SCHOOL’S 50TH ANNIVERSARY KINDLES MEMORIES OF ZAYED
Bsak has a major birthday to celebrate. Roberta Pennington finds out how the milestone is being marked
When Sheikh Zayed met children and staff at the Al Khubairat Community School in January 1968, the visit would be one of many royal tours of the British private school in Abu Dhabi.
Sheikh Khalifa, Sheikh Abdullah, Sheikh Nahyan and Sheikha Lubna are some of the noble Emiratis to have walked its halls as honoured guests. Some of their children have been pupils.
From the British royal family, Queen Elizabeth visited twice. Prince Philip, Prince Charles, Prince Andrew, Princess Eugenie and Princess Anne all followed in her footsteps.
“There are always emails about people coming in to visit,” said Clare McCabe, who has worked as a teacher at the school for 20 years. “And they can just appear.”
The memories and photos of these events are being compiled by parents and staff as the school prepares for its 50th anniversary this year.
“You can see the excitement building,” said Hannah Robb, an Irish teacher who has worked at the school for 18 years. “It’s going to be big.”
Al Khubairat Community School started as a small cluster of prefabricated buildings in 1968 on a parcel of land donated by Sheikh Zayed on the Corniche. The school was next to a women’s park known as Khubairat, hence its name.
The original primary school was formed by a merger of the British Political Agency school and the Abu Dhabi Petroleum Company school, which each had about a dozen pupils, mostly children of British government or oil and gas workers.
By 1975, the small campus was bursting at the seams with nearly 500 primary school pupils and in 1980 it moved to its current location, in Al Mushrif, on land once again donated by Sheikh Zayed, its original sponsor.
The school has since been renamed as the British School Al Khubairat, more commonly known as Bsak.
Mrs Robb remembers first visiting the school as a guest of a teacher about 31 years ago. She had moved to Abu Dhabi from Ireland and was feeling homesick.
“She [her friend] said: ‘You’ve got to come to the choir service around the swimming pool,’” Mrs Robb said.
The school’s swimming pool was a de facto meeting place for the British community in Abu Dhabi in those days of the UAE’s development, especially during the holidays. In December, the pool area would be decorated with tea lights and lanterns for special occasions. “You would bring a cushion, you’d get mulled grape juice on the way in and a mince pie,” Mrs Robb said. “That’s when you knew Christmas had arrived in Abu Dhabi. It was very much a community and we were at the heart of it as well.”
Some early photos show Santa Claus arriving by camel. In another, he landed on campus in a helicopter.
A water tower in the centre of the school served as a notice board where parents would meet and exchange news.
“Do you remember, Clare, when it rained? There were no drains around Al Khubairat, so the cars would be abandoned for weeks with the water over the wheels?” Mrs Robb said to Mrs McCabe as they reminisced. “Do you remember that? And we just soldiered on. It was very sandy around here as well, wasn’t it?”
“There weren’t as many parking issues and things like that,” Mrs McCabe said. “Parents would come in with their children and I got to know them quite well.”
None of the original buildings at the school have survived the phases of development. Secondary school classrooms, a gym and the Jubilee Building were built in 2001. In 2012, the original pool and surrounding staff accommodations were demolished to make room for a primary school reception, classrooms and replacement pool.
The school, which is one of a handful of non-profit community schools in the country, now has a roll of 1,900 pupils from 53 nationalities, 210 teachers and 80 support staff.
“We are part of the fabric of Abu Dhabi,” said Mark Leppard, the school’s 11th headmaster.
“We were founded as Abu Dhabi was growing on the international scene and more expatriates were making this their home. We wanted to put down roots, and I think the school provided that opportunity – that’s why we were founded, out of that need.”
Emiratis make up the second-largest group in the school population behind British children – 13 per cent of the pupils are Emirati.
“We’ve got some really well-established, influential families from Abu Dhabi whose children either came here or are here at the moment,” Mr Leppard said.
“When you talk to people, they know this school. It’s not because we put a big banner up, they know it by reputation and those roots going out into the community.”
The school is writing a commemorative book to mark its 50th anniversary. Staff also plan a series of events over the next months to celebrate the occasion.
Although the buildings and location have changed over the years, Mrs Robb said one thing has remained the same: the sense of community.
“The environment is lovely,” she said. “We feel we make a difference. The late Sheikh Zayed said success of the people is measured by the standard of their education, and we feel that we have been successful.”
Sheikh Zayed said the success of the people is measured by the standard of their education HANNAH ROBB Teacher