Boarding school student recruitment programme fails to meet expectations

The UAE's first boarding school will start up with only a third of the number of pupils it had hoped would take residence.

The headmaster of the first boarding school in the UAE says he is "very encouraged" by the response to the new facility, even though it will start up with only a third of the hoped-for number of pupils. Repton Dubai will launch later this month with about 30 pupils, compared with a prediction that up to 100 could take up residence in the first year. While the number of boarders is modest, Repton Dubai has grown rapidly since its junior school opened last year and has around 1,100 pupils, many in the newly launched senior school. It is the first overseas branch of Repton School, founded in 1557 in Derbyshire, England.

David Cook, the Dubai headmaster, said: "We have been very encouraged with the response, both within the UAE and further afield in the Gulf region. "We will start with around 30 boarders, aged 11 to 15 years, all boys. "We have only offered boys' boarding for this year." Each boarder will share a bedroom with one other boy, a far cry from the British public schools of old in which youngsters slept in dormitories where bullying was rife.

While Repton Dubai seeks to replicate the traditional ethos of British private schools - usually referred to as public schools - it will not have some of the notorious practices of yesteryear, such as caning. Mr Cook has said one of the advantages of boarding is that pupils can use the school's facilities into the evening. These include an equestrian centre with 30 to 40 stables, two all-grass rugby pitches, cricket pitches, indoor and outdoor swimming pools and a tennis academy. An 800-seat auditorium is planned.

Fees are a match for the facilities. Boarding costs up to Dh141,000 (US$38,000) a year and day schooling up to Dh80,000. A sixth form will open next year and boarding is likely to be expanded to include girls as well as sixth formers. Students wear the same uniform as their counterparts in England, although the school is owned locally. Many other well-known British private schools have opened "partner" establishments overseas in countries such as Thailand and China, among them Shrewsbury and Harrow, which was the alma mater of Britain's wartime prime minister Winston Churchill.

Among the other British private schools considering setting up in the UAE are Oundle School, based in Northamptonshire, and Dulwich College, based in southeast London. Oundle has said it is considering only a day school as it wants to do what is "appropriate" for the region. The overseas expansion mirrors what is being seen in higher education, with British, Australian, Indian and American institutions among those to have set up campuses in the UAE.