I am sorry if I may be stating what is blindingly obvious, but it may be worth mentioning that simply applying for a place at the school of your choice does not mean automatically that your child will actually be given a place at that particular school, alas. There have been many postings on QL on the subject of school waiting lists, with some about parents being told that the waiting list is "closed", i.e. there isn't even a place on the waiting list!

Another problem is that a school may claim to be following the British National Curriculum, but in fact many of the staff may not be from the U.K. and the language in the playground may well be Arabic, not English. If the school also has Arabic and Islamic Studies on the curriculum, then it follows that there may well be less time available for the subjects that are normally part of the British curriculum. When one remembers that the school day is significantly shorter in most schools in Qatar, this may mean that there will be even less time available for the subjects that your child would have been studying, had they been at a school in the U.K.