The Essence Of (School) Life: Jebel Ali School

Talk to the staff, parents or students at Jebel Ali Primary School, (both past and present), about their 'little school on the hill,' and they all talk at some point or another about the ‘essence.’

While no one can quite put their finger on what this ‘essence’ exactly is, Colette Doughty, head of secondary has been known to say, (more than once), “if we could bottle it, we could make a fortune.”

And she’s most probably right.  There really is something a little bit special about Jebel Ali Primary School; something almost tangible, even in its current dated setting.

Yet, there’s certainly more to this little school than meets the eye. In the course of its 39 years in existence, the school and its community have weathered the economic peaks and troughs thrown their way - together.

Possibly the ‘essence’ at work at JAPS is that of a true community school, a school which is inextricably linked to the people who fought so hard to keep it alive and thriving.

Now, as the 39 year old ‘Grand Dame’ of primary schools prepares to move to its expansive and purpose built new site in the Akoya community and in the process, changing its name and expanding to a fully-fledged secondary with sixth-form, many people are asking, if the move may be a wise decision at all?

Yet with JAPS’ glowing KHDA inspection reports, its not-for-profit status and as a known feeder school for the ‘Dubai-ivy-league’ (DC, DESC and JESS), Jebel Ali School isn’t really a 'new' school at all.

The academic year 2016/17 has long been considered an eventful period for new Dubai schools and until recently, figures stood at a staggering 27 brand new institutions. Although estimates have cooled during the past six months, there are still expected to be at least half this number launching in September 2016.

Just how will Jebel Ali School fare against these new players, and in fact, the old, as it takes on its biggest development to date?

To Dubai’s newer residents, JAPS might seem a somewhat staid old institution; in fact, the school has evolved and kept pace with turbulent times more than most. Could it be the current move to the Akoya community is simply just another chapter in the school’s colourful life?

JAPS began back in 1976, with the dredging of Jebel Ali port. The Mina Jebel Ali Construction was undertaken by three companies Dutco, Balfour Beatty and Royal Volker Stevin, plus dredging by the Dutch company Gulf Cobla.

Part British, majority Dutch, construction of the world’s biggest port required a vast bi-national workforce onsite, and to accommodate the crew, Jebel Ali Village was created.

Comprising of 300 villas, a school, a park and recreational club plus a health clinic, Jebel Ali Village was born. Considered remote by the residents of Dubai, the village was accessed by Sheikh Zayed Road when it was nothing more than a dangerous and unlit dirt track through the desert.

“I’m sure many people in Jumeirah thought that you fell off the edge of the world if you ever ventured that far out of town,” said Simon Essex chairman of the school board at the time.

With 69 children to educate, the new community set out teaching its children in a small room at the social club and by 1976 construction of JAPS was well under way.

It was this fusion of multiculturalism, isolation and self-sufficiency which gave Jebel Ali its ‘us and them’ outlook and the Jebel became a cohesive community with JAPS firmly at its core.

Launching in September 1977 the little school incredibly ran two very successful educational streams in one facility, the UK curriculum and the Dutch. Where possible, the two attempted to work together, with sports, drama and various annual shared events, however given the differences in calendars, the bi-curricular model was by all accounts tough to coordinate.

In 1983 construction at Jebel Ali Port was completed and the original construction families packed up and left.

The future of both the village and JAPS was at this point uncertain; attendance dropped, yet both the community and the school were saved by a new wave of expats.  This time it was families seeking affordable housing, only too happy to live outside the city in a compound with a true community ‘feel’.

As the port companies left, they handed the Village to the Government of Dubai, while JAPS remained in the hands of the governors and school board. A debenture scheme was hastily implemented to buyout the founding companies and JAPS became a bona-fide and independent not-for-profit school.

Thirty three years on, and JAPS is once again introducing a debenture scheme to assist in financing the new Akoya build.

Set at Dhs25,000 per student, the Jebel Ali School (JAS) team are confident the promise of a seat in their brand new purpose build facility, with not-for-profit  management and a 39 year proven track record, is enough of a draw parents.

"Even with the debenture, the new Jebel Ali School will still represent very good value for money," Doughty says.

