Al Najah Private School

An affordable, large UK-curriculum school in MBZ City that recently added the IB Diploma, drawing heavily from the Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian expat communities.

Founded in 1987 on Abu Dhabi Island and relocated to Mussafah/MBZ City in 1995, Al Najah now enrols around 2,460 students with fees in the AED 13,000 to AED 30,000 range. That puts it among the most affordable IB Diploma options in the emirate.

ADEK inspections single out distributed leadership, student behaviour and a safe, caring atmosphere as real strengths. Class sizes run larger than at premium schools, with FS ratios around 1:22 and around 1:16 elsewhere. Parents report steady year-on-year improvements and praise teaching quality given the fee tier. Families typically compare Al Najah with Bright Riders and other affordable MBZ options rather than the Saadiyat premium set.

• ADEK rated the school Good in 2021-22, with strengths in distributed leadership, student attitudes, behaviour and safeguarding. Inspectors named four specific weaknesses: achievement in Arabic-medium subjects, support for lower and higher attainers, KG1 assessment, and communication with parents.
• Edarabia reviews from 2020-2024 are consistently positive and short, with parents praising teaching, communication and SEN provision. One parent wrote that staff "answer fast and do the best to work together with the parents".
• One parent flagged that the online parent-teacher conference system lacked organisation, and a separate strand of comments raises concerns about student behaviour including vaping and class-skipping.
• Student body skews regional rather than international: roughly a third Egyptian and a fifth Jordanian, with Emirati students at about 6%.
• Fees sit at the lower end of Abu Dhabi's British/IB market, around AED 14,000 to AED 30,000 a year.