We will move to Dubai in September, 2012. We would like to live in Springs/Meadows, Lakes, Al Barsha or Umm Suqeim. We are planning to enrol our kids – daughter 19 months and son 3.5 years (he will turn 4 in March, 2013) in Nursery. As we will be in Dubai for 2 years, our son will finish pre-school/nursery. I would really appreciate it if you could suggest some nurseries/pre-schools near the areas we would like to live. I would prefer, if I can, to enrol both kids in one nursery. Or are there some nurseries and schools beside each other?

Many of the schools in Dubai start children when they are 3 years old, in a stage called Foundation 1. The hours of school are usually shorter than the main school, running till about 12:30pm. The following school year is called Foundation 2 or Reception, and this is the year your son will definitely have to start school, however if you do not enrol your child for Foundation 1 it is sometimes hard to get them into Foundation 2, as space is limited.

I will give you the names of a few schools, as it may be hard to get into your first choice as demand on these years is very high. Contact Dubai British School, GEMS World Academy, GEMS Wellington, Jumeirah Primary School, Kings Dubai, Star International & Safa School. It may also be worth contacting Jebel Ali Primary School as this is an excellent school that does not offer Foundation 1 so he would enter this school in September, 2013. The distances of these schools may look far on a map but the road network in Dubai is excellent, and journeys do not take as long.

Once you know which school your child will be accepted into, then you can choose a nursery. There are many excellent nurseries in Dubai.  Take a look at our nursery directory which shows their locations on a map. If your child does not get accepted to school this year and goes to a nursery near the areas you have mentioned to live, then I would recommend you enquire whether Children’s Oasis, Jebel Ali Village Nursery – various locations, Little Land, or The Children’s Garden (Barsha) have spaces, but please note he will only be in the chosen nursery for one year.

I strongly recommend you sort out the schooling prior to choosing a house, as I stressed at the beginning of my answer places are at a premium, especially for the younger years.