Age Placement Guide

Grade Level Placement

GEMS World Academy - Dubai places students in age-appropriate grade levels in accordance with the Ministry of Education/KHDA regulations. The IB programmes allow for a great degree of academic differentiation and therefore we rarely accelerate children into higher grades, nor retain children in a lower year group.

Families are encouraged to use the country comparison chart below to ensure that they are applying to the correct grade level, taking into account the differences that exist in the naming of “grades” around the world. (As an example, Year 2 in England is equivalent to Grade 1 at GEMS World Academy - Dubai although both programmes are for a 6-year old that turn 7 during the Academy year).

If there are questions about the correct grade-level placement, please contact the Registration Team.

Age as of August 31 of each Academy year* GEMS World Academy - Dubai North America England Australia/ NZ South Africa
"Grade" "Grade" "Year" "Year" "Year"
2 years old   Nursery Nursery  Nursery  --  --
3 years old (toilet trained) Pre-K PreK or Nursery FS1 (Nursery) -- --
4 years old (toilet trained) Kg1 PreK FS2 (Reception) Kg --
5 years old Kg2 Kg 1 Prep Reception
6 years old 1 1 2 1 1
7 years old 2 2 3 2 2
8 years old 3 3 4 3 3
9 years old 4 4 5 4 4
10 years old 5 5 6 5 5
11 years old 6 6 7 6 6
12 years old 7 7 8 7 7
13 years old 8 8 9 8 8
14 years old 9 9 10 9 9
15 years old 10 10 11 10 10
16 years old 11 11 12 11 11
17 years old 12 12 13 12 12


*Applicable for all new Nursery/FS1/Pre-KG – Year 2/Grade 1 students enrolling from September 2022; further information can be found here

*Year 3/Grade 2 students – Year 13/ Grade 12, Transfer Certificate will be followed.

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