Question about schools and housing prices

Thanks for your replies. Really helpful! :) howz you getting on?

"oh amberly we are at it again"? whatever do you mean by that, dear? my word please don't tell me I have offended you somehow?

As BB points out there are a wide range of British schools in AD now although places seem to be under more pressure than ever, mind boggles on that one, but it's prob worth noting that newer schools are always going to be more expensive for the simple reason that it's taken quite a lot of cash to build them and get them started, the investment in BISAD was quite staggering and everyone nearly dropped dead when the fees came out, only to realise all the schools were going to follow!! As far as I am aware all the British schools have pretty good reputations, some are more academic than others and of course the right choice for you might not suit everyone else, it's a very individual thing, BB has given a pretty comprehensive list there, so I guess its a just a case of seeing where and if you can get a place

Hello! I think most people would probably say the best British schools are Brighton and BSAK. Unfortunately I think you will also find those to be the two hardest to get into. There have been some reports of more spots becoming available at BSAK lately, while Brighton seems to be quite impossible. But you should definitely get on the relevant waiting lists and so on. Other schools people like quite a bit would be Yasmina and Pearl. And then there are a couple of new ones, Repton and Cranleigh. You could maybe use these as backups as they seem to be rather easier to get spots in. Repton hasn't seemed to make much of a splash in AD for whatever reason, while Cranleigh looks promising but isn't opening until the Fall. The prices are in a range, with BSAK on the lower end, and BCAD, Repton and Cranleigh on the higher end with Cranleigh the highest. Seems like the newer a school is the higher the fees. Nice villas for the price you mention on the Dubai side of AD would be the Raha area (Al Zeina, Bandar and Muneera developments), and between the bridges (Fairmont Hotel villas are particularly nice but I think are running closer to 500k). Definitely easy to meet people between schools and things advertised on forums like this one and abu dhabi woman. Cheers! and amberly finding it a little big boring having "digs" let it go...... if you are happy with your schooling choices then so be it.... everyone is different everyone has different money to pay and some may not be able to afford certain schools, some may not be lucky to get into any choice of school they want, lots of ifs...but stop implying "things". again i will not put one school over another.... as what works for one will not work for another one.... we are all different, our children are all different, some can cope with tests at some schools and some cannot, i know that quite a few people have moved from different schools around auh..... yasmina to bsak, bsak to bcad, bcad back to bsak, yasmina to bateen, even when they had a 5 minute commute then changed schools to have a hour commute because it was better for their children etc etc . at least there is a choice here now... the only choice 15 years ago was bsak but that only went up to year 6 and cambridge high school thats all the brit schools in auh at the time..... so with the opening up of more schools is good, good to have some competition between schools and especially to do with the sports and music etc as you can have many more fixtures etc.

Hello! I think most people would probably say the best British schools are Brighton and BSAK. Unfortunately I think you will also find those to be the two hardest to get into. There have been some reports of more spots becoming available at BSAK lately, while Brighton seems to be quite impossible. But you should definitely get on the relevant waiting lists and so on. Other schools people like quite a bit would be Yasmina and Pearl. And then there are a couple of new ones, Repton and Cranleigh. You could maybe use these as backups as they seem to be rather easier to get spots in. Repton hasn't seemed to make much of a splash in AD for whatever reason, while Cranleigh looks promising but isn't opening until the Fall. The prices are in a range, with BSAK on the lower end, and BCAD, Repton and Cranleigh on the higher end with Cranleigh the highest. Seems like the newer a school is the higher the fees. Nice villas for the price you mention on the Dubai side of AD would be the Raha area (Al Zeina, Bandar and Muneera developments), and between the bridges (Fairmont Hotel villas are particularly nice but I think are running closer to 500k). Definitely easy to meet people between schools and things advertised on forums like this one and abu dhabi woman. Cheers! oh amberley we are at it again. for an explanation of things to newbies you have the highest fees at the likes of BCAD, Cranleigh and Repton, why is that?, because they are "profit" schools, independent schools from the uk... so they have to charge more in fees to make "that" profit. the likes of the other british schools, BSAK, which is "a non profit" school doesnt have to send money back to "its uk name" because there isnt one, so any "profit" that it makes goes back into the school and the children etc. The other british schools such as the ones run by Aldar Academies are excellent too, BISAD which is run by Nord Anglia is good, these are all companies running them to a certain degree. The only one that truely isnt is BSAK it is run by its governors and senior leadership team. In all the british schools here in AUH spots become available all the time, and not for any specific reason that Amberly is "gearing" towards. You need to ring up every school you can, bearing in mind the costs, and see what is available, some years are difficult to get into unless you apply when they open the admission process which for sept can be early as november etc. The places for FS1 is difficult as in all of the schools put together they dont have as many places in schools, because there are many nurseries in auh that cater for them too.... also ADEC have just changed for next year the starting ages so that has also put pressure on the small amount of places available too. The costings vary from school to school, the difference being that with new schools they are able to "price" their fees with adec higher whereby the established schools can only increase them every year by a certain amount if approved by ADEC, I dont know about BCAD but BSAK's fees were not increased last year, Cranleigh being a new school will start higher than all the others. You also need to check that some schools have other fees, bsak has a joining fee, BISAD had some sort of facility fee, same as ACS, so when you add that on the first year it can be a bigger hit. You are definately paying less for schools in doha than in auh, but also AUH is expensive too for housing.... you pays your money you get what you can afford etc. You also have to be aware that the 3 independent schools, Cranleigh, Repton and BCAD do a entrance test, whereby the aldar schools, and BSAK etc do not. I would think twice tho if you are in a very good school, because I would suspect you will find it very difficult to get places for those 2 ages being the hardest. The british curriculum schools are: BSAK, BISAD, Yasmina, Muna, Pearl, Bateen, Mushrif, GEMS Cambridge High Sch, GEMS International, Diyafa International, Repton, BCAD and new this year, Ayjal, British Reach School and Cranleigh. hope thats all of them and havent missed any! There defo is many more schools now to choose... in the past there was only BSAK and Cambridge High School so auh has definately moved on....