Education in Qatar
Moving your family abroad is a daunting task and one of the key questions our candidates ask is about schooling.
If you have kids of school going age it is important to start to think about schools early as getting your child into a good International British School will make the transition from the UK to the Middle East that much easier.
Qatar is lucky enough to host many top quality international schools. You have numerous choices regarding the curriculum you wish to sign up to. You have the Choice of the English National Curriculum, International Baccalaureate (IB), and Finnish Schooling System along with a host of other options including Excellent Islamic Schools which also follow the National Curriculum and Schools following the curriculum of various countries such as Tunisia, Lebanon and Pakistan etc.
Many Schools also offer A Level and BTEC qualifications too.
The best schools will often have wait lists which is way applying early is Key to getting your Kids in to the School of your choice.
Amongst the most popular Schools is Doha College which is a well established British School in an international setting with high performance learning, a huge variety of Extra curricular activities and a real focus on academic success. They cater from preschool to A level and are planning to open a bigger campus in 2020 creating more places due to increasing demand. Check out www.dohacollege.com
Doha English Speaking School (DESS) is a British Embassy funded School with an excellent reputation delivering the National curriculum with excellent facilities and staff. The SATS results at Year 6 come in the top 2% of UK British Independent schools who still conduct this assessment. Most Children completing their primary education here go onto Doha College in Year 7. Check out the school at www.dess.org
Doha British School has two campuses located to the south and more north of the city and also offers a fantastic education as do many other schools including Sherborne in Qatar, Royal Guilford Grammar School (RGS) in Qatar, Kings College Qatar, Park House English School (www.parkhouseschool.com) amongst many others.
School fees vary from School to School and in no way reflect the quality of education that is being offered. School fees will also be a big consideration in selecting a school. Unless you are working for a big oil company that covers all the cost of school fees you will probably receive around £4200 for children between the ages of 5-18 per child up to a maximum of 3 children. This normally means if you have 3 or more children Schooling will be your biggest expense as everything else such as flights, accommodation, utilities is paid for and there is no tax bill in the Middle East!
Travel to and from school is normally via the School Bus but given the price of the School bus it just as economical to hire a personal driver that will do the School run and normally parents will club together with other parents to share a driver so the cost is minimal.
After School Enrichment activities are big in Qatar and you will find all sorts of clubs including sailing, horse riding, coding, engineering, the full spectrum of sports clubs amongst many other things.
All in all, Don’t worry too much about Schools as there are plenty of options for primary and secondary education as well as a host of English Nurseries for pre school.
For more information just get in touch with one of Recruitment Consultants whom will answer any further questions or just contact the schools directly and the friendly admissions registrar will answer your query.
