Didsey

Hi

What's the deal with schools in Dubai? I know the they are about 36k aed a year but the good ones seem to be full up, is this true?

I am looking at places in the meadows or Arabian ranches, any recommendations on schools, what are chances of getting into them and when should we start the process of trying to get our kids in so they can start in september this year?

Thanks!

Bob

No idea, but most threads do seem to say that the good schools all have waiting lists...so I guess sign them up as soon as you can...

Hello.Kitty

Apparently it also depends on the age of the child and what year they are looking to enter. Early Years fill up really quickly because there are a lot of people here with young children.

Anyhow, as far as I can understand, there are half a dozen "top" schools. Not sure why they are "top", but I suspect they're riding on a lot of hearsay and reputation, so there's a sort of self-perpetuating circle: "oo, such and such a school is soooo good, it must be because there's a 2 year waiting list and it's now closed" -> everyone tries to apply because everyone's trying to get in, so it must be good.
There are then a whole raft of decent schools that sometimes have spaces and people are grateful to get in.
There are then a whole load of schools that people aren't falling over themselves to get into, although it's difficult to find out whether it's because they're not so good academically or because there's [cough] a larger proportion of non-native English speakers. Oh yes, snobbery is fighting fit.

Then there's the question on fees, paying to be put on the waiting list (technically illegal, but hey) and the KDHA league table (vaguely like OFSTED, but only apparently looks at how much Arabic the kids are doing... apparently.)

Kim67

I had my three children in one of the schools with a large proportion of non-native english speakers for our first year in Dubai. I took them out and put them into a British school. My problem wasn't snobbery. My youngest had 18 kids in her class in year one, from fourteen different countries. Only three or four of them could actually speak english at the beginning of the year. This meant that the english speaking kids were disadvantaged considerably because the rest of the class had to be taught how to speak and read english. My eldest was in Year 5 and was expected to be reading picture books from the library because that was what most of the kids in her class (the majority local boys) were capable of reading. The first library teacher wouldn't permit her to go upstairs to the senior school library to borrow books as she considered her too young. The school got another librarian in who started to buy books into the library especially for my daughter and allowed her to go upstairs and borrow from the senior school, otherwise she too would have fallen way behind with her literacy.

There were also the other extreme of non native english speakers that really pushed their kids hard academically and wanted them to do hours of homework every night and expected teachers to dish it out to everyone.

I went to Dubai wanting the whole multi-cultural experience for my kids which in theory is fantastic, bit harder to make it work in reality. Still an experience I don't regret them having, just not academically workable in the long term.

Hello.Kitty

thanks for sharing that, Kim. "Snobbery" probably isn't the right word, but I don't know how else to qualify it.

I have to say, I have the same worries for my two - a strange mix of wanting them to be in a multi-cultural environment, but not too much and certainly not having that environment effect their English... I don't think there's any way of saying that to someone who hasn't lived here without sounding horribly snobbish. It's also just a small leap from there to coming out with things like "such-and-such a school is very good - they favour applications from native English-speakers"

Kim67

Yep, the choices you make in educating your children are hard anywhere, but with limited school places and all the "snobbery" as you pointed out by some towards particular schools, it seems much worse in Dubai.

lionheart

We pay Dhs17K for our 7yo's education at a school with an above average rating. Indeed, rated higher than many so-called British schools.

Blue Cat

is it British Curriculum and are the staff British Qualified teachers? that is what I pay for (well the company do but we would if we had to)

Hello.Kitty

yeah, that's less than most nurseries I know of!

Millhouse

I see your point... and I may have done the same (probably), that said, don't you buy your kids books and make them read at home too or is it just me?

Kim67

Of course I buy them books and they read at home. But here in Australia, they were used to going to our public library and getting out ten or twenty books at a time. It's the joy of reading and books in the UAE are expensive and apart from Book Worm not that much choice for good kids books. The only reason my five year old caught up with the kids at the British school she attended in our second year was by reading at home over the summer before she went there. My husband reads to the kids all the time and some of the Neil Gaiman books he's read them I've actually picked up and read myself because kids books can be a really good read. I've also poached the Twilight and Vampire Diaries series' from number one daughter.