School Information

To be submitted to the Admissions Office before the first day of school

• Transfer_Certificate.pdf (Click to Download): If you are moving from outside Dubai OR Leave Certificates - If you are moving from a school in Dubai.
• Final end-of-year report card
• Two official transcripts (incoming grades 9 to 12 only)

Transfer Certificate: If you are moving from outside Dubai

Transfer Certificates (TC) are a UAE Ministry of Education requirement and are required for all students entering grades 2 to 12.

The attached form must be completed by the current school on its own letterhead, reflecting your child's last day of attendance there. Depending on your school's location (not curriculum), one or more official stamps are required. Email the TC to us when it’s available to you. Retain the original as it might be requested.

• Inside the US, Canada, Australia, or Western Europe: the transfer certificate must be signed and stamped by the school
• From any country outside of the UAE, US, Canada, Australia, or Western Europe: the transfer certificate must be attested by the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UAE Embassy in the country you are transferring from.
• From a GCC country: the transfer certificate must be attested by the Ministry of Education in the country you are transferring from.
• From another Emirate in the UAE: the Arabic transfer certificate must be stamped by the Educational Zone of that Emirate.

Leave Certificate: If you are moving from a Dubai school

Leave Certificates (LC) are a UAE Ministry of Education requirement and are required for all students entering K2 to G12.

• Parents need to request the Leave Certificate from their current school in Dubai and email it to us when it's available to you. Your current school will transfer your child's record on the KHDA portal and provide you with a leave certificate. We will use the Leave certificate to register your child at ASD on the KHDA portal. 

Health Office

Medical Condition Alert
If your child has any significant medical condition or allergy or will need to keep medication at school, you must make an appointment with the Health Office within the first week of school.   The Health Office staff uses this opportunity to gain information on the history and treatment of your child for their medical conditions. ASD cannot be responsible for the health of your child without complete information.
You may contact the Health Office for an appointment by emailing healthoffice@asdubai.org or calling +971 4 395 0005 ext. 1030.

School Medical Exams

As per the regulations set by the Ministry of Health, a school medical exam is required for all new students enrolling at ASD, as well as all students in grades 5, 9, and 12.  The screening medical exam is conducted in the Health Office by the ASD school doctor. It cannot be substituted for a medical exam done outside of Dubai but it can be performed, with documentation submitted to ASD, by your personal doctor in Dubai. These medical exams are scheduled throughout the year (not necessarily at the beginning of the school year). The Health Office will notify parents by email when a medical is scheduled for your child and parents will receive a report by email once the exam is completed.

Middle & High School Course Registration

Course selection starts in April for new students. Once the placement tests have been received, you will be contacted by the counseling office to start the process of course selection for the coming school year.

High school students will sit for placement exams to be placed into the correct level for math and additional language (French, Spanish or Arabic). You will receive a separate email with details on how to complete these tests.  Placement testing starts in March.

Official High School Transcripts

All incoming grade 10-12 students are required to submit 2 official sealed high school transcripts from the previous school. These transcripts should include the full 2019-2020 school year, so we only expect these in August.  Ask for official transcripts from your current counselor. Submit these before the first day of school to the ASD counseling office. Your child will not be allowed to attend school without submitted original transcripts.

Incoming grade 9 students can submit either an original report card or a transcript if available.

Every ASD family is assigned an official family email account. The email account is a critical information resource for your family. Through that email account, you will receive emails from teachers and principals, the weekly ASD Newsletter, report cards, and other important school information. Your family email account is used to log on and access the (internal, log on only) GO Community Portal of our website, which contains information vital to current school families (note: a new internal site will be later in 2020, but will still require an asdubai.org email for access)

ASD family email accounts are assigned as last name followed by ASD family four-digit ID number (ex. smith3452@asdubai.org). Starting in grade 3, students are issued a student email (ex. cjones.17@asdubai.org) that contains first initial, last name, ASD graduation year. Use of student emails is very moderate in the early grades, with gradual increased use in later grades.

If you are a new family to ASD (no current siblings enrolled), you will receive your ASD family email, username, and password late spring from ASD Learning Systems Office. You will then log on to the ASD GO Community Portal using the new family username and password. Browse through all the information and note the home dashboard, which contains important items such as ASD official calendars, ASD Newsletters, and more.

