Former pupils share memories of riding to class by camel at school that predates UAE
The facilities were often basic and the hours long, but the pay-offs were immense. Long before the UAE had branches of international schools and universities, teachers laid foundations that stood the test of time, ensuring pupils did not have to leave the country to be educated. To mark the UAE’s 50th anniversary, The National has profiled some of those teachers.
Only a few schools in the Emirates can speak of a legacy that predates the country’s formation, but Dubai English Speaking School is one.
It opened in a villa on the shores of Dubai Creek in 1963.
The pupils were taught in a rudimentary classroom, but change was coming.
In 1967, Dubai’s Ruler, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed,
granted the school land in Oud Metha.
Only a handful of children attended the villa, but the school and its senior school, Dubai English Speaking College, now have a combined roll of about 2,700. To celebrate its journey, the school has launched an alumni project in which older teenagers and people who attended in the early days will share stories.
“There are four sixth-formers at Dubai English Speaking College who are going to be writing a book over the next 15 months,” said Andrew Gibbs, principal of the college.
“This comes on the back of establishing some recent contacts with the first seven children to attend [the school].
“There are things I’ve learnt with a view to capturing as many of our alumni as possible, the oldest of whom are about 64 years old.”
He said conversations with former pupils had corrected his memories of places, dates and times.
There was no set curriculum to begin with and from the start, British and American pupils attended.
The first group of 10 pupils was taught by some of the parents and by a British serviceman, Flight Lt F Loughman, from the Royal Air Force Educational Corps. The book will show what life in the Emirates was like more than 50 years ago. It will also include noteworthy visits to the school. They included the daughter of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, Anne, the Princess Royal, in 1987.
“Some of the stories are about the kids going to schools on donkey and camels. If you lived over the Creek, you got a boat, and then you were picked up by a donkey which brought you the last few 100 yards to the school,” Mr Gibbs said.
Aileen Davidson has taught at the school since 1991.
The primary school teacher moved from Ireland during a career break in 1989 and has lived in the UAE since.
“The school is very much interwoven within the fabric of the city, because we have endured and grown with the city despite the fact that our campuses might not look swanky,” she said.
“One of the things I like is that there’s children that I taught who are now coming in with their children.
“If I’m on duty at the gate
I still meet parents and they’re saying, ‘Hello, Ms Davidson’, and I’m thinking, ‘Oh, my goodness, I taught you when you were 4’.
“I feel so privileged to have been able to see that and to see how the children I taught got on in life.”
Ms Davidson, who joined as a Year 5 teacher, later became a group leader and now takes care of children with special educational needs.
“It’s been a tremendous ride over the years,” she said. “Life was a lot simpler and a lot quieter. Some colleagues would hop into their cars and drive across desert to get to school.
“I remember my first night out in 1989. I had literally arrived to the country and was living in Sharjah and came over to the Metropolitan hotel in Dubai and had no idea where I was going, and the Sheikh Zayed Road was a dual carriageway.”
The school will mark the UAE’s Golden Jubilee this week.
A two-day extravaganza has been planned, complete with food, falcons, henna, music, competitions and exhibitions.
Emirati Heritage Festival, which will be held today and tomorrow, will bring more than 1,000 pupils together to celebrate the UAE’s history and culture.
“We will celebrate the music and the animals and the culture and the food,” the school’s headmistress, Catherine Dando, said.
“It will be a two-day extravaganza celebrating all things Emirati.”
Designers from the Museum of the Future will give a talk, and pupils will work on a project to predict ways in which the emirate might change in the years to come.
‘We’re looking at UAE, past, present and then what the children would imagine the UAE would be in 50 years,” Ms Dando said.