Walk into almost any classroom in Dubai or Abu Dhabi and you will find children from a dozen countries learning maths, science and history in English. The lessons assume the language is already there. For a child who speaks Arabic, Hindi, Tagalog or Russian at the dinner table, that assumption can leave a quiet gap. They understand enough to get by, but not enough to explain their thinking, write a full paragraph, or feel sure of themselves when the teacher asks a question.

The UAE runs a huge mix of school systems side by side. British curriculum schools follow Key Stages and head towards GCSE and IGCSE. IB schools run the PYP and MYP. American schools work to Common Core standards. Each one raises the reading and writing bar every year, and a child who fell a little behind in Year 2 can find the gap wider by Year 6 if nobody helps them close it.

Our job is to fill that gap early and gently. We build the everyday English a child needs to keep pace at school and, just as important, the confidence to use it out loud. Many families book us for a child and then pick up spoken English classes in the UAE for the parents too, so the whole household grows together rather than the child translating for everyone. Arabic sits in the school week here as well, and expat parents who want to keep pace with it can look at our Arabic classes in the UAE, while our focus for your child stays on English. If you want the wider picture of what we run across the country, start at our English classes in the UAE hub.

Bring us the reading list, the spelling words, the essay that came back with red pen, and we build the sessions around that. For a British curriculum child that might mean comprehension and creative writing in line with Key Stage targets, or GCSE and IGCSE English Language practice for the older ones. For an IB pupil we support the reading and written tasks that run through the MYP. For an American curriculum child we work to the reading and writing expectations they meet in class each day.

Reading and writing are where most of the marks sit, so that is where we spend most of the time. We help with understanding a passage and answering the actual question, planning a piece of writing before rushing into it, and checking it over at the end. As exams and school assessments come closer, we shift towards past papers and timing, so a child walks in knowing the format rather than meeting it cold. Families in Dubai and Abu Dhabi often start this support a term or two before a big assessment year, which gives us room to build slowly instead of cramming.

For the youngest learners we start with phonics: the sounds that letters and letter groups make, and how they blend into words. A child who knows their sounds can attack a new word instead of freezing at it. From there we move to short, simple books that a child can actually finish, because finishing a book is what makes a young reader want to pick up the next one.

Confidence is the part that quietly matters most. A lot of children in the UAE understand far more English than they will say out loud, because one wrong word in front of the class once stung and they went quiet. In a small, friendly session there is no audience to perform for. We let a child read at their own pace, correct gently, and celebrate the tries, not just the right answers. Speaking grows from the same soil, and if a child needs a real push on talking, the same approach carries into our wider spoken English work for the family.

A younger session might move through a picture story, a quick game with sound cards, a song, and a short bit of reading, all in half an hour, because small children learn in bursts and lose the thread if one activity drags. An older child works through a real task: planning a short story, debating a point, describing a picture, marking up their own writing to spot the fixes. The English is the tool, and the task is the fun part.

We keep an eye on attention rather than fighting it. When a child tires we change gear. We praise effort out loud, keep corrections light and specific, and end on something the child got right so they leave wanting to come back. Homework stays short and doable, because a child who dreads the worksheet learns nothing from it. The goal every week is simple: the child should feel a bit more able to use English than they did the week before.

Across the UAE, private English tuition for children generally runs from about AED 60 to AED 150 an hour for one-to-one, with small-group sessions working out lower per child, often in the AED 40 to AED 90 range per session. What moves the number is the age and level of the child, whether you want one-to-one or a group, and how many sessions a week you plan. Online sessions usually sit at the lower end because there is no travel or room cost baked in.

Cheaper is not automatically better value for a child. A large, noisy group at a low fee can mean your child barely speaks in a session, which is the opposite of what young learners need. We quote in AED after a demo, once the trainer has met your child, seen where the real gap is, and knows how many sessions will actually help. That way you pay for what your child needs, not a fixed package that ignores them.