Re: Landed in Doha
 

A lot of companies state that they will only allow families to join after 3 months but allow the "family" status for housing etc from day 1. I think this is a good idea given the uncertainty of jobs in the ME - best to be sure before you uproot a family.

Re: Landed in Doha
 

Well, I think 13 is not so bad. I have a friend who is on 72.

Re: Landed in Doha
 

I went there earlier this week and the lady in charge was onleave. But they said all is waiting list. The fee is not a problem as my employer covers it regardless. Compass would be ideal as it is the nearest to where I live.

Re: Landed in Doha
 

Now I have been almost 3 weeks in Doha and started getting my way around. I got my RP, driver license and been driving for 2 days now. Driving is a bit frustrating, especially at roundabouts where many drivers don't respect them or don't know how to use them. You should be very careful as many idiots can cross you from right to left and vice versa. Some go to outer lane of roundabout when they are turning left or from inner to turn right. It is not enough to be an experienced driver, but you need to adopt yourself to the bad driving habits here such as sounding the horn every now and then, no patience at lights, pushing in (which is very annoying) especially the locals. They drive big 4x4, don't stay in the queue at lights but go to the empty lane in the right to the front and then push in in the front of the traffic!

My work is only 6 km from where I live but it takes 30 minutes in the morning or afternoon because of traffic!

I think this is enough about driving. Now for schools it is a big headache. I managed to get only my eldest child into a school for this term but for the rest until now nothing is secured. We had assessment done at Doha College and waiting for answer, which will be a waiting list. I went also to Cardiff school and the people there are nice. However, there don't have a school per se but rather a few houses in a compound with very few kids and no facilities. ISL gave me no answer whatsoever and I feel they are stinky robbers.
Last week I went to what is called Supreme Education Council to ask about the new requirements for enrolling kids from abroad. The guys there are ignorant and know nothing about education or whatsoever. They need the shool reports to be attested by Qatar Embassy in my country (which implies attestation by Foreign affairs), and then by the Qatar Foreign Ministry and then the Supreme Education Council (SEC) needs to make assessment! I felt like I want to enroll my little kids in NASA Aerospace programme and not in a primary school.

That is all for the new fellows to digest and will keep you updated.

Re: Landed in Doha
 

Great update EastWest,

good to hear you are settling in.

In relation to schooling, what is plan B for your other children if they dont have a school in september? is there a "home schooling" option? if the schools are private and you have to pay anyway then it might be possible to get teachers to come to your home?

I am arriving in the middle of august, no school sorted yet for an 8 yr old boy.

keep smiling!!

Russ

Re: Landed in Doha
 

Plan B for me re schools is to send them back home or get them in NOT so good schools!

Re: Landed in Doha
 

dear Eastwest, dear Sarah, any news about schools?
Our situation at the moment is the following - our daughter applied for grade 4.
- 8 applications done: ISL, Compass, DBS, ACS, Loydence, SEK, Canadian School, Cardiff.
- We didn't dare to apply to schools like DESS, Doha college, ASD, Sherborne because our daughter is not English mother tongue and it would have been hopeless.

ISL: no way - full
DBS: no way, full, they don't even keep a waiting list
Compass: waiting list that does not move
ACS: waiting list - definitive answer maybe in June.
SEK: waiting list that does not move - they don't even say in which position of the waiting list
Loydence: they receive the application only when you have the RP, so Eastwest you might try!!
Canadian school: silence. But of course they got the money!!
Cardiff: the only school who gave us an offer, yesterday. I am wondering why they do have places. Is it because it's new? Is it because they have a small school with no facility, or because it is a BAD school? I am worried because in the only email I received from them, in 4 lines and two sentences there were at least 4 very bad English mistakes.

Do you have any reference or impression from them?

have a nice we, and good luck, Primula

Re: Landed in Doha
 

Hi Primula,

we havent even applied yet to any schools..i was not able to because until this week the offer i was made could not be formalised by the company that made it..finally finally on thurdsay it was.
so now i will begin to apply to get onto the waiting lists. our plan is for me to go out to doha in early august and for the family to come out a couple of months later.
i guess the best and only thing to do is chill, make sure you bring the school books for the next year your daughter would be going into in your home country and be prepared to do home schooling for a period of time.
in my opininon if any school sent an official email back to me and had lots of mistakes in it then i simply would not want my child to go there, especially if i was having to pay for it!!
i have been told there are lots of mums groups in doha so if we have to home school for a few months or more then my wife will have to go along to these groups and hopefully there will be some mums there with kids of a similar age so my boy can have some play dates.
its not ideal, but we may just have to deal with that situation for a few monhts…

let me know if you have any joy!

Russ