We are a family of 3, in the process of moving to Dubai. Our son is 8.5 years old and we are considering some “outstanding or good” schools for his education. Living in a residential locality close to the school is a huge advantage. My wife will be working at the Dubai International Financial city. Our budget is AED 80,000 -100,000 for a 2 bedroom apartment/villa. Having done a little bit of research on the net, we have a chosen a few localities. They are al Barsha, JLT, Discovery Gardens. However, the schools we are considering are located at a distance of 17 to 23 kms from these places. My queries are the following:
1. Do you really have to find a residential locality close to a metro station? If you do not, will a locality such as Discovery Gardens have feeder buses to the nearest metro?
2. The KHDA website gives a classification of schools under outstanding, good, acceptable. Does this rating of schools make a huge difference?
3. If I choose a residential locality such as Discovery gardens, JLT , or Al Barsha, which are about 17 to 23 Kms away from my school of choice (Horizon School), what will be the travel time by car?
4. Are there good schools in the localities that we have listed for our choice?
We are not closed to the idea of considering other localities. If you could suggest any other locality for the budget that we have mentioned, we will definitely consider them. Its quite a challenge moving to a new country.
Yes, areas such as Discovery Gardens do have feeder buses. In my opinion the rating between ‘good and outstanding’ does not make a huge difference. Horizon is an excellent school. If you were to live in the above mentioned areas you would be going against the traffic to school and the driving time would be 20 – 30 minutes however, be warned when coming out of the JLT area in the morning there can sometimes be delays. The other schools to consider from these areas Jebel Ali Primary School and Dubai British School, GEMS Wellington and Dubai International Academy. There is also a new Dubai British School opening up in September in a near-by area called Jumeirah Park. Please also remember that many of these schools offer school buses to take your child to school.
Another area to consider living is Mirdif where you will be able to find nice family accommodation for your budget. This area is served by feeder buses to the metro station. Schools in this area to consider would be Uptown School and GEMS Royal Dubai School.
My biggest recommendation is to get your child accepted for a school and then choose where to live.
