GEMS Founders School in Dubai to increase student intake from next academic year

Private-schools operator GEMS Education has said that it will increase the student intake at its GEMS Founders School – Dubai (GFS) in Al Barsha.

It will increase the capacity at its school by an initial 1,000 places from the start of the 2021-2022 academic year and will subsequently increase that figure to 1,800 “in the longer term”.

The school’s campus will be enlarged to encompass the purpose-built site previously occupied by GEMS Al Barsha National School for Boys, located adjacent to GEMS Founders School.

GFS was was opened in 2016 as a FS1 to Year 8 institution. In September 2018, it received approval to open Year 10 and Year 12, allowing it to launch its IGCSE and A Level programmes.

Today, GFS is a full through-school, offering Cambridge and Oxford AQA International Examination boards.

It achieved a Good rating in its first Dubai School Inspection Bureau, as well as the highest grade possible in the Remote Learning Evaluations. It is also a fully accredited British School Overseas with the Department for Education in the UK, with five of the eight areas rated Outstanding and the rest Good.

GFS said that its expansion is subject to final approvals from the government.

“The GEMS Founders brand has shifted the education landscape in Dubai, ensuring families have access to the fantastic quality they have come to expect of a GEMS Education school and at an affordable fee point. The success of the GEMS Founders model is reflected in the opening of a second GEMS Founders School in Al Mizhar in 2018 and now the further expansion of the first school,” said Matthew Burfield, principal and CEO of GEMS Founders School – Dubai and vice president of Education at GEMS Education.

Fees at GFS start at Dhs22,455 for FS1 and go up to Dhs33,683 for Year 13 students.

In related developments from the GEMS network, the GEMS Kindergarten Starters school has received approvals to become an all-through K-12 facility beginning from the 2021-22 academic year.

Read: GEMS Kindergarten Starters in Dubai to become a K-12 school