For email assistance, please contact ASD Learning Systems. For website questions, please contact asdweb@asdubai.org.

Once your ASD family email has been assigned, you will begin to receive the weekly ASD Newsletter via this account. Published every Thursday during the school year, this newsletter is an important resource for information about your school; the published edition is also posted on ASD's internal site as well. Be watching your email to receive the ASD News and enjoy!

Additional communication is also emailed to family accounts and emergency/timely messages are sent through via SMS to the parent phone numbers provided to ASD Admissions Office.

Please ensure ASD has your updated contact and emergency information at all times. If your contact details (email and phone numbers) have changed since your application, please email the updates to admissionsteam@asdubai.org. Please provide a local P.O. Box, even if it is a company address.

Grades PreK-12 may bring a sack lunch or buy their lunch from the cafeterias. ASD has both an elementary and middle/high school cafeteria. ASD has three food service vendors: Subway sandwiches, the Juice Bar and Right Bite food services. 

Lunch Menus are available on the ASD internal site. In purchasing a lunch, Middle School and High School students use cash to purchase lunches. Elementary School students may use purchased coupons or cash. Coupons are available to parents on campus from the food service vendor. The cost for lunch options ranges from AED 12-22.

Elementary School

ASD provides all Elementary School supplies. From tissues to notebooks, pencils to rulers, all are provided to students and distributed in the classroom. Two popular items you may want to shop for before your arrival to Dubai are the ‘perfect’ lunch box or water bottle, which are not provided by ASD. The Elementary School has a hat policy and students in K1 - Grade 5 are required to wear hats when playing outside and during PE. Students should plan to keep one hat at school at all times as well as a water bottle.

Middle School

High School

Due to the variety of courses offered among the different grades at the High School level, specific lists are provided by teachers during the first week of school. As a general guideline to get a head start on your shopping, typical items needed are: pencil case, blue and black ink pens, pencils, highlighters, and variety of folders/binders.

A calculator is required for all math courses, the TI-84 / TI-Nspire CX CAS (Texas Instruments) calculator is standard with AP courses require either the TI-84 or TI-Nspire CX CAS. These are expensive in the UAE, and it is recommended to purchase ahead of time.

Academic Technology Requirements

Access to technology supports a student-centered model of learning and increases the opportunity for differentiation. Beginning in Grade 6, students will be required to have their own Apple laptop for educational use.

The Laptop

Each student must have a MacBook laptop at the beginning of the school year that is no more than four years old and is operating the latest macOS operating system. 

Configuration Information

Middle and High School student laptops need to be configured to work with the school network. In August, all students can complete this process online. Watch for an email over the summer with instructions to access a program called Back to School Computer Configuration. When students come to school on the first day of classes, their computers will be automatically validated on the ASD network.

Purchase Requirement Reminders

• All students are required to have headphones with voice recording capabilities.
• If students have a laptop with only the USB-C port, it is highly recommended to have an adapter for projecting or using USB-3 plug-ins.
• Please make sure to read the recommendations and guidelines for laptop purchases below:

Minimum Specification

• An entry-level 13” MacBook Pro or Air 
• 8 gigabytes of memory.
• 256 gigabytes hard drive storage

An extended AppleCare warranty is recommended with any new laptop purchase as well as insurance (normally covered under home insurance).

We encourage personal choice with regards to device selection. Students interested in audio, video, or photo production may wish to consider a larger screen, hard drive, and more memory. The MacBook Pro series is well suited for the creative arts.

Additional Equipment

• At school, students are required to have a charger and a small set of recording earphones (i.e. earbuds). 
• Recommended: An external hard drive for regular backups, a protective laptop cover 
• If your child is taking Arabic, the keyboard should have an Arabic/English keyboard. If you buy your computer outside of the UAE, you may be required to buy an Arabic keyboard cover.
• USB-C port adapter is recommended for Macbooks equipped solely with Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C port)

Apple ID

Each student should have their own Apple ID for updating and adding Apple software. For students under 13, we strongly recommend creating an account through Family Sharing, if your child does not already have an Apple ID.

Laptop Services and Management 

Before school begins, families will be contacted about the process of connecting devices to ASD IT services.

The IT Department manages device security, software updates, and installations. As part of this service, the IT Department acts as stewards of the device, providing administrative access to the device when required as well as during holiday periods. Grade 10-12 students will have administrative access to their devices throughout the year.

