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Boarding school Dubai style

13th September 2010 by Helena Leave a Comment  

As thousands of Olivia’s contemporaries settle into damp, cold boarding houses all over the UK, she has moved into what is locally known as the ‘Dubai Palace’ for her first term as a boarder at Repton School Dubai.

The accommodation is a vast villa, with pool. As I left her frolicking in said pool with two new friends I thought briefly about poor little Jane Eyre, incarcerated at the clergy daughters’ school, Morton, on a windy Yorkshire moor. I suppose things are different nowadays, well they certainly are in Dubai…

Olivia settled in so well, I could hardly have hoped for a better start. The other girls seem really lovely and it struck me what a natural environment it seemed to be for a young girl (even with the gold flake) to be surrounded by other girls, most of them older. They all seemed to fit together straight away, it was quite remarkable, almost as if they had never lived apart.

The best thing about boarding is that you have a matron. I LOVE the idea of ‘matron’. Olivia’s is just as I had imagined; homely, strict, clean and capable. Matron is the person who sorts everything out from cuts and bruises to what you eat for breakfast. Like a mother, but a paid one, so possibly more motivated, even when she would rather be doing something else.

Olivia called last night and I imaged her in her little room with all her things on her chest of drawers; it was interesting to see what she took with her. Little bits of home in her new world. She sounded so chirpy last night and could hardly wait to get off the phone and back to her new friends, I hope it stays that way.

I made some new friends too, three, in one day, which is actually something of a record. One of them even lives in Abu Dhabi and Olivia has adopted her daughter (aged 13) as her ‘young mummy’.

The little two also had a perfect start; the loved everything about it. Here they are yesterday morning before Rupert took them to school.

I am so happy to have them all in the English system, although slightly worried their French may suffer. Bea tells me her French teacher has an Irish accent. Leo says all his work was “easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy” – a great English phrase that I am delighted he learned on day one.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2010


Filed Under: Children, blog --> Tagged With: boarding, dubai, school, style

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Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group. 

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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