Schooling Help for 2 school going Boys | ExpatWoman.com
 

Schooling Help for 2 school going Boys

1
Posts
EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 20 August 2014 - 17:07

We are moving to Qatar in around 2 months and my hubby has been offered a job in Qatar and am planning to move to Doha from US with 2 elementary school going kids (our 3rd child is 2 years old). Hubby works and I am a house wife. I wanted to seek help & guidance from the experts living or having resided recently in Qatar in similar shoes. Hubby has been offered an all in all package by the employer where we would need to pay for our lodging and the kids schooling. Therefore I would need to be careful in selecting a moderate school for the kids right now. Since we are planning to move by end of Oct, 2014 does anyone know if I need to get the kids registration process early on and if they can be enrolled during the academic year. I would appreciate any and all the assistance from the experts and if they would share their experiences.
Thanks A Million!!!

Cheers
POB

37
Posts
EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 21 August 2014 - 00:42
Hi UET, By no means am I an expert, but we just made the move over from the US too so I might be able to share some of our experiences with you. First of all keep in mind that you must get the kids school records and birth certificates attested from the state you are in, the US State Dept, and the Qatari Embassy for the residency permit and to start school. Some schools will need the RP to take you application. We started this process 6 weeks ago and our papers are still at the Embassy. I would suggest that you start this process ASAP. Also we started applying to schools in February but we made the mistake of limiting ourselves to American School of Doha (ASD) and a couple of other schools for a number of months and didn't take people's advice on how hard it is to find school places too seriously. We ended up being lucky that some new schools opened up and have enrolled our 1st and 2nd graders at GEMS American Academy after a lot of waiting and stress. The school just got its license yesterday and we don't even know what the school fees are yet but I'm sure it's more than we were planning on paying but we just have no other choice at this time. So basically what I'm trying to say is apply apply apply. As for enrolling in the middle of the school year I've read on forums that it is not possible to start anytime other than September and that you can't transfer from one curriculum to another in the middle of the year (British to American for example) but every school I have spoken to has said it's not a problem. Hope that helps! Please feel free to reach out if you have any other questions. Like I said we are still newbies but since we are currently going through the process I might be able to help out.