Some of the comments that have been made on this thread are more than a little misleading. For example, are we comparing Parkhouse (or any other school in Doha) with fee-paying, independent schools in the UK or are we trying to compare them with state schools in Britain? As Parkhouse is a fee-paying school, I would have thought that the former would be a fairer point of comparison.

One person has written that the standards at Parkhouse are "extremely high". Well, if there is an acute shortage of school places, then it stands to reason that some of the more popular schools can be very selective about who they allow in through the gates.

I have not heard much about Parkhouse's Special Educational Needs policies and I suspect that they would not want to admit SEN children because that might affect their "extremely high standards". That also might explain Parkhouse's preference for nice, white English children.

Craftyqueen has mentioned the SEC, the Supreme Council of Education. This is a body set up by the Qatari government and it is most probably run by a bunch of idiots. Therefore it stands to reason that anything endorsed or recommended by the SEC must be pretty awful. If the SEC were really so smart and so super efficient, then there would not be any private, fee-paying schools in Doha at all because every single parent would want their little darling to go to a wonderful Qatari school. In reality the Qatari schools are very bad and more foreign, fee-paying schools open every year and most parents (both Qatari and expat) seem to want their children to go to "international schools". And have you ever heard of such a thing as a Qatari teacher? No, I thought not.