Number of bedrooms for family of four in school accommodatio

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familyabroad
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri May 10, 2019 4:09 pm

Number of bedrooms for family of four in school accommodatio

Post by familyabroad »

Hi there,

I am currently based in Saudi Arabia. My school housed us in accommodation where we were given three bedrooms. Next year the school is moving to a different site so we will be moving too. There has been talk that families with two children might now only get two bedrooms. I have a daughter who will be 10 next school year and a son who will be nine and feel they are getting a little old to share. My question is what other schools around the world offer for families in terms of number of bedrooms, particularly if the kids are two different genders. This is in the situation when housing is provided by the school.
mysharona
Posts: 210
Joined: Thu Jan 13, 2011 1:25 am

Re: Number of bedrooms for family of four in school accommod

Post by mysharona »

At my school in China you would get 3 bedrooms.
PsyGuy
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Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

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Post by PsyGuy »

I would talk to your ISs leadership, as it is your basing a lot of your conclusions on little more than rumor. You also need to know how to react to it. You may be able to arrange a housing allowance for example instead of provided housing or some other type of arrangement. If necessary since youre in the ME, its really not to late to find another IS in the region, one that will give you larger housing.

In very broad terms, three bedrooms tends to be the limit in terms of family housing. Larger than that and housing tends to get much more expensive or is unavailable. Either way it becomes a logistical barrier in recruitment. Thats not to say there arent ISs that wont do that, but beyond what the IS typically has available or budgets for the approach is to provide a housing allowance (and various levels of guarantee), with the IT responsible for the difference. So if your a family of 4 for example at an IS that generally budgets for a 2LDK, you would get the allowance for that (or at better ISs whatever the maximum was), and they would help you with a property agent, and guaranteeing for you (hopefully) but you would have to either make compromises in the quality and location of your housing to get it within the allowance, or you would have to go into your salary to absorb the difference for a larger residence.
scribe
Posts: 99
Joined: Sun Feb 11, 2007 2:18 am

Re: Number of bedrooms for family of four in school accommod

Post by scribe »

Although it was a while ago, I seem to remember our housing in KSA was determined by country law which forbid the employer from providing housing that put boys and girls in the same bedroom, which does make sense considering the context. The rumor that is worrying you is likely just that. As for your enquiry regarding what other schools do; our family had 3 bedrooms in KSA (boy and girl children), 4 bedrooms in African country, 3-4 in other Asian countries.
familyabroad
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri May 10, 2019 4:09 pm

Re: Number of bedrooms for family of four in school accommod

Post by familyabroad »

Hi all,
Thanks for the responses. I probably should have been clearer that the 'rumour' was from the person negotiating the housing that had been told to ask for a two bedroom unit for our family of four. I'm currently trying to push back as all other schools in the region offer three bedrooms for families of four and there is no cost to the family. I think I might succeed but it was useful hearing from others around the world as well.
PsyGuy
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Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

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Post by PsyGuy »

@familyabroad

You still need to talk to your executive leadership (HOS, whoever signs the contracts) and find out what the definitive situation is going to be quickly, usually an exception can be made for the first IT that asks, maybe the second and possibly the third, describe it as some sort of grandfathering for current staff but at some point the HOS is going hold up their hand and no more exceptions.
Illiane_Blues

Re: Number of bedrooms for family of four in school accommod

Post by Illiane_Blues »

I've been at a school where the school assigned houses to teachers with the best intentions, but not always realising what the actual need was for the different teachers. When it turned out our place wasn't a good fit, we just went and talked to them, and they got us a different place (a swap with someone who didn't need all the bedrooms and preferred our assigned place which was closer to the school).
So yes, talk to the school, they might not realise that you need more bedrooms.
Bookworm
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Joined: Tue Mar 19, 2019 10:35 pm

Re: Number of bedrooms for family of four in school accommod

Post by Bookworm »

I was in Saudi with 2 very young children. I had a 3 bedroom apartment as we were told children of different genders need their own rooms. The school said that children over 5 years old definitely must have their own rooms, by law.
Frenchie
Posts: 33
Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2018 8:11 pm

Re: Number of bedrooms for family of four in school accommod

Post by Frenchie »

Wow, interesting, I had no idea it was a law to have separate bedrooms for children over a certain age in ME.Learn something new everyday.
expatscot
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Joined: Thu Jan 14, 2016 4:26 am

Re: Number of bedrooms for family of four in school accommod

Post by expatscot »

Personally, I'd push on the boy/girl thing - I expect that's something they'd understand. Depending on your school, you could also push on the UN Rights of the Child Article 15 (the right to privacy) but not sure how far that would work in Saudi!
PsyGuy
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Discussion

Post by PsyGuy »

I strongly doubt citing the UN Article 15, Rights of the Child ill mean very much in the Kingdom, but it might give a leaders a reason to help an It out.

Does anyone have any citation for these laws?
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