Emirates International School Meadows Review

In 2011/2012 the KHDA, Dubai's education regulator, improved Emirates International School Meadows rating by one grade to Good - a level which it has maintained ever since. The school is the younger sister to Emirates International School, Jumeirah, which is also ranked Good by the KHDA (and has been for five consecutive years).

The school follows the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum - it is a continuum school, meaning it offers the IB Primary Years Programme (IB PYP), the Middle Years Programme (IB MYP) and the Diploma Programme (IBDP) for those aged 16 and above. 

Like its sister school EIS, Meadows has in the past been worthy of considerable praise for the comprehensive provision of external examination data. This is key information for prospective students when choosing a school, and the EIS schools had been models for others to follow. Unfortunately the group seems to have stepped backwards in this regard, and since the launch of its prettier, but perhaps less informative web site, provides very little data. It does however provide some - which is better than many of the school's peers.

For the IB diploma, EIS Meadows had an average score of 30 for 2013 - a quite significant dip from 33 (out of 45) for 2012. At 33,the school was one of the highest achievers of all IB based schools in the UAE, at 30, one of the lowest, but still fractionally above the global average of 29.81. In 2015/16 the school achieved a 94% Diploma pass rate and a 32 points average - putting it in the middle of the pack on current results in the UAE.

The school no longer publishes anything to do with IGCSE exams which had been taken by students at 16.

EIS Meadows has previously been rated Outstanding for both attainment and progress for the core subjects of English, Maths and Science for Post-16 education. It has dipped from that high and is now Outstanding only for progress in Science and both attainment and progress in English. For Maths, for the last two years, it has been rated Good.

At secondary level, maths had previously been rated Outstanding for progress and attainment, but this year has fallen to Very Good. In English EIS Meadows is also rated Very Good, and Good at Science.

For primary and KG, the school is rated Good save for Maths which is rated Acceptable at Primary. Science is rated Acceptable at KG.

Elsewhere this is largely an improving school on a pretty strong foundation already. Particularly impressive is personal development, which is rated Outstanding at Mid and Post 16 phases. IB at its best is very good at developing the "human" and this can be seen very much in action at EIS Meadows.

Facilities at EISM are in general very good. The junior school's facilities consist of 65 classrooms with LCD projectors and interactive white boards, two IT suites, a library, a multi-purpose hall, a 20 meter indoor swimming pool, an outdoor sports turf, dedicated art, music, drama and language teaching rooms as well as conference and meeting suites for faculty and parents. Similarly the high school has 6 IT suites, a cafeteria, library, multi-purpose sports hall/gymnasium, dance studio, 20 meter indoor swimming pool, outdoor sports turf, two art suites, two music suites, a drama room and a language teaching room.

As of 2016/17 school fees range between 25000 per year for KG students to 75,726 for grade 12/Year 13 students - high end, but on a par for high achieving UK/IB based schools.

 

Notes

Notes: A “highly respectable” pass rate at IB that would be suitable for entrance into good red brick universities in the UK is around the 34 plus mark. Top-tier universities are officially looking for 38 plus. In reality a 40+ score is more likely to get a student into an Oxbridge.