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SCORES of parents in Bahrain queued up to meet education consultants who were visiting the island last week to provide information about boarding schools in the UK.
Families coping with the strain of "waiting list fatigue" as they try to secure a place at two of the most popular schools offering a British curriculum on the island were amongst those interested in possible alternatives to home tuition.
Education consultant Sue Anderson and her teacher daughter Sara Sparling were overwhelmed by the challenges expat families were facing in the kingdom.
She said: "Some parents are facing immense difficulties trying to do the best for their children. We have been able to listen and we will be able to give them free and impartial advice on choosing the best school if they feel UK boarding could provide a solution."
As well as facing "difficulties" getting into St Christopher's School and the British School other expat issues included:
l The "mobile family" who had moved jobs around the Gulf and the child had attended five schools by the age of 11. He was having trouble making friends and the constant. changes led to him falling behind in lessons.
l Learning support - some parents believed their youngsters needed additional and more specialised help for dyslexia and other difficulties than were available at their present school.
l A feel for the homeland - Brits abroad that had children in Bahrain who carried British passports but had no idea of life in the UK. Some parents felt an education "back home" might help their youngsters before they moved on to university.
l Choice of subjects - some teenagers in Bahrain were complaining about a lack of GCSE courses available.
Boarding school, however, can pose its own problems. Mrs Anderson said: "Some parents might be concerned about parting with their children and I can understand their feelings - I cried for ages when my child first went to boarding school.
"However, the children come back for holidays and you find you can spend real quality time with them with makes all the difference when it comes to relationships."
And cost could also prove an issue, for full boarding can hit the pocket to the tune of around £20,000 (BD14,683) a year.
However, Mrs Anderson says that covers "just about everything" from tuition, books, food and even transportation to and from the airports for those holiday return journeys.
Boarding schools have also become "cool for kids" since the success of the Harry Potter books and films featuring Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry which provides the main setting of the series.
But the turnaround in boarding fortunes is less to do with Harry Potter than with the efforts of boarding schools themselves and successive awareness campaigns in convincing parents that they are an attractive modern educational alternative, according to the Boarding Schools' Association.
One school principal said children did not come to boarding schools believing they would be like Hogwarts. "The children I interview have always read Harry Potter but they are aware that Hogwarts is fictional and treat with a certain amount of indulgence the idea that boarding school is supposed to be like Hogwarts," she said.
