Eton head to join GEMS Education in Dubai for school exchange
Eton College's Head Master Simon Henderson will spend five days with GEMS Education in Dubai, meeting school leaders, teachers, students and parents.
Simon Henderson, Head Master of Eton College in Britain, will take part in an exchange with GEMS Education in Dubai from 2 to 6 November. The programme, called the Eton-GEMS Encounter, brings him together with school leaders, teachers, students and parents to discuss how schools can keep high standards while responding to the changing needs of young people. During the visit he will tour GEMS schools that follow different curricula, including GEMS School of Research and Innovation, and hold conversations with students and parents, meetings with school leadership teams and a roundtable with GEMS principals. Themes include educational excellence, innovation, wellbeing and preparing young people for the future. GEMS said it welcomed 1,550 new educators for the 2026-27 academic year from a global pool that produces more than 500,000 applications a year, and that its staff come from more than 100 nationalities. Eton was founded in 1440, while GEMS traces its roots to 1959 in Dubai.