Home education for a child with SEN in the UAE: where to start

Families come to home education for a child with additional needs by very different routes. Some have decided school is not working and want to teach at home for a while. Some have a school place but a reduced timetable, with their child attending for part of the day. Some are between schools, waiting for a place, an assessment or a move. Each is a different situation, and it is worth being clear which one is yours before you plan anything else.

This article is about the practical side: what a home-based day needs, and where a SEN governess fits into it. It is not legal or regulatory advice, and Special Minds is not a home-schooling provider or a curriculum body.

Check the current rules yourself, from the source

The rules on home education, registration, curricula, exams and returning to school are set by the education authorities, they can change, and they can depend on your family's circumstances. Private schools in Dubai are regulated by the KHDA and in Abu Dhabi by ADEK, and other bodies set rules elsewhere and nationally. Which of them applies to your child, and what they currently require, is part of what to check.

Before you take your child out of school or agree a reduced timetable, check the current position directly with the relevant authority and with your child's school, and keep a written record of what you were told. Two questions are worth asking early: what would need to be in place for your child to return to school later, and whether anything you do now, such as the curriculum you follow, the records you keep or any exams, affects that.

If it is a reduced timetable

A reduced or part-time timetable is an arrangement with the school, not a decision made at home. It should be written down: the hours, the reason, who reviews it, and the plan for building back up. A reduced timetable with no plan to change it has a way of becoming permanent without anyone deciding that it should.

For the hours at home, the aim is usually twofold: keep your child learning, and work on whatever is making the full school day hard, so that the school day can grow again. That second part is where structured home support helps most, because it can be aimed at the same things the school is working on.

What a home-based day needs

A child with SEN learning at home still needs most of what a good school day provides, arranged around their needs rather than a timetable built for thirty:

• Structure. A predictable shape to the day, written down and visible, with learning, movement, meals and breaks in the same order most days.
• A curriculum or learning programme. Chosen by you, or by a provider you have chosen, and checked against the rules above. It is not something a governess should invent.
• Goals from an assessment or plan. Learning, communication, behaviour and independence goals, set by someone qualified and reviewed. If your child has an IEP or a recent assessment, start there.
• Therapy, where it is needed. Home education does not replace speech, occupational or behavioural therapy.
• Other children. Social contact does not happen on its own at home. Clubs, activities and planned meetups with other children need to be built into the week on purpose.
• Records. What your child worked on and how it went, which is useful for reviews, for therapists, and for any return to school.

Where a SEN governess fits

A governess is not a teacher of record and does not decide what your child is taught. What a governess can do is carry the structure of the day, run the learning sessions to the programme you have chosen and the goals your child's plan sets, keep the therapy targets going between sessions, and record what happens.

For many families that is the missing piece. The curriculum is on the shelf and the goals are on paper, but nobody has the hours to deliver them calmly, every day, in short sessions that suit a child with attention, sensory or communication needs. If your child needs subject teaching at a level a governess is not trained for, you may need a qualified teacher or tutor as well, with the governess handling the routine and the support around the lessons.

A governess also helps keep the door to school open. Consistent routines, independence skills and good records all make a later return easier, whether that is a full place or a phased one.

Before you decide

• Which situation are you in: home education, a reduced timetable, or a gap between schools?
• Have you checked the current rules with the relevant authority and with the school, and kept it in writing?
• Who set your child's goals, and when were they last reviewed?
• Which curriculum or programme will you follow, and who chose it?
• Where will your child see other children each week?
• What would need to be true for school to work again, and what is the plan for getting there?

If your child has not been assessed recently, a standalone assessment (AED 499) sets the goals a home-based plan can work to. Our page on SEN home-schooling support covers support for families teaching at home, and the SEN governess page sets out what a placement includes.