School Hunting In Dubai

I'd like to share my experience in finding school here in Dubai. Very tough and search is still going on.

We reached here in May , which means Registrations and Admissions in every school is closed. I knew what to expect as I knew how schools here work. Most of the schools' yearly session begins in the month of September. To be able to get the admission, you need to start making calls for registration a year before like in the month of October at least. If you want your child to be enrolled in the school for the September 2013 classes , you need to have him registered in October 2012. Registration dates vary from school to school so you need to be vigilant regarding this. You should always be aware of what is "going on" in schools.
Since I was too late already , I ended up calling just any school around our area and everyone told me no more seat available. I literally begged some schools as I didn't want to waste my child's year. I had no idea, that I will never get admission anywhere. I wanted a school not very far from where we live so preferred areas were Jebel Ali, The Gardens, Discovery Gardens, even till Al Barsha but all efforts in vain. Not a single seat anywhere.

 My daughter is supposed to be in FS2 , which means she is too old for a Nursery School but I convinced myself to put her in one just so she can experience a normal routine of going to school, have friends, socialize and learn at the same time. So I started my search for a good decent Nursery around. There were couple of Nurseries like Chubby Cheeks Nursery, Bubbles & Giggles , Jebel Ali Village Nursery.  Okay first and foremost the nurseries are very costly. Okay now if they are charging so, I asked what are they going to teach the children. What curriculum is to be followed, what will kids learn after coming out of the Nursery. They had vague replies. None of them satisfied me. Just by speaking to them I came to know that Nurseries here are basically Day cares. Kids will go there, play till they want, eat, drink, sleep and sing. They might be taught the abs's and 123's but that's it. There is really no serious teaching and learning. So why pay that much then? I dropped this idea as I can teach better. Why throw away money for something I don't even want.

So now, I am my daughter's teacher preparing her for Grade 1. I had her registered in GEMS Winchester for the year 2014. I paid registration fee of AED500 . So one whole year ahead of us. There are couple of schools more in my mind where I plan to register too as registration doesn't mean you got the seat, it means you are in the waiting list. So I can't take any risk and should be in waiting list of more schools hoping to get a call form any one with the good news that we can enroll our daughter now.  But my search is still on, keep making calls hoping someone to withdraw and the seat be given to my child.