Support and Repair

The IT Department facilitates laptop repairs within the UAE at both our in-house repair center as well as in partnership with our third-party vendors, including Apple UAE. Loan laptops are available as required. 

For questions, please contact Heather Roy, Academic Technology Coordinator PreK-12, or ASD IT Support.

Technology Use Policy (TUP)

ASD's Technology Use Policy is an important part of the student handbook for each division. The focus is on empowering students to use technology in ways that transform their learning and is tied to the ASD Core Values. Parents and students should read it carefully. The IT Department both filters and monitors Internet traffic at school and on student laptops. 

Support and Repair

The IT Department is available for laptop repair. They will first attempt to service the machine in-house. If parts or further services are required, the laptop will need to be sent out. ASD has established a working relationship with a local company to provide repair services for students at reasonable rates. IT has loaner laptops available for student use while the laptop is repaired.

ASD utilizes several core platforms (PowerSchool Learning, PowerSchool, and Google for Education) for student learning and communication outside of the internal website.

PowerSchool Learning is the Learning Management System (LMS) used at the American School of Dubai and is your window into the learning of your child(ren). Teachers across all divisions use the platform to communicate and share learning with students and families. Your ASD family account is connected to your child’s and each evening at 6 p.m. both students and families will receive one email if there are any new announcements from any classes or courses your child(ren) is enrolled in.

Middle and High School student updates may contain homework and/or dates for summative assessments with SeeSaw being used as an LMS for elementary school too. PowerSchool is used for grades, and attendance as well. If you have questions about these areas please email learningsystems@asdubai.org. Also note, you will receive instructions on access once the accounts are set up for the school year. 

ASD students in Grades K1- 12 wear a uniform. We are in the midst of transitioning to a new vendor, so this information will be available later in May. Please note the regular daily uniforms are not available for purchase at the ASD campus. 

ASD has P.E. uniforms for sale at the ASD school stores for students in Grades 1 - 12. The uniform consists of a red shirt and black shorts made from quick-dry fabric. 

While many families currently drive their children to school, ASD does offer bus transportation services. ASD does not operate the bus service but contracts with a reliable vendor, School Transport Services (STS) LLC. Information can be found at Student Transportation Services page on the internal site. ASD encourages the use of bus transportation to reduce congestion and support sustainability.

Attention: currently there is no bus service available at 2:00 p.m. (for K1 students).
 

Carpooling Opportunities: Many ASD parents organize carpooling to campus. The Admissions Office keeps track of families' residential areas and can provide you with a list of other families in your area. Note that the list contains all families in the area, not only those who are interested in carpooling.

ASD offers an After School Care Program for a K1 students. This program is available Sunday through Thursday from 2:00-3:15 p.m. The program structure is supervised play. An additional snack for after school should be included each day. There is a fee for the program. To participate in the after school care program parents must pay the after care fee at the business office and present the receipt to the Elementary Office. Please contact Craig Tredenick, Director of Admissions, at ctredenick@asdubai.org for more information. 

Medical Condition Alert

If your child has any medical condition, significant allergy, or takes regular medicine, you must make an appointment with the Health Office within the first week of school. The Health Office staff uses this opportunity to gain information on the history and treatment of your child for their medical conditions. ASD cannot be responsible for the health of your child without complete information. You may contact the Health Office for an appointment by emailing healthoffice@asdubai.org or calling +971 4 395 0005 ext. 1030.

School Medical Exams

As per the regulations set by the Ministry of Health, a school medical exam is required for all students new to Dubai, as well as all students in Grade 5, 9, and 12.  The screening medical exam is conducted in the Health Office by the ASD school doctor. It cannot be substituted for a medical exam done outside of Dubai but it can be performed, with documentation submitted to ASD, by your personal doctor in Dubai. These medical exams are scheduled throughout the year (not necessarily at the beginning of the school year). The Health Office will notify parents by email when a medical is scheduled for your child and parents will receive a report by email once the exam is completed.

ASD’s security policy seeks to support a safe and secure campus for all. All ASD parents/adults entering campus must wear a photo identification badge. ID badges must be visible at all times while on campus.

New parents will be able to take their ID photos from August 19, 2020 onwards. We encourage all parents to complete this before orientation. You will receive an email with details, timings, and location in August.