Dubai International School, Al Garhoud

Dubai International School was founded in 1985. The school is located in the heart of Dubai with one branch situated in Al Garhoud area and another in Al Qoz area. The chosen locations of the branches make it suitable to serve the most populated areas in Dubai and the northern Emirates.

DIS is a KG–12 school providing education to a culturally-diverse community of students aged from 3 to 18 years old. DIS offers a curriculum that is student-centered and inquiry based following the guidelines of the US Common Core Standards in the core subjects.

DIS accepts students regardless of their nationality, religion, color, or race. The school is committed to provide equal opportunity of education to students with special needs in compliance with the provisions of Law No. 29/2006 related to the Rights of People with Special Needs in the field of education.

The school follows the American Curriculum (California CCSS and NGSS) in English, Math, Sciences, Social Sciences, Commercial Sciences, Physical Education, Art, and Music. Arabic, Islamic Education and Social Studies follow the Ministry of Education curriculum. The school’s programs are designed to meet the vision and mission of the school, and they are continuously modified accordingly. Highly qualified and experienced heads of departments together with the school’s curriculum coordinator monitor the implementation of each program in each department. The following subjects are offered in the stages mentioned earlier.

D.I.S. is a bilingual school, where English is the medium of instruction in all classes for all subjects except for those following the curriculum of the Ministry of Education; Arabic Language, Islamic Education, and Social Studies are taught in Arabic. An emphasis is also placed on the teaching of the French Language which starts at the Kindergarten.

In addition to the academic offerings, the school puts a lot of emphasis on Extra-curricular and lesson-related activities. The school offers Arts and Music to all students starting from the KG levels up to grade 6. Grade 10 students take Visual Art as an Elective Course. Physical Education and swimming classes are offered to all grade levels.

The school is keen to prepare the students for the 21st century learning; all DIS staff provide students with the needed opportunity to gain the needed knowledge and master the required skills. All DIS students participate in co-curricular, extra-curricular, and cross-curricular activities. The school also plans for out-of- school activities throughout the year. Students are encouraged to take part in all events, national and international, as well as community and outer-community services.

The school allows for a wider range of activities and learning experiences through the varied and many clubs, which take place after the regular school hours and on Saturdays like Art Club, Music Club, Computer Club, Islamic Club, French Club, Robotics Club, Football Club, Basketball Club, Swimming Club, Karate Club, and Debate Club.

We are excited to tell you about our new venture that we are embarking on as a whole school which will involve teaching about society’s core values. DIS core values were created with a few of our DIS -Al Garhoud- leaders who brainstormed a combination incorporating the KHDA values & internationally accepted values. Our values are right at the heart of what DIS is, driving what we do and how we do it. We have always prided ourselves on being a caring school with a positive atmosphere.

Values education provides a structure for understanding civilized societies’ values, so that everyone is clear about the way we should act and behave. By introducing Values education, we will be helping your children, our students, to better understand a range of basic society values. We are trying to create the atmosphere so our students take more responsibility to better prepare themselves for the global world of change within their future.

Values education is not something entirely new for us, we have always worked in collaboration with parents and the whole school community, in teaching the children how to be responsible, make good choices and be the very best that they can be, ensuring they get the most out of every aspect of school life. We are sure that you will be pleased that your children will be thinking and learning about how to put these values into their lives, empowering them to take responsibilities and making the right choices to face whatever school and the wider world throws at them.

We will focus on one specific value each month and parents & students will be able to access the ‘This Month’s Value’ newsletter on the website that you can share at home with your child. We appreciate all parents to also encourage the importance of values within our society to reinforce the importance within our global world. We hope that this will encourage our students to help their own community, family, friends, and ultimately take it with them to university and their future work environment. Please make sure you inform us, of things your child has done or said to demonstrate these learned values, so we can share it with our school.