Scarborough Story: All about DAA’s Latest English Teacher Miss Clare Boyes

So, just to start, tell me a little bit about yourself.

I’m from the Northeast of England, from a little town called Scarborough. The first school I ever worked in was a little farm school, with as you can imagine, lots of cows, sheep and chickens everywhere on site. I then moved to the Middle East about ten years ago, and I’ve worked at two other international schools before DAA, and it is now my sixth week working here.

What made you want to become an English teacher specifically?

My love of stories. I love hearing stories, reading stories, telling stories and in fact I feel that’s how you get to know someone best. If you can hear their story and listen to them, you can know them well. From my love of stories is how I wanted to go into education actually, and then I did an English degree, where I found that there’s a lot more to it than just the enjoyment of stories like the actual creation of them, which I also really enjoyed.

Any favourite authors?

Oh, so many! My favourite novel is by an author called Michael Ende, he wrote a Never-ending Story, but my favourite is a book called Momo. It tells the story of a young girl, who wants to go on a mission to save time. I think we could all learn something from her story.

Any hobbies or interests?

I love, as a lot of international teachers do, to travel. I love travelling and exploring, so hiking is a really fun hobby of mine. About four years ago I completed the Camino de Santiago, which is a walk from France down to the end of Spain. It took me a month, and I just loved being outside with nature, exploring. Hopefully I’ll be able to speak with the students after they’ve completed their Duke of Edinburgh, and hopefully they’ve had a lovely time, because that was what I enjoyed most, during my school career, with all the outdoor activities for students. It’s a different environment, and definitely a preferable one for me.

So, why did you choose DAA to work at?

For multiple reasons, just the same as any parent would look for different schools when trying to enrol their children. I’d read a lot about DAA, I knew about it for a long time, being a teacher in Dubai, so it’s been on the horizon for a while. I also have friends already working here, who have spoken very highly of what it’s like to be part of the DAA community. When I did apply, I got such a warm welcome, and came to visit the school and saw that all the students, parents and teachers were just so enthusiastic about what they were doing. That was a really big selling factor, and even since I’ve joined, that enthusiasm has stayed, it feels really good to have that energy all around you.

To top it off, what is your goal as a teacher, how do you want to make a difference in student’s lives?

That’s a big question, there’s multiple goals and multiple layers. What I hope, and have hoped for since the beginning of my career as a teacher till now, is that when I work with new people and our community, is that they feel happier and more supported in pursuing what they want to pursue. It might be from the simplest level in the classroom, where a student is more confident in writing down an idea or making it more structured, to the point where I, as an IB coordinator, can work with the counselling team and the student’s parents to make sure that the student is happy with the idea, and is proud of themself and their legacy at DAA.