Hi, my husband has been in his new job in Doha for 3 days now and myself and our 3 kids aged 8,5 and 2 are planning to follow in around 7 weeks. We too have also been thru the schooling issues; we have applied to DESS, Doha College and Compass.We are from NZ so from my experience you already have a slight advantage of getting in to a school with a British passport. After much talk about waiting lists, assessments, repeating years and home schooling etc we are still going ahead....if we never go we'll never know!!in my husbands very first email to us his first words were "what a culture shock and man it's hot (cooling down now at 40 degrees!!!) however after 3-4 days there now he seems to be adjusting to what will become our new home for a while. He had stopped in Dubai for a few days and caught up with some old friends and of course had a fabulous time....maybe this was not such a good idea after all because from he said they are very different. He also says the place is a construction zone...great news I suppose as he is in the construction field. Anyway back to schools, we have applied, were offered a place at Compass whch we turned down (maybe in hindsight was a bad idea) and have now got the attitude that we will just worry about it when we get there. Before any place can be offered the kids need to be assessed and that can't happen until we get there. Of course we want to live near the school they end up attending so can't make any decisons about areas to live until we have school sorted.I have accepted that the kids may not be in a school for some time and yes they probably will drive me up the wall but education does not have to happen within 4 walls.I am an early childhood teacher and recently attended a 3 day conference for all of the education sector and I really came away thinking that this will be a wonderful learning opportuntiy for them.Yes, I agree social interactions with other children are the key to education; no good being an academic whizz with no friends. As we all know ....often it is not what we know but who we know. Our attitude now is ..lets go, give it a try, hopefully save some money, see the world with the kids a bit.If all else fails we can always come home, and we don't see this as failing ...what we see as failure is not even giving it a go.good luck in your decision
Hi, my husband has been in his new job in Doha for 3 days now and myself and our 3 kids aged 8,5 and 2 are planning to follow in around 7 weeks. We too have also been thru the schooling issues; we have applied to DESS, Doha College and Compass.We are from NZ so from my experience you already have a slight advantage of getting in to a school with a British passport. After much talk about waiting lists, assessments, repeating years and home schooling etc we are still going ahead....if we never go we'll never know!!in my husbands very first email to us his first words were "what a culture shock and man it's hot (cooling down now at 40 degrees!!!) however after 3-4 days there now he seems to be adjusting to what will become our new home for a while. He had stopped in Dubai for a few days and caught up with some old friends and of course had a fabulous time....maybe this was not such a good idea after all because from he said they are very different. He also says the place is a construction zone...great news I suppose as he is in the construction field. Anyway back to schools, we have applied, were offered a place at Compass whch we turned down (maybe in hindsight was a bad idea) and have now got the attitude that we will just worry about it when we get there. Before any place can be offered the kids need to be assessed and that can't happen until we get there. Of course we want to live near the school they end up attending so can't make any decisons about areas to live until we have school sorted.I have accepted that the kids may not be in a school for some time and yes they probably will drive me up the wall but education does not have to happen within 4 walls.I am an early childhood teacher and recently attended a 3 day conference for all of the education sector and I really came away thinking that this will be a wonderful learning opportuntiy for them.Yes, I agree social interactions with other children are the key to education; no good being an academic whizz with no friends. As we all know ....often it is not what we know but who we know. Our attitude now is ..lets go, give it a try, hopefully save some money, see the world with the kids a bit.If all else fails we can always come home, and we don't see this as failing ...what we see as failure is not even giving it a go.good luck in your decision