SEND Schools Dubai

[Warringtonfamily]

As a family we may have the opportunity to move to Dubai. All house and school fees will be paid for (53k AED a month primary and 80k secondary) but our concern is our 8 year old son. He is currently going through an EHCP process having being diagnosed with ADHD currently on medication to get through half a school day, and will probably have Autism assessment as well. He does half days at school since September and trying to get back to full days as he is doesn’t engage in class refusing to do work a lot and has unofficial 1-1 support at the min, stand up desk, quiet spaces etc. If we stay it’s likely we will send him to a private independent provision paid by the EHCP tailed to ADHD/autism teaching as he will need small class sizes.

My question is do these places exit in Dubai? I have researched plenty of schools over there and they seem quite hot on SEND but they are integrated into the main school I can’t find any specialist schools/provisions other than one which was for children with severe disabilities. If not are there any recommended schools that are good with SEND to visit when we go over in March. Failing all that any advice on active expat forums that could help point us in the right direction. Thanks.

this may be of use @Warringtonfamily

eta; just re-read your post and realise you've already explored this route.

this site suggests there are separate schools

Some schools incorporate special needs learning alongside mainstream classrooms, while some schools work only with special needs students.

This may be out of date now, but try Aquila/Hemam Centre partnership, GEMS metropolitan, King's Al Barsha - all had specialist units. Other alternatives are private therapy/remedial/special needs centres, which may have qualified teachers but are less likely to be UK trained, in case that's important to you.

Look at which school advisor website, FB groups like British Mums Dubai, contact Louise Dawson - find her on LinkedIn or her website.

FYI, school fee allowance will not begin to cover school fees plus specialist provision, you could be looking at an extra 15k a month on top of fees.

If that's the amount given per month, you should be ok, if relatively modest housing.

Those schooling amounts must be annual, not monthly. You can get a very decent school for 60k a year!

Thanks ill try the suggested sites its all a bit of a complicated minefield as the centres I have come across in Dubai are geared towards severely disabled children (Down syndrome, brain injuries etc) my son is high functioning etc, he needs small class sizes and an interactive learning environment rather than sitting down and looking at a board. He refuses to do work otherwise, so it’s a niche set up which the UK seem to have independent provisions now that would suit. Just struggling to see what Dubai offers. I have read on many mainstream schools depending of the level of SEND needed we may have to pay for 1-1 support. I’m guess I’m worried that the system might be too strict and rigid.

Sorry yes it’s per year not month

Does Dubai allow ADHD medication?

Ah, I see - I thought it was your allowance per month for housing and school combined.

FWIW We found most schools including the British schools had a separate unit or separate support. But a big part of our decision to come back was attitude to SEN. We didn't want our boy (high functioning, academic with Aspergers) to have a label of inferiority / invalidity. So visit and make your own decision. But do visit.

Hi, I don’t have children at school here but the Facebook pages are FULL of posts from parents trying to get their children with additional needs into a school, and there appears to be no room in any of them. Also, you’d need to budget for an assistant/shadow teacher if required. They’re not provided by the schools. This is the person who’s always recommended to talk to. https://www.facebook.com/share/1BFy1NrpdS/?mibextid=LQQJ4d

Try the Facebook group Two Fat Expats. Many thousands of members and lots of knowledge. Either you will get an answer or you will be directed to another local Facebook group.
You could also use a school/educational consultant based in Dubai. In my opinion the independent ones are better. If you get one with your reallocation consultant they are not so impartial as they are invested in finding you somewhere to live so they get their fee.
if you use an education consultant ask them how many children/families like yours they have helped and ask them to put you in contact with other families in your situation. Many internationals schools have parents Facebook groups as well.

We lived in Dubai and this was one of the main reasons we left.

Quality SEN support is hard to access. As you have found there aren't really separate SEN schools - I heard of some only for locals.

Despite many international/british schools saying how SEN friendly they are in their glossy marketing the best schools are oversubscribed so will have a cap on how many SEN students they admit. There are usually admissions tests/interviews even for non-selective schools to assess your DC .

Everything costs a huge amount over and above school fees. Parents usually have to employ the 1:1 LSA directly - typically a minimum of 5000aed pcm, rising rapidly for anyone half decent) and the quality of candidates is very varied - finding one with qualifications is very difficult - we were lucky to find a lovely lady with excellent experience for DD but she wasn't a specialist. Some schools will arrange this on your behalf and only employ ladies who already have a visa (ie their husbands) in some cases you need to be their visa sponsor and pay those associated costs (and have responsibility for them if they do anything illegal).

It's rare to find a native English speaker in these roles. All forms of additional therapy are extremely costly, and for ASD/ADHD there is a strong focus on ABA therapy which would be controversial here.

