waiting list for British school in Doha | ExpatWoman.com
 

waiting list for British school in Doha

0
Posts
EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 08 April 2015 - 23:33

Hello everyone,
I am moving to Doha with my husband and our daughters later in 2015, between July and October. We currently live in the United Kingdom.
Surfing on blogs I found out that it's a real issue to place a child in an international school in Doha. I understand that waiting lists are quite long.
I was wondering if someone could advise some schools that are a good compromise between quality and a reasonable waiting time. If we were in the position to choose, we'd prefer a British school.

To give you a bit of context, my elder daughter will turn 3 in July. She's supposed to start pre-school in September 2015 and the first year at school in September 2016.

Thank you for any information

Sveta

4
Posts
EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 11 June 2015 - 17:21
Hello Sveta, I was sailing in the same boat couple of weeks back. I nearly applied in almost all schools who were willing to take applications. Definitely, you do lose a lot of bucks. But, we don't have a choice. I would Insist on persistence , that's the key. My children got scheduled for overseas tests as they were looking for admissions in Year 5 & Year 8. And , they got through , initially one was in wait list and the other got in Sherborne and later on both got through Doha College. I had applied in Pearling and Gems too, both were wonderful and they have spaces. But eventually,I had to get my applications withdrawn, You could try them and after a year you can always put in schools of your choice. As , the Primary level is quiet oversubscribed in Qatar. Now my next hunt is housing. Good luck! I am sure you would able to get into a good school. Just a tinkle on Persistence ....that's the Key. :)
31
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 10 June 2015 - 11:53
Hi Sveta, All the above advices are good. My contribution would be, if you have the flexibility of choosing your residence, then good. You can stay near whichever school your daughter gets into or else here school run is a nightmare. We have suffered a lot for 1 term and next term immediately we changed the school without waiting for 1 full year. So if you are staying in Al Wakra, then you have choices like DBS and if GEMS British medium is opening. But if you are staying in city IMO a much better choice is Pearling School on B-Ring road. They have lot of vacancies, so getting a place there is not at all a problem. My daughter is studying there and I am happy with the school. They also have very good bus services. School fees may be on a higher side, so enquire about it before deciding on it. The campus is quite big with different sections of play area, swimming pool, canteen etc. If you are in city, it is much easier accessible than any school in Al Wakra. Hope this helps.
20
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 10 June 2015 - 10:33
Hello Sveta, Finding a school for a child here is definitely one of the biggest hurdles in Doha. Kagi has given really good advice on the schools below. I would suggest you apply to all the schools below. You can do that online. You can also write to the schools asking for more information. They usually respond with information on wait lists. The English Kindergarten in Al Maamoura is a very good option if you can't get your little one into any of the schools. Good luck! :)
11
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 19 April 2015 - 22:01
If you hold British passport you can put your name down with DESS as it's british embassy sponsored and only for british passport holders. Doha College is a very good school they are well advanced than the UK curriculum state school. most of the preschool year for sept 2015 already allocated and a long waiting list for most school. You can consider to put your 3 year old into a nursery for a year and go to reception year next year instead.
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 19 April 2015 - 10:31
Good morning i hear there will be a GEMS British school opening in Al Wakra right next to their American school, that's been open for a year already, i think form what I've heard it only goes to grade 6 from September, then the higher grades will open later next year. if your new to Qatar, Al Wakra is about 40 min away outside Doha, it can take longer in rush hour but as long as they have a bus service it would be ok.