Reigate Grammar School Riyadh

The short version

The short version

Reigate Grammar School Riyadh (RGSR) is the renamed Multinational School Riyadh — a school founded in 1998 that re-opened in September 2020 under Saudi owner ADECO and was rebranded from the start of the 2022/23 academic year after ADECO partnered with Reigate Grammar School UK, the Surrey independent school founded in 1675.

It teaches the English National Curriculum to Cambridge IGCSE and A-level across two campuses — a Prep campus in Qurtobah and a Senior campus with sixth form in Ghirnatah — with more than 1,100 students of over 60 nationalities as of 2024.↗

For an expat family, the practical summary is this: RGSR is the strongest-documented of Riyadh’s new-wave British schools — a reported BSO Outstanding inspection, published (if summary-level) IGCSE and A-level results, and a first-party 2026/27 fee schedule running from SAR 45,368 in Nursery to SAR 80,143 in Year 13 excluding VAT.

The caveats: it is a rebrand rather than a new build, senior cohorts are still small, and classes split by gender from Year 8 under Ministry of Education rules.↗↗

What the school is

A rebrand with a real school underneath

The school beneath the name matters.

The Multinational School was founded in 1998 to serve expatriates without their own community schools, and was reported to be a particular favourite of Antipodean and Canadian families — academically solid, more relaxed than the British International School Riyadh or the American International School – Riyadh, and known for unusually strong learning-support and special-needs provision.

RGSR says it retains that heritage through its Inclusion department, and the learning-support fee lines on its current fee schedule (charged interventions on top of tuition) confirm SEN provision remains a structural part of the offer.↗↗

The Reigate partnership imports a UK grammar-school identity — “The Reigate Way”, regular quality assurance from the UK school, and the heritage of a school founded in 1675 from a legacy by Henry Smith, an Alderman of the City of London. Riyadh is Reigate’s third international location after China and Vietnam.

The school operates under the RCRC International Schools Attraction Programme, and in 2024 announced expansion: the Qurtobah Prep campus (Nursery to Year 5, capacity around 1,000) complements the Ghirnatah campus (Years 6–13), with two further Riyadh campuses reported to be in planning.↗

Two structural notes for families. First, gender: classes are mixed until Year 7 and separated from Year 8 onwards, per MoE criteria — the school markets a UK-style co-ed identity but the senior school is not co-educational in practice.

Second, transport: the school does not run home-to-school buses, only a sibling shuttle between its two campuses — so the morning drive is yours, and campus geography should shape where you live.↗↗

Academics in practice

Reported BSO Outstanding — and results worth reading with care

WhichSchoolAdvisor reports that RGSR was inspected under the UK Government’s British Schools Overseas framework and achieved the highest rating, Outstanding; the school is a member of COBIS and BSME.

We did not independently read the underlying BSO report in this pass — ask the school for it directly and read it, because the date and scope of the inspection matter for a school that rebranded in 2022.↗

The school publishes headline results — unusual transparency for the city. For 2024/25 it reports A-level grades of 23% A*, 61% A*–B and 96% A*–C, and I/GCSE results of 24% A*, 60% A*–A, 87% A*–B and 97% A*–C.

In 2023 — the first A-level cohort under the new name — 100% of students achieved A*–C, with 91% of IGCSE entries at A*–C. Treat these as school-published figures without cohort sizes: the first A-level cohorts of a growing school are small, and percentages on small denominators swing hard.

Ask for entries per subject and the number of students per cohort before comparing with BISR’s record.↗

Admissions and cost

Admissions, fees and the real year-one cost

RGSR publishes its full 2026/27 schedule. Annual tuition excluding VAT is SAR 45,368 (Nursery), 46,973 (Reception), 48,685 (Year 1), 55,640 (Year 2), 55,961 (Year 3), 59,920 (Years 4–6), 65,538 (Years 7–9), 71,155 (Years 10–11), 76,773 (Year 12) and 80,143 (Year 13); 15% VAT applies on top for non-Saudi families, and Saudi nationals are exempt.↗

Budget beyond tuition in year one.

New students pay a non-refundable SAR 1,000 administration processing fee, a non-refundable SAR 5,000 holding fee (deducted from the first term attended), a SAR 3,000 assessment fee, and a refundable book deposit that scales with year group — SAR 500 in early years and lower primary, SAR 1,000 in Years 4–8 (SAR 1,500 in Year 9) and SAR 2,000 in Years 10–13.

The book deposit must be claimed within three months of leaving, with books returned and fees cleared. Sibling discounts are 5% (second child), 10% (third) and 15% (fourth and beyond).↗

Two clauses to note. Students who need learning-support interventions pay termly supplements on top of tuition — the schedule lists, for example, maths intervention at SAR 5,333.33 per term — so a support-heavy year can add materially to the budget; get your child’s likely package costed before accepting.

And students absent for 12 months are de-registered and must re-register (and re-pay joining fees) to return — relevant for families on rotational postings.↗

The family experience

Two campuses, one decision

Campus geography: the Qurtobah Prep campus sits on Said Ibn Zayd Road in the north-east, and the Ghirnatah campus serves the senior years — both in Riyadh’s eastern arc, reasonably placed for families around the Granada–Qurtobah corridor but a real drive from the Diplomatic Quarter or the city’s west.

With no school bus service, the daily run falls on parents or a driver; families with children on both campuses at least get the inter-campus sibling shuttle.↗

On community: the Multinational School lineage means RGSR inherited an established, genuinely international parent body rather than building one from scratch — a different feel from brand-new RCRC schools, and for some families a feature.

Leadership has seen recent change: the review names an Executive Principal who joined from GEMS Education in Dubai for 2024/25, while listing headers show a different principal name — ask who leads each campus day to day, and how long they have been in post.↗

Take these to the school

Questions that move beyond the tour script