Scheduled to open in 2026, the American curriculum school will have capacity for 2,000 pupils and world-class facilities. This is Innoventures Education’s sixth school in the UAE, alongside nine Raffles Early Childhood Centres.
Arada has announced a partnership with Innoventures Education, the UAE’s leading private education company, which will see the opening of a premium new K-12 international school at the Aljada megaproject in Sharjah. With capacity for 2,000 pupils, the school will prepare students for success using the American and IB curricula, providing an exceptional standard of education in an Emirate that is already well-known for the quality and excellence of its academic institutions.
Based in the fast-growing Aljada community, the school will be Innoventures Education’s first in Sharjah. Sited on a 480,000 sq ft plot in the north-west of the megaproject, it is located in close proximity to residential communities, the Madar family entertainment district designed by Zaha Hadid Associates, and the Arada CBD business park. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2024 and it is set to welcome its first pupils at the start of the 2026-2027 academic year.
Founded in 2004, Innoventures Education manages five schools: Dubai International Academy – Emirates Hills, Dubai International Academy – Al Barsha, Raffles World Academy, Raffles International School, Collegiate International School, and nine Raffles Early Childhood Centres (ECC). DIA Emirates Hills is the first and only IB continuum school rated Outstanding by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), while other Innoventures Education schools are rated Very Good in the main. Recently, Innoventures Education schools’ culture of sporting excellence received a royal acknowledgment with DIA Emirates Hills awarded The Hamdan Bin Mohammed Order of Merit for Sports Education School. Over 9,000 students from over 120 countries attend these schools, taught by a team of 1,500 dedicated teachers and support staff from all corners of the globe.
Ahmed Alkhoshaibi, Group CEO of Arada said: “We are determined to bring services and facilities representing an exceptional level of quality to the community at Aljada, and this partnership is ample proof of this approach. We look forward to working closely with Innoventures Education to deliver a high-class school that adds to Sharjah’s impressive list of academic institutions.”
Poonam Bhojani, CEO of Innoventures Education, said: “We’re delighted to take our first step into Sharjah at Aljada, where we will establish a new centre of educational excellence. Our mission is to empower students with a holistic, rigorous, and international education for success in an ever-changing world. Our partnership with Arada will allow us to offer that winning proposition to a new generation of learners in Sharjah.”
World-class facilities at the school will include two swimming pools, an athletic track and pit, basketball and tennis courts, climate-controlled gymnasiums and a full-size football pitch. Pupils will also be able to take advantage of vibrant outdoor learning spaces, a library, labs for science, design and technology, studios for visual and performing arts, media and recording lab, rooms for Arabic and Islamic studies and an auditorium.
The Innoventures Education school will be the second of three schools in Aljada. Demand for private schools in Sharjah is driven by growing income levels, a large expatriate population, and increased uptake in demand from the Emirati population, according to L.E.K Consulting, a leading global strategy consulting firm. Premium schools accounted for nearly 40% of incremental growth in enrolments since 2016, a far higher rate of growth than the rest of the market, according to the same research, which also indicated that American curriculum schools account for 25% of enrollment in Sharjah.
Spread over a 24 million square foot area, Aljada is Sharjah’s largest ever project and a transformational destination for the Emirate. Aljada contains numerous residential districts, as well as extensive retail, hospitality, entertainment, sporting, educational, healthcare components and a business park, all set within a green urban master plan.
November 2023
