GEMS Founders School Al Waha - which was due to open in September 2020 - will eventually be the third affordable GEMS school bearing the Founders' brand.

The story so far...

For a brand new school, there is rather more of a back story to the opening of GEMS Founders School Al Waha than would ordinarily be expected!  That is because this is the third school to be planned for Al Waha, which lies behind Sustainable City and inland from the Al Waha and Layyan housing developments. 

Back in 2017, GEMS announced the opening of GEMS Vertus School, which was expected to open in September 2019.  Prior to this, the GEMS School of Digital Futures had also been announced and was slated to open in September 2018, and then subsequently delayed until September 2019.  Both were expected to open in Al Waha, although it was not clear if this was to be on the same site. 

When it was originally announced, we at WhichSchoolAdvisor.com predicted that the opening of GEMS Founders Al Waha, would be a case of  third time lucky. 

However, whilst we at WhichSchoolAdvisor.com understood that the ongoing arrangements for the new Founders School were being led by Matthew Burfield, who led the highly successful opening of the first Founders School in Al Barsha South, with staff being recruited, and believed that it was only a matter of time (and regulatory approvals) before the launch went ahead, there has been another twist to the story!

In March 2021, all the plans for the postponed opening of GFW were turned upside down by the announcement that GEMS Founders Al Barsha would be expanding in to the vacant, adjacent campus previously used by the short-lived GEMS Al Barsha National School for Boys (which has now merged with the neighbouring GEMS Al Barsha National School for Girls to become the GEMS Al Barsha National School).

Assuming the planned opening of the Al Waha school does eventually take place, the new location will be handy for anyone travelling on the Emirates Road and inbound towards Arabian Ranches and will clearly help meet the demand for another affordable school along the same lines as GEMS Founders Al Barsha and the newer sister school, GEMS Founders Al Mizhar.

At the time of its launch, we expected that, in line with the other Founders branches, GEMS Founders Al Waha would offer the UK National Curriculum and similar affordable fees.  Fees at the Al Barsha branch range from AED 22,455 in FS1 to AED 33,683 in Year 13.  Fees at the Al Mizhar branch are AED 23,000 to AED 30,000 (for Year 9, the highest year group currently).  

This review will be updated as more information becomes available.

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