I think there can be issues getting your usual medication for ADHD but this wasn't applicable for us. Anything related to a psychological disorder/mental health (as many SEN diagnoses are classified) is also usually an exclusion from medical insurance - check what's offered in your package with a fine tooth comb.

Children with SEN are referred to as 'children of determination' so you may find more info searching that term.

There is a private Facebook group called 'CANDID- family support' which used to be a good way to connect with other SEN mums - also search on British mums Dubai group which is massive.

I am sorry this sounds very negative but I wish I had known it all before going. You need to weigh it up very carefully. You haven't mentioned what salary you or DH have been offered but that is an important factor. If one or both of you have a great package and high salary (eg 100k aed per month) then many of the issues can be solved. If you are a teacher or similar on 15k you won't be able to pay for what your DC needs and it will impact on your ability to make the most of the experience.

The two fat expats page already mentioned has a spin off group, expat kids learning differently.

I don't know if you need to be a member of the first to access the second, but look for both.

Be very, very careful. Our experience of SEND and ME (not UAE) was not positive.

Wow thank you for that detailed response it’s really appreciated and I guess confirming my fears and considerations. This has really helped.

We will have to check out the two fat expats page but I think this might be a non starter. The company are flying us over in 6 weeks to view the company villa and view a school or two (the job offer isn’t there yet but pretty much) and is around £8-10k per month plus bonuses, all bills included. The schooling money provided is separate but as the whole point is hopefully to return with money if we are spending extra money on a private one to one which sounds at best a chaperone and we wouldn’t be saving as much also we wouldn’t want to risk our 8 year been asked to leave if he was above their needs and he’s then stuck with trying to home school alone not what we want.

Seems like the universe is telling us something, a week before we were meant to fly out in October we had a medical issue come up and had to cancel, now it’s been rescheduled to fly out in March we have just had a promotion in work and nearly have an EHCP granted.

Hello, can I ask did you decide to go? As I’m currently in the same situation

Very late to this thread but I wanted to second the suggestion to contact Louise Dawson as mentioned up thread.

Almost certainly too late now, but sharing for others who might have the same question - plenty of Dubai private schools have the smaller class sizes anyway, so him being included in mainstream may be theoretically achievable. However they will almost certainly want you to have a (parent funded) LSA, and you will also likely struggle to find a school to accept at all, unless they are desperate for students (never a great sign!). Where you have a very good education allowance (like the OP in this case) it's worth negotiating at the job offer stage for this to be able to be used to cover LSA fees. That at least gives you the option to choose a cheaper school and have some of the LSA fees covered.

I hear of some schools doing a great job with kids with SEN, but I hear of far more not managing it. It also seems to be very child/family/situation dependent - I hear some parents rave about a school, and then the next day someone is pulling their child out because of lack of support.

It actually is hard to do well, and I also don't think any schools in Dubai have managed to structure so that Inclusion support is profitable i.e. money schools spend on inclusion support reduces profitability. The schools that are genuinely good are usually also good in other areas as well and tend to be highly in demand.

Thank you for the reply it’s reaffirmed my suspicions.

We decided to turn the job offer down, we had the issues start with ADHD just prior to flying out to Dubai so it was cancelled and then 6 months later when we were due to fly back out again I had a medical issue 2 weeks before departure!! which turned out okay after a 6 week investigation so we had to cancel the flights again. It was almost like the universe was telling us something.

A year on now and the school is fantastic regular meetings, exceeding expectations, no phone calls, work completed in class, EHCP in place with funding and medication. I feel the Dubai schools wouldn’t have had the patience and he wouldn’t have fit in. Being private they can just ask students to leave and we’d be stuck. I had the feeling you had to fit into the mould most students like our daughter fit into despite how clever our son is in comparison he learns differently to the traditional school system. The schooling allowance was very generous (fixed non negotiable) but wouldn’t have touched the sides of an employed TA on top.

I was at a wedding with an old friend whose son is the same age and he’s an expat in Japan. His son has been asked to leave 2 schools and they have gone through a lot to convince the currently school keep him. They also have entrance interviews and being clever spoke in great detail for an 8 year old about the biology of ‘bugs’ but at the disgust and disapproval of the schools for being different and even struggled to get a place.

Very happy we decided to stay, I gained a promotion in work around the same time. Me and the wife enjoy hiking and the British countryside, wear a £10 Casio watch , shop in Joules and drive used cars. Dubai wouldn’t have suited us.

The only comment I'd make is that plenty of people in Dubai enjoy hiking (there's actually a fair amount of hiking), wear cheap watches and drive used cars. Not sure about Joules - no idea if it's available here as it's probably more than I would spend on clothing. Of course there's not the UK countryside and you'd not going to find hiking in 'green', but apart from that there's no reason Dubai wouldn't have suited.

Except the SEN support and there I think you made the right choice.