Chris Bromham | Former Teacher and Assistant Headteacher, DESC

Christopher Bromham was a Maths teacher and Assistant Headteacher at DESC from 2007 to 2012. He was a key member of staff who was responsible for leading the development of Teaching and Learning, helping to create the foundation of the Four to Grow and Super 16 skills that are used today at DESC. Chris was an inspiration to many of the staff who have worked, or still work, at DESC. He has since held leadership positions in NLCS (Jeju), was Principal at Uptown Mirdif and is now Principal at International College Spain in Madrid.

Three performances and a dress rehearsal, and every time that famous line had the same effect. I would sneak into the dark shadows at the back of the auditorium while all eyes were fixed on little Oliver centre stage. “Please sir can I have some more?” My bellow of Mr. Bumble´s “More!!!” made every member of the audience jump out of their seats – sometimes even twice! I could barely stifle my chuckles as I launched into my rousing (if somewhat off-key!) version of the title song of ´Oliver! The Musical´.

Many of my favorite memories of my time at DESC revolve around finding myself on stage, having succumbed once again to the “great ideas” of Ms Weighell and the Performing Arts department. One year, we had a staff band which played all of two gigs. The next, I was part of the male versus female teachers sing-off during the halfway point of DESC Idol. I even have a vague memory of banging a tambourine with Mr Cotgrove at some event or other!

I arrived at DESC in 2007 and left in 2012. That time was one of the most rewarding periods of my career. When I arrived, we had less than two hundred students, with about fifteen students in Year 9 which was the oldest year group at the school. Many of those students had been turned away by more established schools in Dubai, but at DESC they thrived – many achieving outstanding A level results and going on to world class universities and highly successful careers. It is wonderful to see that the belief in the potential of young people which we showed back then is still visible at DESC today.

The first time I arrived at DESC, I had spent two hours driving around trying to find it! At that time, it really was in the middle of nowhere and the only neighbours within sight were the camels. In 2007, there were no other schools in the area and Silicon Oasis was little more than a couple of empty buildings. The school itself consisted of the seven original buildings and one of them was being rented out to The British Council. In the middle of the school, where the garden is now, was an amphitheatre. This was pretty much unusable and filled up with water whenever it rained. One famous year, the water reached the very top, which made it deeper than the swimming pool!

Despite, or maybe because of, the challenges, we built a school of which we were very proud. Our students received a first-class education and grew to be wonderful and successful people. Professionally, it was the most dynamic period of my career. Leading a school in the first few years of its life means making decisions that make a difference on a daily basis. Every week provides a new set of questions, and decisions cannot be put off until things quieten down, because they don´t. My colleagues at that time were some of the most inspirational people that I have worked with. No one wanted to be seen as the weak link and we drove each other on to be more innovative, more knowledgeable and relentless in making DESC the best school it could be. It is no surprise that many of the staff that I worked with during that time have gone on to lead schools around the world.

As we know, DESC grew and grew. During my time at the College, every year brought greater success, more students and more facilities. I watched the first rugby pitch get installed and coached some of the first teams to use it. We all owed a debt to Mr. Randall who pointed out, at a crucial point, that if the original plans for the pitch went ahead then a player would not be able to go into touch without colliding immediately with a brick wall! Now, DESC is renowned for its sporting success, but we started with more modest success getting regularly trounced by Dubai College, English College and JESS. But it did not take long for us to turn that around. In just our second year of existence we started to win and, before I left we had won our first major Dubai-wide competition. Sport was always central to what DESC was and would become and, to this day, I still enjoy hearing news of DESC beating DC!

Since leaving DESC, my career has taken me around the world. I have helped lead schools in Korea, back in Dubai and now in Spain. Every one of those schools was special in its own way and each one taught me much about myself and about leading schools. But DESC will always hold a very special place in my heart. Leading a school is usually about compromise and working with others towards a common goal, however, at DESC very little compromise was needed as we were all aligned in our vision of what a great school looked like, and we all pulled in the same direction to get us there. It felt so exciting!

The position that DESC now holds on the Dubai school landscape is well deserved. It is, to my mind, the best school in the city and continues to improve year on year. What Mr Gibbs, Mr Vizzard and the Senior Leadership Team have achieved over the past ten years is truly exceptional and has even exceeded the ambitious vision that we had when the College opened. I take no credit for this wonderful work. However, I do take pride in seeing the core values that were established in those early days survive still at the College. A belief in giving all young people a chance, a belief in providing a holistic education where sport and performing arts are central and a relentless commitment to the professional development of staff are all evident today, as they were then.

I am very proud of my association with this wonderful school, and I take a little piece of DESC with me, in my heart, wherever I go.