The Guide
Sat, 16 May 2026

Cities / Sharjah / Wesgreen International School

Wesgreen International School

Wesgreen International School is one of the largest British-curriculum schools in Sharjah, founded in 1991 by the Sharjah Royal Family and acquired by GEMS Education in 2017. The Muweilah campus serves around 3,200 students from 75-plus nationalities across FS1 to…


Curriculum
British, IGCSE, A-Level
Fees, annual
AED 24–52k
Ages
3 to 18
Pupils
~3,200
Founded
1991

The longest established British curriculum school in Sharjah, operated by GEMS, rated Outstanding by BSO and a default mid-priced choice for families across the emirate.

Wesgreen opened in 1991 in Muweilah, was acquired by GEMS in 2017 and now serves over 3,000 students across more than 60 nationalities. The school runs the National Curriculum for England with IGCSE and A Level, holds BSO Outstanding and is a member of BSME, with James McDonald as principal. Pedagogical frameworks like High Performance Learning are embedded across the school. Fees run from around AED 23,545 to AED 52,180, with GEMS payment discounts available.

Parents praise teacher attentiveness, the breadth of the co-curricular offer and visible academic progress in younger years. The BSO inspection flags strong outcomes from FS2 upward, with high proportions of children exceeding age-related expectations. The questions families should ask are about class sizes given the school's scale, and how individual attention holds up in the larger year groups. Wesgreen, Scholars International Academy and Sharjah English School are the three names that come up most often in side-by-side comparisons in Sharjah.


Fee Age Type Amount
FS1 3 Annual AED 23,545
FS2 4 Annual AED 23,545
Year 1 5 Annual AED 23,545
Year 2 6 Annual AED 28,000
Year 3 7 Annual AED 28,000
Year 4 8 Annual AED 28,025
Year 5 9 Annual AED 30,500
Year 6 10 Annual AED 30,650
Year 7 11 Annual AED 30,705
Year 8 12 Annual AED 34,735
Year 9 13 Annual AED 34,735
Year 10 14 Annual AED 38,250
Year 11 15 Annual AED 41,465
Year 12 16 Annual AED 46,540
Year 13 17 Annual AED 52,180
New Admission Fee (non-refundable, adjustable against Term 1) One-time AED 1,000

  • Staff-side signal is consistently cautious, with teachers flagging disorganised leadership, limited classroom support, scarce resources, weak SEN and extra-English support, and heavy busywork.
  • Some teacher comments are still positive about students, parents, salary, and the staff team, so the concern is less about the pupil community and more about management and resourcing.
  • Parent-specific review signal is limited in the public sources found, so the strongest evidence is about staff experience and the conditions around teaching.

Head of school

Mr. James Francis McDonald

James McDonald is the Principal/CEO of Wesgreen International School – Sharjah, bringing over two decades of leadership experience across the UK, Qatar, Egypt, China, and the UAE. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Education from John Moores University and was recently appointed as the Chairman of the Association of British Schools Overseas (AoBSO). James is committed to delivering a high-quality, stimulating learning environment and has led the school to achieve exceptional academic results and an 'Outstanding' BSO rating. He is a strong advocate for global citizenship and high performance learning, ensuring students are equipped with a comprehensive education for the wider world.

Accreditations

  • British Schools Overseas (DfE) 01
  • British Schools in the Middle East accreditation 02

  • SPEA Rating Good (Nov 2024)
  • Accreditation BSO, BSME, HMC, HPL

Muwaileh Commercial, Sharjah, UAE (near American University of Sharjah)

School website