For the students already at JAPS, the new school has the benefit of removing the worry of ‘where to next?’

Jacquie Parr, principal says, “while we've always been a ‘feeder’ for DC, JESS and DESC, I think there was always this sense of worry amongst our parents, who wanted the security of staying with the school for secondary.”

“Previously we were losing children to other schools as parents wanted that guarantee, with a secondary now, we remove all this stress,” she goes on to say.

Parr notes that the new school has already filled four classes in Year Six and is now looking at the possibility of a fifth. Interestingly, much of the demand is coming from students already in Dubai as well as overseas.

“We’re the last not-for-profit school in Dubai with seats available in Year Seven,” says Parr.

Expansion and bigger premises is a development each of the not-for-profits has chosen to make at some point in the past, with DESS creating DESC a decade ago, JESS expanding from its original primary premises and even Sharjah English expanding to include a secondary.

It’s also not the first expansion in the life of JAPS either. Back in 1997 as ‘New Dubai’ developed around the Marina area, the school took over a new infants department in Muntazah Villas also on the Jebel.  Headmaster at the time, Steve Fletcher worked with the contractors, architects and teaching staff to outfit the classrooms, noting the floor was laid at 5am on the opening morning.

Establishing a brand-new school is also not new to the recently appointed Head of Secondary, Colette Doughty either. As head of science/deputy head at JESS previously, she joined the school just as it launched into the process of moving to its new site at Arabian Ranches.

Doughty says, "I learned a lot of valuable lessons during the time." For the JAPS/JAS move however, she hopes to avoid many of the common pitfalls involved in setting up a new school.

One of which, must be the 'phased construction,' where the school builds the new facility in sections over the course of several years. “Im delighted Jebel Ali School won’t be ‘phased,' as it's all being built now, before the students arrive,” she says.

With the persistent speculation that the build will not be completed in time, I ask both Doughty and Parr their opinion and they said confidence on site and at the school is high. The build is on track and both the client and construction team are happy with progress.

In fact so much so, that the project manager has, since working on the JAS project, had his son assessed and has now happily secured a place in Year 2 for the 2016/17 academic year.

As talk moves on to the new curriculum in the secondary, it’s immediately obvious that it’s a topic close to both women’s hearts. JAS has, after much deliberation, chosen A Levels over the IB Diploma.

While neither Doughty nor Parr can fault the IB system in its preparation of students for university, they are also firm believers in the A Level programme.

To incorporate the best of both, Jebel Ali School plans to create personalised programmes to suit each child’s abilities. Those who can handle the load and want more will have 'IB-like' aspects incorporated into their programmes, like the personal extended project, and creative aspects, with the Duke of Edinburgh awards and LAMDA etc., yet for children who find this is all too much and just need to focus on their exams, Jebel Ali staff will pare down the work to the necessary exam materials and preparation for university life.

Staffing at the new school doesn’t seem to have been an issue either, as Doughty puts it, “we draw staff here thanks to the ethics of a not for profit school.”

While they note they have been, “inundated with CVs based on the JAPS reputation,” they have remained cautious and ensured, “the teachers have to match with our philosophy of the school, buying into the things ‘we’ do.”

For the new site, Doughty says her recruitment efforts have focused primarily on ‘Middle East experience’ and where possible actually ‘knowing’ the teachers she was employing.

While JAPS has continually proved it can weather the storms of both the ‘Village’ and Dubai as a whole, the school's real secret of success has always been its fiercely driven community, PTA and links to the wider community.

To this end, Jebel Ali School Akoya hopes to draw in its brand-spanking new community, giving it a sense of itself, something to congregate around and essentially, a heart.

Yet the school won’t be forgetting its past either, by maintaining its old network of friends over at the Jebel. In fact, several of the Jebel families have already begun the process of renting new homes in the Akoya community simply to be near the school.

Although there’s no denying the new Akoya neighbourhood is bigger, newer, wealthier and more connected to the city than the old Jebel Ali Village, it would seem ‘bottling’ the elusive JAPS ‘essence’ is already in progress for September 2016/17.