Dear Ash Mount Community,
Firstly, we would like to wish all of our families a very joyful and peaceful Eid Mubarak. If you have had time away from work & school, I hope you have had a lovely holiday and have been able to enjoy some special time with family and friends.
As we come to the end of May, it feels like a good opportunity to reflect on this month’s focus and look ahead to what is shaping up to be a very exciting June.
Throughout May, our blogs have focused on how children grow as individuals, through confidence, independence, responsibility, and community. We have explored how children gradually learn to manage themselves, make choices, reflect on consequences, and develop the resilience and self-belief needed to thrive both in and beyond school.
These are skills that develop through partnership between school and home; through routines, relationships, expectations, and opportunities to contribute positively to the world around them.
As we now move into June, our focus will shift towards one of the core ideas that sits at the heart of Ash Mount:
Local heart. Global mind.
This phrase connects deeply to our vision to help children:
- learn with purpose
- live with compassion
- lead with courage
Children learn with purpose when they understand both the local community they belong to and the wider world around them. They live with compassion when they learn to value different cultures, perspectives, and experiences. They lead with courage when they feel confident engaging with new ideas, people, and opportunities.
This thinking also aligns closely with the philosophy behind international and IB education, where schools aim to develop young people who help create “a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.”
One of the greatest strengths of living in Dubai is the opportunity to grow up within such an international community. We currently have families representing 52 nationalities within the Ash Mount community, and we expect this to continue growing. This diversity is a huge strength and creates incredible opportunities for our children.
This was brought home to me recently as a parent myself. My daughter, who grew up here in the UAE and is now finishing university, opened her Snap Map and could see her friends living, studying, travelling, and working across the world. What followed was a lovely flurry of conversations and plans about all the places she hopes to visit over the coming years. It was such a reminder of the friendships, perspectives, and opportunities that growing up in an international community can create.
For us, being internationally minded does not mean losing connection to place or identity. In fact, we believe the opposite is true. Children develop a stronger understanding of the wider world when they first feel connected to the community and country around them.
Living in Dubai gives our children extraordinary opportunities. They are growing up in one of the world’s most international, innovative, and ambitious cities, a place where cultures, languages, ideas, and opportunities come together every day.
There are so many experiences across the UAE that align beautifully with the learning experiences we want for Ash Mount students:
- exploring sustainability at Expo City
- learning about conservation and the natural world at places such as Ras Al Khor and the mangroves of Abu Dhabi
- understanding history and culture through Old Dubai
- engaging with innovation, design, and future thinking through museums, galleries, and emerging technologies across the city
At Ash Mount, we want learning to feel purposeful and real. This means carefully planned trips, visits, guest speakers, outdoor experiences, and opportunities that help children connect classroom learning to the world around them.
Alongside this, we remain deeply committed to strong academic foundations. Our curriculum is underpinned by the English National Curriculum standards and high academic expectations, while also including the exciting developments found within inquiry led international education, encouraging curiosity, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and real world problem solving.
Throughout June, our blogs will explore:
- what “Local Heart, Global Mind” looks like in practice
- how international mindedness develops in children
- how schools help children understand culture, identity, and belonging
- how real-world experiences strengthen learning
- and how we support children as they prepare for their move to Ash Mount in August
Since December, we have been running community events and sharing monthly newsletters to help families not only understand the school but begin to feel part of it long before opening day. Watching these relationships grow has been one of the most rewarding parts of this journey.
June is going to be a wonderfully busy month.
We are very excited for our upcoming community events, including:
- our Choir in an Hour event
- our football event, where we are very excited to soon announce a partnership with a very famous club
- and our new parents events for families joining Ash Mount
We have intentionally scheduled one of the new parent events during the working and school day as it is designed primarily for adults and parent questions. However, we also know this timing may not work for all families, so we will run a second session on a Sunday following Open Day 4 to ensure everyone has an opportunity to attend.
Following these events, families will also receive our Pre-Opening Parent Handbook, designed to help everyone feel informed, reassured, and ready for the exciting months ahead.
In June, we will also begin collecting the names families interested in joining PAAMS – Parents at Ash Mount School. This affectionate name reflects exactly what we hope the group will become: a warm, active parent community that supports the life of the school through events, second hand uniform initiatives, community building, and acting as an important parent voice within the school community.
We also hope PAAMS will become a wonderful way for families to share ideas, experiences, and opportunities with one another, from recommendations of places to visit across Dubai, the UAE, and the surrounding region, to helping new families settle into life here.
One idea we are particularly excited about is creating an international Ash Mount family cookbook, bringing together favourite family recipes, traditions, and stories from across our wonderfully diverse community. It feels like a lovely reflection of what “Local Heart, Global Mind” really means in practice.
June is certainly going to be a busy month, but it is the kind of busy that feels incredibly exciting, because every week brings us one step closer to opening Ash Mount.
Thank you, as always, for being part of this journey with us.
Warm wishes,
Abigail Fishbourne
Founding Principal
Ash Mount School
