Raha International School

The short version

The short version

Raha International School’s Gardens Campus opened in 2006 and was the first school in Abu Dhabi fully authorised to deliver the complete International Baccalaureate continuum — PYP, MYP and Diploma Programme.

Owned and operated by Taaleem, it teaches around 2,200 students of more than 90 nationalities on a 14-acre, deliberately low-rise campus in the Raha Gardens community of Khalifa City, and has run waiting lists for most of its twenty years.↗↗

For an expat family, the practical summary is this: if you want the full IB pathway in Abu Dhabi, Raha is the reference school — the 2024 Diploma cohort passed at 96% with a 34-point average and a perfect-45 scorer. But go in clear-eyed on two things.

First, the ADEK rating is Very Good, not Outstanding: the school lost its top grade in 2023 and kept Very Good in its September 2025 inspection. Second, “Raha” is two schools — the Gardens Campus (Very Good) and the newer Khalifa City Campus (rated Good) — so confirm exactly which campus you are applying to.↗↗↗

What the school is

The grand dame of Abu Dhabi IB

Raha’s first-mover advantage is structural: while newer Abu Dhabi schools are still bedding in Diploma cohorts, Raha has been graduating IB students for close to two decades, and that maturity shows in a mature, embedded programme rather than an experimental one.

The campus itself reinforces the identity — designed like a traditional Arabic village of low-rise blocks, piazzas and palm-lined walkways rather than the glass education towers elsewhere in the city. Parents consistently describe the atmosphere as relaxed and community-driven.↗

The ownership matters to how you read it: Taaleem is a listed, for-profit operator — the UAE’s second largest — which brings professional systems and investment (Raha’s facilities include three gyms, two pools, three libraries and a 600-seat theatre with an orchestra pit), and also the discipline of shareholder returns that not-for-profit schools like BSAK do not have.

Both Raha campuses are IB continuum schools and are candidates for the IB Career-related Programme, planned for September 2026 with BTEC Level 3 alongside.↗↗

The second campus is the detail most families miss. Khalifa City Campus (KCC), announced in 2019 and opened in September 2020, was designed by Singapore architects CPG for up to 3,000 students and now operates as an independent school under the RIS brand, seven minutes from Gardens.

Its ADEK rating is Good — below the Gardens Campus’s Very Good. Marketing speaks of “Raha” as one school; the regulator does not.↗↗

Academics in practice

A rising IB record against a lowered rating

The headline academic fact is the 2024 Diploma cohort: a 96% pass rate, a 34-point average (comfortably above the roughly 30-point global mean), and a perfect 45-point scorer, across 29 Diploma subjects — described as the school’s best-ever results. The school is also CIS-accredited.

We could not verify published 2025 Diploma figures in this pass; ask the school for the dated table.↗↗

The inspection record runs in the opposite direction.

Raha held ADEK’s Outstanding rating in 2015-16 and 2017-18 — then the only IB school in the UAE outside Dubai to reach the top grade — but was demoted to Very Good in the 2022-23 results, a decision WhichSchoolAdvisor reported “clearly came as a disappointment” to the community.

The September 2025 inspection kept the school at Very Good. The gap between strong IB outcomes and a merely Very Good rating is the central question for a visit: ADEK weighs Arabic, Islamic education, national identity and inclusion alongside the English-medium academics where IB schools tend to shine.↗↗

Leadership has churned through that period: long-serving principal Iain Colledge left in 2022 after six years; Pali Nahal departed in 2024; Michael Bloy covered 2024-25; and Jan Stipek — whose background is firmly IB, including work at the IB Global Office — took over in July 2025.

A new principal with deep IB credentials is a genuine positive, but four leaders in four years is a fair question to put to the school, and a reason to weight the 2025 inspection and next cycle heavily.↗

Admissions and cost

Fees, the no-discount policy and the waitlist

Raha’s official 2025-26 tuition: AED 41,960 (EY1), AED 44,060 (EY2), AED 57,710 (Grades 1–6) and AED 66,030 (Grades 7–12). The Grade 12 IB Diploma examination fee is AED 3,250, the school bus AED 5,000 a year, and the registration fee is capped at 5% of annual tuition under ADEK rules.

Notably, the school’s own fees policy states it offers no fee discounts — a contrast with the sibling and referral discounts common elsewhere in the city.↗↗

That pricing makes Raha materially cheaper than the British premium tier at senior level — AED 66,030 against Cranleigh’s AED 105,980 and ACS’s AED 99,060 — while sitting above the mid-market.

Combined with the waiting-list history (WhichSchoolAdvisor describes waiting lists “year on year”), the admissions advice is to apply as early as the process allows, to specify which campus you want, and to ask directly how places are allocated between the two campuses when one is full.↗

The family experience

Khalifa City life and the IB community

Khalifa City and the Raha Gardens/Raha Beach corridor form Abu Dhabi’s biggest expat family suburb — villas, compounds and apartment clusters built around exactly this school cluster (GEMS American Academy, Yasmina British Academy and Al Yasmina are minutes away).

The commute trade is real: families working on Abu Dhabi island or the Corniche should test the morning drive, though the area’s walkable amenities mean daily life needs the car less than most Abu Dhabi suburbs.

The community signal is consistently warm: parent testimonials describe a “great culture and happy vibe” and a genuinely international mix — 90-plus nationalities with no single dominant group, unlike the North-American-weighted ACS.

For families choosing between Abu Dhabi’s IB options, the meaningful comparison set is small (Raha, Bateen World Academy, BIS Abu Dhabi for the Diploma years), and Raha’s depth of IB experience is its clearest card. Read testimonials as reported sentiment, not measurement.↗

Take these to the school

Questions that move beyond the tour script