cookiedubai

Good afternoon everybody,

My husband and I are in the very early stages of even thinking about a move to Dubai and whether it would be worth it.
I am a secondary school Maths teacher and my husband is in the construction industry, it seems that a move with his job will be possible but as mentioned, we have no details yet! Looking at the salaries of teachers in Dubai, as I work in an independent school I earn more at the moment, although the obvious attraction is the tax free aspect!
One thing we are concerned about are the residency implications as we own a home in the UK, will this affect how we are taxed in the UAE?

Many thanks in advance

mikewot

Many times asked and answered. Please use the search facility on the right hand side. Or google and you will find the HMRC website which answers your question which basically boils down to are you a UK resident or not and the residency test depends on a variety of answers to the questions on there. We cannot answer you because we do not know your circumstances.

Johnnyboy11

The easiest way to become UK Non-resident (Income tax free) from the date you leave the UK is for one or both of you to work full-time overseas for at least a full tax-year, so until 6th April 2017 at the earliest. As long as you limit your visits to and days working in the UK, your UK property is not an issue. Search on the Internet for "UK Statutory Residence Test Flowchart", the KPMG one is good. Owing to recent changes, you might be liable for Capital Gains Tax on your UK property after you leave the UK, but there are ways around this.

Remember to factor in other costs into your calculation, like a pension, decent private healthcare, illness cover, none of which you are likely to get in the teaching/ construction sectors, in my experience. Working hours in construction tend to be long, 6 days, 48 hours/ week, and job security in the ME is nil.

Victor Meldrew

Most, if not all, UK curriculum schools in Dubai will provide health insurance as part of the package if you are employed on an overseas contract. If you are local hire, they are unlikely to. You would also do well to continue paying your national insurance (class 2) whilst overseas which is cheap as chips and will build up your years.

You used to be able to continue paying into your teachers pension for up to 5 years, but I think this has now been stopped.

Regarding your house, if you are going to keep it empty, you will need to check your house insurance as you may not be covered after a certain number of days empty (I want to say 30 days?). If you want to rent it, you will need to tell your mortgage provider who may then require you to switch to a different type of mortgage.

Some mortgage providers, eg Halifax, will not lend to non-residents.

Most schools advertise January to March for a September start. There are jobs advertised outside this period, but not as many. The standard of schools varies, as do the salaries and benefits. You are likely to work as hard as you do in UK schools, if not harder.

Gummy1

I will be qualifying as a teacher soon wanted to know if the 2 years experience is necessary And does my experience as a teachers assistant/learning support count with in the 2 years required?

Victor Meldrew

Most,if not all schools insist on a minimum 2 years experience. Any school that doesn't is probably not worth considering because if they will cut corners like this, they will cut corners in other ways too.

Also, Dubai ranks amongst the most popular places for teachers to go overseas. Any job you look at will likely have lots and lots of others going for it who have much more experience.

Sorry to sound negative, but this is how it is.

Gummy1

Do you think ther are any good schools taking nqt's on and then progressing on?

Victor Meldrew

No

scrubbedexpat141

Yes.

My mrs came here with 1 years experience as NQT. But it is rare.

Gummy1

Thank you all

Victor Meldrew

(virtually) no

I'm not sure which school Mrs Scamp works or where it stands in the 'league'.

As Mr Scamp rightly points out, yes there will be the odd vacancy here and there, usually if a school is either a) desperate due to a 'runner' or 'no show' and needing a teacher asap. This, however is usually filled by a local hire ie someone already in Dubai such as a spouse such as Mrs Scamp or b) their having lower standards of expectations than the higher league schools.

If you want to rely on gaining employment as a brand new NQT you want to consider:
1) Will the school help you gain QTS (or whatever it is called these days). If they won't then this could leave you a bit high and dry when you return to UK
2) If you want to get QTS (or whatever it is called these days) this will further limit your options.
3) If you see a vacancy which you think might be suitable, post on here to get feedback on the particular school. In Dubai there is a vast range of standards and being in a poor school, 1000's of miles away from home is a daunting prospect (even if living in the land of sand and bling)

Good Luck

Gummy1

When i complete my pgce i will also gain a qts, i have been looking at gems and they take on nqts i have heard good reviews about that school.

Victor Meldrew

My understanding is that, once you have qualified as a teacher, you then have a probationary period whereby you are allocated a mentor who guides you through various checks and balances in order to get ??? (if it isn't QTS it is something else). Not all schools are willing to do this.

I qualified in the '70's when things were simpler (and better in my opinion) so am not fully aware of the terminology and process.

GEMS isn't a school, it is an organisation with many schools (in UAE and around the world). They are 'for profit' so their approach isn't always to put all fees back into the school.

GEMS schools get varying reviews from 'outstanding' to 'poor'. Go to the KHDA website (or the individual schools' websites) and look at their KHDA inspection reports.

There are good points for working with GEMS (seem to have good structures and also good promotion prospects) and bad points (resources can be lacking in some)

Gummy1

Thank you for all the info will do my research before i apply

scrubbedexpat141

It's an 'Outstanding' school and she's gone from NQT to a department head pretty quick, so fortunately she's not completely buggered up.

She was on the ground here job hunting when someone else said they wouldn't be coming back the next year - so fortunate timing in a decent school. Even more fortunate is / was that we weren't married (still aren't) and so she was hired as a normal Expat.

It's worth visiting and applying to lots of places. Don't rely on the central Gems team to get you a role, go directly to the schools themselves.