News from around the College

Meeting Students from Al-Rashid School in Dubai

Having lived in Saudi Arabia, being brought up in a very culturally diverse environment and studying in an international school has helped me to understand and appreciate other lifestyles and traditions. It is always nice to get to know how other societies function and what their unique customs are. Hence, meeting a group of intelligent, friendly young men from Al-Rashid School; Dubai (UAE) was quite a nice surprise! Not only did we spend time together over dinner, but we also went ice-skating and had a wonderful time with them.

It was comforting to learn that people from halfway across the globe have the same interests as us and it was amazing how easy it was to develop a friendship with each of them. Courteous and polite, they showed a genuine interest in getting to know more about St. Clare's as a school and as a body of international students, as well as about the city itself. They not only envied the number of different nationalities that we at St. Clare's are exposed to, but were also surprised by the amount of freedom we were given to make our own decisions from what we wore to where on campus we chose to be. They were especially shocked to find we could smoke on campus!

The group was here on a social studies/ history trip, accompanied by two history teachers, a PE teacher and an English teacher. They visited museums in both Oxford and London and watched a play to familiarise themselves with the culture of this country. Quite a few of them, who do not visit Britain very often, found the society's structure very different from the kind they are used to in Dubai. They were relieved to learn the social categories and barriers that are common in their country are more blurred here, and that St. Clare's only embodied this characteristic through its body of international student and teachers, working as one towards a common goal.

Zainab Hussain, India
1st year IB student
October 2003