Rugby School Dubai Principal Henry Price on balancing 450 years of heritage with AI, innovation and human skills
PARTNER CONTENT: More than 450 years of educational heritage offers a fascinating perspective on education’s evolving relationship with artificial intelligence.
How does an institution built on centuries of tradition prepare children for a future being reshaped at extraordinary speed?
At Rugby School Dubai, the answer is not to choose between the two.
Instead, the school is drawing on the principles that have shaped a Rugby education for generations while embracing the possibilities presented by AI, robotics and emerging technology.
“A holistic, human, pupil-centric approach has never been more important,” says Founding Principal Henry Price. “We seek to teach the knowledge, skills and values that will enable children to thrive at school and in life beyond.”
Technology with purpose
Rugby’s approach begins with an important distinction: technology should support learning rather than provide a shortcut around it.
“AI, robotics and emerging technology should be a cause for excitement and opportunity within schools, but AI must be a tool to enhance, not bypass learning,” says Price. “Learning and education remain a process, not simply an outcome.”
It is a philosophy that protects the fundamentals of strong teaching, reading, writing, discussion, creativity and relationships, while introducing technology where it can genuinely deepen learning.
Year 3 pupils, for example, have used virtual reality to delve deeper into the Stone Age, firing their imaginations and generating questions.
Further up the school, Year 11 students can be found programming robots, experimenting with ideas and solving problems through experimentation, challenge and thoughtful teaching.
More than robotics
Perhaps the most visible expression of Rugby School Dubai’s future-facing approach is its two Innovation Labs. Yet their real value lies not simply in the technology they contain, but in what happens between the pupils using it.
Spend time watching students in the labs and, Price says, you see discussion, teamwork and exploration. When something fails, there is resilience.
Pupils reflect on why, adapt their thinking and try again. These behaviours connect directly to the Rugby Learner Profile and its six intellectual dispositions: communication, collaboration, inquiry, resilience, reflection and versatility.
“We want pupils to feel excited and inspired by possibility, to explore where technology can take them, and to see it as a partner in their learning, with them taking a lead,” says Price.
Developed intentionally from the earliest years, these dispositions are not preparing pupils for one fixed career path, but for a lifetime of evolving opportunities.
Protecting the human skills
As AI becomes more capable, the qualities that are distinctly human arguably become more valuable. At Rugby, developing those qualities extends beyond technology lessons.
The House system and broad co-curricular programme place pupils in situations where they experience collaboration and leadership, discover strengths and weaknesses, manage nerves, celebrate success and learn from failure.
“Human skills have always been the bedrock of success and happiness,” says Price. “Building and maintaining relationships helps children thrive at school and as they become adults.”
Technology may be evolving at speed, but children still need to communicate well, think critically, form relationships, show adaptability and respond when things do not go according to plan.
A Rugby education in Dubai
Dubai provides a fitting environment in which to bring these ideas together. Rugby School Dubai’s world-class facilities reflect the UAE’s ambition and appetite for innovation, while allowing the school to interpret its long-established educational philosophy within a modern context.
The Rugby Learner Profile emphasises a globally minded outlook, while the school’s Whole Person ethos places character, service and community alongside academic development. Yet progress does not mean abandoning what came before.
“There is a need for balance,” says Price. Timeless skills such as literacy, numeracy and language remain fundamental, while “knowledge itself is still something to be owned and treasured.”
Technology should “enhance that journey, not define it”. That means selecting the right tools, at the right age, for the right educational purpose, while protecting creativity, relationships and wellbeing.
Heads and eyes up
Perhaps the clearest expression of that balance comes when Price considers what he hopes Rugby School Dubai will look like in another decade.
Technology will undoubtedly have advanced, but he hopes to see a thriving House system and every pupil engaged in co-curricular life.
These experiences can provide “the balance, even the antidote” to an increasingly digital world: places where children put technology aside, discover passions and find joy and purpose in being together. To see the
Ultimately, it is people he hopes pupils remember. “Their friends, their teachers and the other adults around them, because they were part of a community,” says Price, “with heads and eyes up, not looking down at a screen.”
For Rugby School Dubai, perhaps that is where 450 years of heritage and an increasingly technological future meet.
The tools will continue to evolve, but the purpose of education – developing knowledgeable, curious, resilient and connected young people ready to engage confidently with the world – remains enduringly human.
Explore how Rugby School Dubai blends centuries of educational heritage with future-focused learning. Visit rugbyschooldubai.ae
