The latest chit chat over coffee

With the end of summer rapidly approaching and the back-to-school season about to kick off, a possible delay in the opening of one of numerous schools set to open this September comes as unwelcome news.

The Wellington School, managed by GEMS, has promised alternative arrangements until the building is ready. Despite announcing the highest school fees of any junior to secondary education establishment in Dubai - commanding Dhs 58,000 annually for the last years of school - applications from prospective students continue unabated, as Jumeirah Janes fall over each other hastily in an attempt to get their children in.

The whole point of this exercise being having the ability to proudly say at the next coffee morning, "I live in Jumeirah and my kids go to Wellington" as their fellow coffee drinkers seethe inwardly and secretely plot another way of outdoing the others in the never-ending quest to be top mum.