moving to Dubai - advice on nurseries?

[bunhead34]

Hello,
We are planning on moving to Dubai at the end of April, I have a 3 year old and an due my 2nd baby at the end of July.
Can anyone recommend nurseries/pre school in the lakes or meadows area? I have had a look at raffles which looks nice but they have a 5 day min per week which is too much, I would prefer 3 days.
Also, are any nurseries open over the holidays? the ones I have seen seem to be term time only. and with new baby coming in July, and nursery not starting until September, that is not ideal!
also, do nuseries tend to have long waitlists? currently we are in London and the wait is months long here.

thank you for any insights! xx

Hi, I can't recommend a nursery in that specific area, but to answer a few of your questions:

There are some nurseries that operate all year round ie no breaks for holidays. I think Blossom is one of the chains that offer this.

Other nurseries operate 'holiday camps' during the holidays but this is an extra cost. These are usually run by the teaching assistants rather than the teachers. Emirates British Nursery is one of the chains that run holiday camps (we use EBN btw and have been very happy with them)

The more popular nurseries may have waiting lists but many won't.

But if your child is 3, you should be looking to put them in school, not nursery (children start school at 3 here) They will go into FS1 at that age. However, some nurseries do offer FS1 (and some even FS2), but as far as I'm aware, most (if not all) of them will require them to be in full time at that age ie 5 days a week. I think you will struggle to find a nursery that will take a 3 year old on a part time basis.

Waiting lists for schools is a big thing, so even if you go down the nursery route, I would start looking at schools ASAP for entry at a later age.

Hope that helps!

PS If you haven't already, join British Mums in Dubai on Facebook - it will help answer all of your questions!

oh what! I had no idea! she is only turning 3 in April, maybe I will take a closer look at raffles then...they do FS1 I'm sure

thank you!

So if she's 3 in April, she would start school (FS1) in September :-)

thank you so much!

You need to join the FB group British Expats Dubai. Full of lots of sensible advice and good humour.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/BritishExpatsDubai