bashiraad

I am moving to AD in a few weeks but my wife and kids will be joining me in the new year.

Hopefully this will give me enough time to arrange schools.

I have been researching the British schools over there and have read most of the 2013 inspection reports.

The aldar schools and bsak look like they are probably the best? Any opinions on this?

I have been told there are long waiting lists for these schools so wanted recommendations on other good British schools and if there are ways to enrol king the kids earlier?

I have a daughter (10) and 2 boys (8, 5).

Can I apply now to go on waiting lists?

Thanks

busybee2

you will struggle now...... yes bsak and aldar schs are the ones that get the best results, but there are other british schools around now. you will find it will be nothing to do with how good the sch is is whether you can find 3 places, and a child that is in fs2 is one of the most difficult year groups too. normally if you get 1 child in the others will go up the sibling lists etc.

you will find that they have so many people on the waiting lists that they are not taking any more applications etc.

you should apply to all, but it will cost you 500dhs each time.

there are a few new ones to apply to now.

look at bsak, any aldar schs but if you want them all together then you only have yasmina, cambridge high sch, the rest are either primary (pearl, muna, mushrif) or seniors (bateen). bisad, brighton college (this you must take an entrance test and only goes up to year 11 this year i think). new schs opening this year are cambridge international school and diyfah school, repton is opening end of sept. cambridge high school and cambridge international school.

http://www.britishschool.sch.ae/
http://www.aldaracademies.com/index....hool-locations
http://diyafahinternationalschool.com/
http://www.nordanglia.com/abudhabi/
http://www.brightoncollege.ae/
http://www.gemscambridgeinternationa...i.com/home.php
http://www.gemscis-abudhabi.com/
http://www.gemswinchesterschool-abud...&parentid=1212
http://belvederebritishschool.com/
http://www.reptonabudhabi.org/

thats all i think.

flares

Repton AUH is only opening for FS1,2 and yr 1 initially. Drove past the school the other day - still a building site

busybee2

oh yeh of course not really much most new schs will open with majority of the primary section if not more..... yes i have seen piccies they are still a building site, but of course with no places at schools you may have to take what is available and quite often people have to go to different schs etc.

al dente

I'd put Brighton up there with bsak and the aldar schools. I think it's aiming for a much more 'private school' experience. To put in context, I'm not sure my children would pass the selection for brighton but they are fine for bsak and currently at pearl ( which we love).

There is a cut off time in the spring term, afterwhich only new residents can take spots. You would be at the top of the queue then for any which become available. Get advice from the schools as you apply. This has been one of the tightest years...

busybee2

the cut off dates for switching curriculum is 15th nov and for switching schools is 15th feb. so as a non resident if you come after that date you can jump the queue, as residents are not allowed to move until the next academic year.

they werent put in any particular order, just my typing.

archie159

Agree you should apply to lots of schools (not all charge application fees, and some refund them if they cannot offer you a place). The other thing you should do is keep in regular contact with the admissions staff - having had close experience of 3 sets of admissions staff (at are what often described as the 3 top schools), and talked to loads of other parents, the one thing they all have in common is that most of them are pretty hopeless at their administration. Keep copies of all correspondence and applications. Brighton will require your children to do an admissions test.