Olive International School, Chennai | International Schools Guide

A faith-based Islamic international school in Shenoy Nagar that pairs an Edexcel academic track with Quran memorisation and Islamic studies.

Olive International School was founded in 2004 by Dr. Mohammed Junaid Ghatala, who remains senior principal and correspondent. It runs from Pre-KG through Grade 12 on a single compact campus, following the Pearson Edexcel curriculum to International GCSE and GCE A-Level. Boys and girls are taught with separate entrances and facilities, and the school reports a small enrolment of around 417 with a low pupil-to-teacher ratio. Hifz of the Quran and Islamic studies sit alongside the formal academic timetable rather than as add-ons.

Families drawn here tend to want British qualifications inside an Islamic setting, and the school's Pearson learner awards in subjects including English, Mathematics and Arabic support that academic side. Space is the common reservation: the city-centre site is short on playground and sports facilities, and some parents feel the fees sit high against the physical campus.

Families who have passed through Olive talk less about results tables and more about the texture of the place: a school that runs the formal Edexcel timetable and the religious one side by side, on a few floors of an older commercial block above a bank rather than a purpose-built campus. The teachers and ustaads draw warm, repeated praise for the attention each child gets and for pairing academics with manners and Deen, and parents single out the Hifz and Islamic studies as stronger than what they found elsewhere in the city. The recurring catch is physical: no real playground or grounds, so sport tends to get arranged through outside programmes, and a number of parents feel the fees ask a lot for the building they are paying into.

Islamic studies and Hifz. Parents consistently rate the Quran memorisation and Islamic studies as a cut above other Muslim schools in Chennai, with families describing children who come away genuinely practising rather than just instructed.

Teachers and pastoral attention. Recurring praise for hardworking teachers and ustaads who pair academics with moral grounding, and for management that parents describe as caring and responsive; the small classes are felt as individual attention.

Manners and conduct. Several parents credit the school with visible improvement in their children's behaviour, language and good manners, framing the Deen-alongside-academics approach as the reason.

Campus and grounds. The most common complaint is the site itself: a school spread over floors of an older commercial building with no campus or playground, which some reviewers describe in blunt terms.

Sport and facilities. With no grounds of its own, sport and physical activity often have to be arranged through outside or private programmes rather than provided in-house, something parents note as a gap.

Fees against the building. A repeated reservation is that the fees feel high relative to the physical premises, with parents weighing the cost against the lack of facilities.