When he eventually retires, keen sailor Brendan Law hopes to sail a yacht around the world, visiting his children and their families abroad.
It is a nautical pipe dream in keeping with the way the South African has lived much of his life and career in education in Sweden, Britain and the Middle East.
But first, he has the biggest adventure of all: the small matter of “Changing the paradigm of education in Saudi Arabia”.
And while there is no ocean in the capital Riyadh, where he is based, it will certainly be a journey.
While the Western world perceives Saudi as conservative and closed off, Law has been tasked with driving the Misk Schools project, a K-12 school in Riyadh that will become a model for progressive, skills-based holistic education in the Kingdom.
The aim of the school — supported by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s charitable Misk Foundation — is to produce the nation’s future leaders who will go on to drive the post-oil economy, solve diplomatic issues in the region and the world.
“There are plenty of international teachers that go out there for the fun in the sun or the money, but this is a project like no other.”
While Britain’s education system has become mired in relentless assessment and exams, the Saudis are hoping the new school – which opened on a small scale in 2016 and has been growing since – will become a hub of experiential learning, making and personal development.
While academic subjects will be very important, the school aims to turn out young people who have the capacity to lead and think creatively, providing personalised pathways unique to the students.
“Our vision and mission is to change the paradigm in education in Saudi,” says Law, who previously worked establishing Cranleigh Abu Dhabi and Brighton College Abu Dhabi before moving to be Senior Vice President of Education at GEMS in Dubai.
The ambition, he says, is for the Misk Schools — made up of nine gender-segregated divisions — to be in the top 50 in the world.
It is currently located on a temporary campus near the Diplomatic Quarter of Riyadh but will move to a purpose-build 20 hectare campus in August 2022. There are currently 200 pupils in Kindergarten to Grade 8 and 280 come September. The school plans to expand to between 1,000 and 1500 pupils eventually.
Another mission of the school is to train teachers in the region with its Misk Schools teacher training academy. “We want to develop new talent and train our current teachers,” says Law. “Half of our teachers are Saudis and they are exceptional but we want them to broaden their horizons and to gain the very latest thinking in education.”
While recruitment of teachers from abroad may be in theory difficult because of the country’s reputation, Law is certain that the opportunity to work on a major school project near the start, with high levels of resourcing, will continue to attract just the kind of teachers he needs, working alongside his Saudi staff.
“There are plenty of international teachers that go out there for the fun in the sun or the money or whatever but Misk Schools is a project like no other.
“Very few teachers can say they established a school from the ground up. What we have on offer will attract the best.”
Despite having set up schools from scratch before, Law says Misk Schools is on a “whole new scale” to anything he has done and will be a “disrupter in education by challenging the status quo.”
“It’s on a scale which dwarfs anything I’ve done before, the ambition is enormous, the resourcing is very generous…this is the most exciting education project in the world right now because of the way in which it has the potential to have a very positive impact on not just Riyadh but Saudi and the region,” he says.
It is perhaps ironic that a country that is seen as staunchly socially conservative should be giving Law the opportunity to re-discover the kind of experiential education that used to be the norm in Britain, where he taught at Bedford School then at Westbourne House in Chichester.
“A lot of that has been lost in schools because of the way assessment has dominated.”
There are elements of British education now, he says, that have done “a grave disservice” to education, including the over-emphasis on exam results and league tables.
“Actually schools have done away with a lot of the creativity and the experiential opportunities. When I first started teaching in England in 1995 there was time in the curriculum and flexibility to really be creative with the boys.
“A lot of that has been lost in schools because of the way assessment has dominated.”
The mission is clear, but many school leaders would perhaps baulk at taking on such a big task.
It is surely a very difficult job in a difficult country?
Law disagrees, insisting that the Western perception of Saudi is “very wrong and very false”, highlighting his very positive personal experiences and the country’s modernising “Vision 2030”:
He says: “It is an all-encompassing, all-embracing plan whether that be on the infrastructure side or the economic development side, be that on the cultural side or on the opening up of opportunities for both Saudis and non-Saudis.”
“The world needs pioneers who are willing to step out of their comfort zones and go and do stuff.”
“If we can bring the future leaders of this country forward in a way that has a really positive impact…maybe one of our students will go on and solve some of the regional peace challenges or find a lasting solution to sustainability or global warming — simply because of the manner in which we’ve educated them.”
Life in the region has been great, he says, highlighting his long weekend cycling trips with his wife. Covid has meant they have spent time touring the country and its landscapes.
They have been cut off from their children, studying in South Africa and Australia since the virus struck.
His Saudi posting is the latest in a long line of adventurous jobs, and he puts his pioneering wanderlust down to his South African roots.
“The world needs pioneers who are willing to step out of their comfort zones and go and do stuff,” he adds.
“Putting the foundations in is the least glamorous part but it’s also the most important job that ever gets done. Without these foundations you get the leaning tower of Pisa, with quality foundations you end up with the Burj Khalifa.”
