Oakley College

Donat and Mary Morgan started Oakley College in September 1989. The concept was to create a school focused on family values and putting the child at the centre of the learning. We decided before we started that we would invest 100% of the income back into the school and make it the best possible learning environment for the children.

With a great deal of optimism and only a handful of pesetas in our pockets, we opened Oakley College nursery, in a rented house in Vegueta beside what is now the clinica San Roque in calle Aclade Fco. Hndz. Glz. The school started with 32 children between the age of 3 and 4. We had 2, 3 year old classes taught by Miss Mary and Miss Sharon and one 4 year old class taught by Mr Donat. Rosi and Margarita started with us in Vegueta (and are still with us today) as did Narcisso.

The original classrooms, dining room and uniform

As the school grew we needed bigger premises and a few years later we moved to a converted chalet in Los Hoyos on the outskirts of Las Palmas.

Over 15 years, we developed our primary and introduced secondary, adapting the site to suit our expanding needs. The school developed, virtually, one brick at a time taking small, firm steps and learning from each experience. The values were evident in every thing that was done and said, and Respect, Responsibility and Resolving problems was as much a way of life for all who worked at Oakley as it was for the children who were being educated there.

To help with the slowly expanding numbers, in September 2000 we moved the Early Years children to a new site in Tafira Alta, in Calle San Quintin, where we converted a chalet into a homely Early Years unit, at the same time introducing a 2 year old class into the school.

As the little acorn grew into an ever-expanding oak tree, we spent a number of years looking for larger premises to expand into. In September 2005 we moved into the old Jaime Balmes school building in Las Lagares, Tafira Alta, completely renovating the building and sports grounds. This gave us the space to develop up to GCSE (16 year olds) and provide more than adequate facilities for the students. As we passed through the tipping point we established a solid student base in Early Years, Infant and Primary, which gave us the confidence to take another big step in the school’s development and build an additional A-level block on the calle Zuloaga site. This was completed in September 2011 and allowed the school to accommodate students from 2 up to 18.

The school continues with the same principals as we started with, re-investing 100% of the income into the development of the school. Our values of Respect, Responsibility and Resolving problems are a core part of our learning, having been fine-tuned over the last 22 years. Our family atmosphere remains the defining characteristic of the school and the individual child remains at the centre of the learning.

Our next steps are to further develop the school site focusing on the Early Years and KS1. A school can never have enough sports facilities and although we are located in an urban site we aim to do what we can to develop and maximise the school campus…