Dubai - Kings School Al Barsha

[earlylifecrisis]

I'm applying for overseas jobs at the moment and have surprisingly been invited to interview at this school. The interview is tomorrow (!) so not got a lot of time to think. Bizarrely they have emailed me tonight (6.15pm to invite me to a Skype interview tomorrow afternoon and also asked me to fill in a large form by the morning! This seems a little disorganised -typical of the school admin?

It would include school places for my DC age 5 and 3 so interested in it from a parents pov too. Many thanks

I've only tried to have contact with Kings in Umm Suqeim when trying to arrange a school tour for friends doing a pre move visit a few months ago. From that experience I would say they are pretty lax at admin, no one returned my calls when I called with queries or to try and rearrange a school tour I had booked online. I'm hoping parents of enrolled pupils have an easier contacting the school than I did!

That said Kings are known as a good group of schools out here and I will be looking at them for my LO who is due this summer. They will be probably be the next one on my list to register for after JESS which people put their child down for at birth. I'll be looking at the Umm Suqeim branch but thats just because we live in the area.

If you do get two guaranteed places for your children you will be doing very well indeed, getting good school places is one of the hardest parts of moving here!

You can look at the KDHA website which publishes the inspections of all schools in Dubai that are older than 5 years (There are new schools opening here all the time)

www.khda.gov.ae/en/Website

Also have a look at the Expat Woman website - the members have very strong opinions about schools though and some comments you should probably take with a pinch of salt.

Good luck and if you do make the move try and live as close to the school as possible!

Thanks sheik. Why do you say live close to the school- is it because of traffic/transport?

I got through the phone interview and into the second round- the head was really nice.

The package includes 2 guaranteed school places at one of the Kings schools - one for free and one for 50% and I would also get flights, accommodation and bills paid for so sounds reasonably appealing so far!

Yeah the traffic can be a pain but may be less of an issue for you if you don't have to drop the kids at school then commute to work.

Good luck and make sure the sums all add up - the cost of living is very high here but its a great lifestyle!

Have a look at whichscool advisor Loads of info there. Good luck with the interview. Kings is a very good school. However some older students moving schools as its senior school is very new.

As an aside Sheikandbake why so fixated on JESS? It could be considered to be living on its laurels from the past, when there was little competition.

DH's company has a corporate debenture with JESS so we are just going to register as an insurance plan and then think about the others later. Plus I want as little a commute as possible!

I am sorry to write so late! How did the interview go ? Were there many people there? I have an interview for same school so just wondered ! Huge thanks x

@earlylifecrisis are you a single parent? Just that I know if you are with your DH the school won't give you the flights etc, they expect DH's employer to do so.