Al Ain - Abu Dhabi

[MABS]

Having visited the Middle East lots in past 5 years, we may well be moving to Al Ain later this year, how have you found the relocation?
i have two children to bring,14 and 9 yrs. Am very concerened bout the whole thing, can talk myself in and out of it every 5 mins!

Hmm Al Ain is a bit out in the sticks, much more relaxed. They have just banned labourers from visitng the shopping mall as they dont know how to behave (true) but WTF! Surely education is needed? People love it or hate it. Not much at all for kids and not much choice of schools. IMHO AD would be better but again real probs with schools. You need to get onto that straight away to have any chance of gettign ionto a decent one.

Property in AD is still more expensive than Dubai and can be difficult to find. Got to be on the spot with deposit in hand. We shall see what the real exodus turned out to be in September. Gov. curriculumn school are not starting until after Ramadan (Sept 27th or there abouts). Private other curriculmn schools are allegedly making their own decisions, however last December schools were closed as it was too much hassle to open for a few days.

Try here www.expatwoman.com/forum/topics.aspx?ForumID=22 for some people from Al Ain. Maybe register and get intouch? No pm facility though ;-(

HTH

Hi Mabs,
as you know, I'm not familiar with AD but I would urge you to consider carefully your DD's education. I moved to KSA when DS was going into year 9 and he was given the choice of going to a good private school as a full boarder in the UK or moving out with us. He chose to move out with us but has recently admitted that perhaps that was not the best option after all although of course he has gained some interesting life experiences from 3 years in Saudi
I have a good friend who moved to Dubai around the time I moved to KSA with her two DC then in years 8 and 5 and she has admitted that perhaps it wasn't sensible for the eldest DC and several times over the past 2 years has considered sending her back.
I know your DD goes to an excellent school now which can cater for full boarders to perhaps give some thought to that if you and your DH do decide to move out there.

Good luck with your decision making and hope to see you before I return to KSA in September x

Def agree with MABS about consider boarding school. Education IMHO anywhere in the ME is not a patch on a good education in the UK. If I could afford BS for DS going into y9 I would send him and he would be happy to go. There is not so much sport out here, too hot. Although Dubai want to bid for the Olympics, hmm Ramadan and 50 degree heat? Not sure how they think thats going to work.

Starmummy, not all UK boarding schools are silly money. There are a few good state aided boarding schools around that are approximately £3,500 per term full board as opposed to the 'usual' £8,000+ per term. Certainly worth looking at, in fact one of my best friends who is in Dubai has been considering it for her DD

there is a few posters on AbuDhabiWoman.com who live in Al Ain. they can talk to you more about schools there on the ground.

thanks, thats great