Deira International School has become the first school in Dubai to host a living beehive on its campus, joining Terra Expo City Dubai’s Hundred Hives initiative in a landmark move that brings a thriving bee colony into the daily lives of 2,500 students and staff and signals a new chapter in how environmental education is delivered in the UAE.

Nora 

Eight-and-a-half-year-old Nora had never been this close to a beehive before. But standing on the campus watching thousands of bees hum and pulse inside a living colony, she was not afraid. “It was very nice and adventurous,” she said. "Maybe I will become a beekeeper one day, and maybe I will work in Terra.”

Yaman

Her classmate Yaman, nine, said, “I know they have five eyes", recounting what he had just learnt. “And I also know that they can feel feelings. So if you’re calm, they become calm, and if you’re afraid, they become afraid.”

These are not the observations of children who have been shown a slide presentation. They are the words of students who spent the morning beside a real, thriving hive, one that now lives permanently on their school grounds.

More Than Honey

For Mr Michael Taylor, primary assistant headteacher at DIS and a trained beekeeperhimself, the moment the hive was installed marked the culmination of months of preparation and the beginning of something far larger.

“Our children can’t care about something unless they see it,” he said. “We can put a bee on a PowerPoint; some will care. But when we can take them and show them a living, thriving hive, then they will feel like we need to protect these animals.”

Mr Taylor is quick to dispel the most common misconception about the initiative. “It’s not about honey,” he said. “For us, it’s about increasing biodiversity and contributing to the UAE’s national agendas. This 100 Hives initiative directly links to the Food Security Strategy 2051. Every one in three bites of food comes from a bee.”

He shared a detail that has become his favourite fact to pass on to people: “Bees manage to keep the internal temperature of the hive at 34 degrees. So now, 39 degrees outside, the bees will collect water, fly into the hive, flap their wings, and create an internal temperature of 34 degrees. Like last night when we installed the hives, if you put your hand above the bees, you could feel almost like AC.”

Ms. Aimee Thomas

A Teacher Who Became a Beekeeper

Ms Aimee Thomas, a teacher at DIS, did not wait to be told twice when the school announced it was looking for someone to train as a beekeeper. “I think mine was the first application in,” she said. “I just have a real interest in bees. I’m from Manchester, and the worker bee is the symbol of Manchester, so it’s something that’s been important to me since I was growing up.”

Her training, conducted in partnership with Terra, has been ongoing for nearly a year. The learning, she says, never stops. “Information overload at times, but in a really good way. There is so much more to bees than I realised.”

When she told her Year 2 class that a hive was coming to school, the reaction was immediate. “I think they’ve asked me when the bees are coming every day since I told them. That’s been nearly a year of them asking me, ‘Are they here yet?’”

As the school’s incoming sustainability lead, Ms Thomas plans to embed the hive into the curriculum across every subject. “We want to be teaching them about biodiversity, about the impact that bees have, the impact on food and where our food comes from. We’re hoping to link it in with our hydroponics towers as well. We want to make that sustainability thread run through all of our curriculum.”

The most important lesson she hopes students will take away is to learn that bees are not just about honey. There’s so much more to them, and we need them, and they’re so valuable to the world.

The Vision Behind the Hive

The Hundred Hives initiative is the school-focused arm of Terra’s wider pollinator programme, which began with the discovery and careful relocation of wild bee colonies during the construction of Terra for Expo 2020 Dubai. 

Since then, it has grown to include Jane Goodall’s Pollinator Garden, beekeeping courses for adults and children, and immersive hive experiences.

Dr. Meriem Hammal, Pollinator Programme, Terra Expo City Dubai.

Dr Meriem Hammal, who leads the Pollinator Programme at Terra Expo City Dubai, has spent a decade working with bees. She describes the experience as transformative in ways that go far beyond ecology.

“It’s not only about environment. We are giving them skills. Beekeeping is a lifetime skill,” she said. “But also we are giving them those soft skills: how to learn to work together and how to analyse a situation. Each time I go and open a hive, there is something new. So it is like you develop the sense of analysing things, being proactive, acting and taking a decision and not regretting it.”

Dr Hammal reflected on her own introduction to bees as a university student. “I was a city girl. I was completely disconnected from nature. But once I got introduced to the bees, they connected me with myself. They connected me with my environment. They connected me with people around me.”

She is also clear that the hive is only one part of a living ecosystem being built at DIS. “Before we brought the bees, we planted native plants. Those native plants also bring other wild bees, other wild pollinators that perhaps don’t exist here now because they don’t have a habitat. It will create a whole environment even here.”

Her vision for the ripple effect is equally ambitious. “Imagine a child here going back home, talking to his cousin, starting to talk about bees, starting to talk about native plants, and starting to talk about how he as a student in this school can make a difference. Small actions that can make a big difference.”

The long-term ambition at DIS stretches well beyond the campus. “We want to really use this as a community project,” said Mr Taylor. “Next academic year, we want to bring families down to show them the wonders of beekeeping. We will give away the honey. Our students will brand it and collect it sustainably: entrepreneurship, maths, and English. We can really link it to holistic education.”