When Michael and Harriet Wright accepted job offers to work in the UAE, the parents of three, were full of enthusiasm. However, the enthusiasm was quickly tempered by the endless list of tasks that would need to be completed prior to relocating from Chicago, Illinois to Dubai.
To complicate matters, their new jobs would begin in late October, long after the start of a traditional school year. How would their children, grades 7 and grades 9 adjust to being in a new country while starting school late? Harriet recalls the late nights on the internet seeking information on everything from international schools to expat social life for teens. “Will the curriculum be the same? Will there be place for the children when they are starting school so late? Will they be able to make friends?”
Late September, the Wrights learned about iCademy Middle East, a Dubai-based, American curriculum online school. “The ad said, ‘it’s never too late for the first day of school’. It spoke dire