Why are there so many kindergartens in Dubai, and what are the criteria to look at when choosing one? Understand the different curriculum and the age cut-off for the schools. And let’s find out how to find the best private kindergarten/maternelle in Dubai for your lovely little ones!
If you are at this stage, you should have already resolved the visa / residency issue. There are actually many paths to get a residency visa to come and live in Dubai or the United Arab Emirates. You can set up a company, and self-sponsor you and your family, which can become costly. We used a remote work visa, and you could find here How to self-sponsor for residency in Dubai?
Get yourself familiar with the kindergarten and school landscape in Dubai
Dubai is a relatively young city and an economic hub of UAE. As the country has 90% expat, which includes anyone who is not Emiratis or from GCC countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE), it is not hard to imagine there are many private and international schools catering for the needs of these expats. And as u.ae website mentioned, expats cannot gain access to free public schools, so the search for our private school begins.
In a nutshell, you can find major educational systems here without issue: UK GCSE, US, UK/IB, French, Swiss, Australian etc. Yet for someone like us who are not focusing on a particular system but rather to have something holistic for our children, you may need to dig deeper before you apply for one.
Understand the different private school systems
According to Dubai’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), there were 215 private schools in the city as of Oct 2021, featuring a big UK, US, IB, and Indian community. All systems together housed almost 300,000 students. During our search, we have initially focused on UK and IB system despite us being French. We would like our children to master the language of business and can communicate fluently in English, and personally we are more familiar with UK system since Hong Kong one was crafted the same way. If you are also looking into UK vs IB system, here is a brief summary you may find useful:
UK – British National Curriculum – Level names: Foundation Stage 1, 2 (FS1, FS2) followed by Year 1 up to Year 12 or 13
UK curriculum is the biggest system in Dubai, which has 80 schools and 100,000+ students in 2021. In my humble opinion, UK curriculum is very rigorous academically, and is best for children who follows frameworks well.
While UK schools can choose how to apply British system as they wish, I see most school follows UK International GCSE (IGCSE) until end of Year 11 (age 16) where students will be awarded IGCSE Certificates. After that, many schools switch to International Baccalaureate (IB) system for Year 12 and 13. This is an observation that aligns with private schools in UK, which adopt primarily UK system for younger children and switch to IB system at age 16.
Your 3 years old child will start FS1 in the September school year if and only if he/she passes his/her birthday before school starts. More about age cut-off below.
IB – International Baccalaureate – Level names: Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten 1, 2 (KG1, KG2) followed by Grade 1 – 12
IB curriculum is not by itself affiliated to any national curriculum, but is a curriculum aims to build internationally minds through integrated learning approaches. We particularly like the idea that you learn not by subjects but by themes. For example, if your child is learning about time, the classes will structure learnings based on the theme, with maths talking about hours and minutes, history talking about years when events happened, and language about reading time from clock.
IB system has 4 sub-divisions, with Primary Years Programme (PYP) covers from 3 years old to roughly 11 years old (total 8 years). Middle Years Programme (MYP) from roughly 11 years old to 16 years old (total 5 years). The last two sub-divisions cater for learners from age 16, choosing between Diploma Programme (DP) or Career-Related Programme (IBCP).
Since IB system and UK system are quite intertwined, the same age cut-off is applied to IB system as well. Do not be surprised.
What you should know about age cut-off date for your 3 to 6 years old?
Most schools have a cut-off date of 31 August. And up until 2021, schools were more lenient in terms of birth month of child. For example, if your child is born in November and among the youngest, schools would still accept them.
Yet in September 2021, KHDA has enforced a strict rule under UAE Ministry of Education Resolution No. 24. This rule aim to align most private systems to international standards, which is to say a child born a day after 31 August will have to wait for the following September before enrolling. How about joining mid-year when your child attain the age? Nope, it doesn’t seem to be allowed either. 31 August is the criterion for the entire school year, not depending on the actual date your child starts.
This September 2021 rule change only applies to children who meet ALL of the criteria:
- When to enroll: In September 2021 or after,
- Where to enroll: Any KHDA-governed schools in Dubai for the first time,
- School level applied for: Levels that are for 3, 4, 5, and 6 years old.
Do read the above carefully. If your child, like ours, is already following schools in other countries but is enrolling in Dubai for the first time, your child will be asked to repeat the same school level here if he/she is born after the age cut-off date.
As a summary, if you are targeting UK/IB/US systems in particular, your child will need to have certain age before starting in September:
| Age before September 1 | UK Curriculum | IB Curriculum | US Curriculum |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | FS1 | Pre-KG | Pre-K |
| 4 | FS2 | KG1 | K1 |
| 5 | Year 1 | KG2 | K2 |
| 6 | Year 2 | Grade 1 | Grade 1 |
Once you have chosen the curriculum, drill down to individual schools.
Depending on which curriculum you settled with, you may have a handful of schools to choose from, such as IB and French curriculum schools, or you will end up having 80 schools to research on. In our turbo-charged search process, I have listed some must-have and some good-to-have criteria, and you can decide which ones to form your own list.
- Curriculum – applicable if you are still debating on the exact one you want to follow.
- Teachers – minimum and average qualifications of teaching staff, turnover rate, teacher-to-student ratio, native or non-native speaker.
- Facilities – ask for those facilities that are important to you and your child. E.g. swimming pool, covered playground, various types of sports fields.
- Language & cultural studies – schools are required to teach Arabic, while Islamic studies depends on curriculum and your child’s declared religion. You may want to choose school that minimizes, or reinforces these areas.
- Tuition fees – not only your child’s current applicable fees, but also the general sense of tuition step-up. For example, some schools have low Pre-KG fees while Grade 1 fees can be 50% higher.
- Sibling discount – can be significant if you have a few school-aged children.
- Extra-curricular activities – whether or not they provide after-school activities, range of choices, whether they are free or paid
- Lunch & canteen – at what age does canteen start, if homemade lunchbox can be heated up as your choice of food content will be different.
- School bus – understand if the fee calculated per month or per 1-way, average travel time for your home address.
- KHDA report – I put this last as it is more of a reference report which gives an integrated rating to each school based on a set of predefined criteria.
Please do share with us how you approach your school search mission, and tips you may have for our readers. I will be more than happy to hear your thoughts.
Image credit: pixabay.com
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