Al Rabeeh

Al Rabeeh School, Abu Dhabi

The school is located, north-south, between 23rd & 25th Streets, and, east-west, between Al Muroor & Old Airport Road. I interviewed the school’s principal, Mrs Jane Kadri, and the Head of the Infant Department, Miss Gillian Thorpe.

I asked first about the history of the school. It was first established in 1979 by Jane’s husband as a KG/Nursery school with about 24 pupils. It was originally located near the Education Zone in Khalidiya. In the very early days, said Jane, and before she took over the running of the school, there were no files, no registers, not even contact numbers for parents, and the children were originally known only by their nicknames. Fees then were both variable and negotiable. Jane introduced a more orderly administrative system. The school was full by the end of the first year and when it first expanded and moved to a new location it was full within two weeks, so it had obviously quickly earned an excellent reputation.

The school has changed location several times since 1979. Gillian joined the school in 1987 and she told me that her infant department had moved 3 times and the junior department 4 or 5 since then. The moves had usually been made to accommodate larger numbers but sometimes a move was forced on the school. The school was obliged to move from its building in Bateen, which it occupied in the 1990s, after an Education Department inspection which said that the school was fit for purpose and well-run but needed to move because the buildings were too old. Jane pointed out how difficult this move was as no help was forthcoming with regard to finding a new location. She said that the school nowadays enjoys much greater support than in the past, particularly from Abu Dhabi Education Council, ADEC, which today has a number of well-qualified British advisors and educationists.

The two departments, infant and junior, are now housed in the same building which, for the first time in the school’s history, is a purpose-built structure. Jane is proud of the fact that the school is not, like so many in Abu Dhabi, a converted villa but rather a school specifically designed for children. This new building was opened in December 2002. It now has 795 children aged 3-12, 89% of them Emiratis with the rest being Lebanese, Jordanian, Indian, Pakistani and British. Jane pointed out that some of these would have dual nationality. There are now 38 English classroom teachers, mostly British & Irish but 2 South African & one New Zealander. The total staff complement of the school is 98.

I asked Jane what she thought made her school special and she said it was the close link between school and parents, plus the fact that all the children are treated as individuals. She particularly stressed the high quality of the Arabic & Islamic teaching and the readiness of the heads of those two departments to learn from the methods of the English teachers, for example with regard to board displays. Asked as to future plans, she said that there was a widespread desire among parents for the school to open a Secondary Department and she would like to do so. The main obstacles to this were the need to find a suitable investor and the shortage of land on Abu Dhabi island. This shortage of land was critical, she said, because a Secondary Department would need to have separate buildings for boys and girls.

Gillian agreed with Jane that what made the school special was the long-term association with parents. ‘New children applying for places in the school often have parents who also attended the school. This makes me realize how long I’ve been at the school’, Gillian said. She also said there was a constant emphasis on expansion and development at Al Rabeeh. When asked about more detailed curricular matters she said that the main overall concern was to make sure that what was taught was both culturally acceptable to the children and within their experience. Pressed to be more specific, she said that the children all shared a similar cultural and geographical experience so , in geography for example, children might be asked to compare living on a Scottish island with life here in Abu Dhabi. Grade 1 children created family trees. Wherever possible, things of local interest, such as dhows and Bedouin life, were covered in classroom lessons. In history, when the great explorers were studied, names that the children might be familiar with, like Ibn Battuta, were included in studies.

The school is a lively, vibrant and cheerful place to visit. In Abu Dhabi, the future is full of challenges, for this school in particular and for education in general. One senses a feeling of positive optimism after visiting Al Rabeeh.

784 words.

Bibliography:
www.alrabeeh.sch.ae