School advice shaped by fifteen years inside education.

Elizabeth Harding has spent fifteen years in schools in the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates, the last ten in Dubai, much of that time in senior leadership.

She has taught across the British curriculum and worked within Dubai’s international school sector. It is that experience, more than anything, that she brings to families.

Most parents, and most advisers, only ever see schools from the outside: the prospectus, the inspection rating, the open morning. Elizabeth has known them from within. She has been in the leadership meetings where admissions decisions are made, in the classrooms where a child either settles or doesn’t, and in the inspection weeks that produce the ratings families read.

It means she knows what to look for on a visit, which questions are worth asking, and what a school is weighing up when it considers an application.

She works with families moving to the UAE and with families already here who want a change. Most are in a similar position when they first get in touch. There isn’t much time, the list of schools is long, and it is an important decision that can have a big influence on how a child experiences the move. Often there is more than one child to think about, and the question of where to live as well. It can feel like a lot, and it is much easier with someone alongside you who knows how the system works.

Why independent matters

Elizabeth is paid by families and by no one else. She takes no commission, referral fee or introduction fee from any school, so there is never a financial reason for her to point you towards one school rather than another. The only question is which school will suit your child.

It is always fair to ask an adviser who is paying them. For Elizabeth, the answer is only ever the family.

Why the number of families is limited

Elizabeth keeps the number of families she works with small because doing this properly takes time. For each family there are availability checks with schools, preparation before every visit and a conversation afterwards, help with applications and documents, and a good many calls and messages along the way, some of them at short notice. When offers arrive, there needs to be time to talk them through calmly.

She couldn’t give that attention to many more families at once, so she doesn’t try. It also means that when you ring, she knows exactly who you are.

No adviser can promise a place, because the final decision always rests with the school. What Elizabeth can promise is that your child applies to the right schools, well prepared and in good time.