Each line is the school's own wording in summary, from the page named, read 11 October 2026. Where a school stands is on its page; none of these sixteen is in the three areas.

What this tells a family choosing where to live

A family living in Dubai Hills relies on these published routes, or on the seat a school's operator confirms for its address.

Six schools outside the three areas name Dubai Hills on their published routes, and eleven name Al Quoz or Al Khail Gate; Lycée Français International lists Al Quoz among the areas its buses do not currently cover. Ask the school for written confirmation of a seat before you rely on any list.

Transport prices across Dubai, from the Fees Fact Sheets: Other costs; for 2026–27 the typical range is AED 5,500 to AED 9,225 a year across 200 schools. What else comes with tuition: School costs beyond tuition in Dubai 2026–27.

If you live at the edge of one of these areas, a school in the next area may be closer than one on the far side of these three. The hub pages list the areas within 10 km, nearest first, by straight-line distance between the two areas' schools.

Four of them matter most to a family comparing addresses: Al Barsha with 8 schools, whose guide is Choosing a school in Al Barsha; Umm Suqeim and Al Safa on the coast side of Al Quoz; and Dubai Sports City, 4.3 km from Al Barsha South. Meydan City, 8.2 km from Dubai Hills, has its own guide: Schools near Meydan and Nad Al Sheba.

For an address you already have in mind, Schools near where you will live shows the nearest schools from an area or a landmark; Dubai Hills, Al Barsha South and Al Quoz are all in its list.

Two school years run side by side here. Nineteen of the 26 schools with a KHDA calendar follow the August year for 2026–27: 31 August 2026 to 2 July 2027, 185 school days. The 7 Indian CBSE schools follow the April year: 6 April 2026 to mid-March 2027, 182 days (183 at Global Indian International School), with last days between 17 and 23 March.

A family arriving in summer therefore joins a CBSE school part-way through its year, and a child moving between an April-start and an August-start school can land in a different year group: check Which year group is my child in? with both dates. The Scholars School has no calendar in the KHDA data we read.

The first break on the schools' KHDA calendars: 17 of the August-start schools pause from 12 to 16 October 2026; Oak Tree Primary School from 12 to 18 October; GEMS Al Barsha National School's calendar lists no first mid-term break. The April-start schools show no October break.

Each school's own calendar is on its page; every school's dates are in Dubai school calendar 2026–27, and the city-wide picture is at Calendar.

Each school places a child by age and, from Grade 1 / Year 2, by the transfer certificate from the last school. Most schools then run their own assessment and keep a waiting list; the steps are in Applying to a Dubai school. Each school's page here gives its fee schedule and inspection reports.