The Best Principal and Head of School in the United Arab Emirates 2023 – 2024 Revealed. Top Schools Award Winner. Official.
The Winner
The SchoolsCompared.com Top Schools Awards for
The Best Principal and Head of School in the United Arab Emirates 2023 – 2024
is awarded to:
Mark Leppard MBE. Headmaster. The British School Al Khubairat.
&
Dr. Saima Rana. Principal and Chief Executive Officer. GEMS World Academy Dubai & Chief Education Officer. GEMS Education.
Our view of the two most beyond-outstanding Heads of School in the United Arab Emirates 2023 – 2024
Mark Leppard MBE. Headmaster. The British School Al Khubairat.
Web: https://www.britishschool.sch.ae
ADEK: Outstanding / BSO Outstanding
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/british-school-al-khubairat-abu-dhabi
Review: https://schoolscompared.com/curricula/a-levels/the-british-school-al-khubairat-al-mushrif/
Mark Leppard MBE is the headmaster of The British School Al Khubairat, the Embassy School of the UAE and one of the leading British curriculum schools in the Middle East. He is a passionate educator with a lifelong enthusiasm for learning, and evangelistic in his focus on the importance of holistic education because of its ensuring that the student is at the heart of all decisions. A keen sportsman, he has successfully captained teams at various levels and most notably represented the Arabian Gulf at rugby. He is also an avid Spurs fan. Before joining BSAK he was the principal of Doha College, Qatar for 9 years and in 2015 was awarded an MBE for services to education. He holds a Bachelor of Education from Sheffield Hallam University and an M.Ed in educational leadership. A trained School Inspector, he is a member of HMC and is currently the chair of BSME (British Schools of the Middle East).
Mr Leppard is described by his Senior Leadership Team as a focused and selfless leader. They describe him as having a clear vision to deliver a holistic, challenging and value driven experience for every child. We were told that Mr Leppard works tirelessly both at the helm and alongside his staff and students, to set direction, encourage and guide, to maintain that focus. Now in his eighth year at BSAK many of his early initiatives have come to fruition each exemplifying his agility, resolve, innovation, personal strength and moral compass.
Central to his ethics is that ‘no child is left behind’. Mr Leppard works tirelessly to ensure that this is upheld at BSAK, ensuring that the ethos, the curriculum, and the facilities are inclusive. BSAK students have a wide range of abilities, and a significant number of students of determination, and these needs are met by a dedicated approach to delivering a holistic education:
1. Hugely innovative, three dimensional programmes for highly gifted students
2. Outstanding SEN departments in both Primary and Secondary
3. Award-winning focus on mental health, wellbeing and child happiness
4. Award-winning curriculum exploring cutting-edge developments in sustainability, one deeply aligned in the ethics of social responsibility
5. Significant, department-wide investment in research-led development of a BSAK curriculum that adapts to the individual needs, potential, ability and ambition of every child
6. Award-winning technical and vocational BTEC, Creative Arts and Fine Arts programmes to develop the whole child and not constrain any child in the pursuit of either Technical Education or The Arts
7. Exceptional range and depth of co-curricular societies which include academic opportunities, music, drama, sport, and leadership
8. Steadfast, unwavering commitment to equality and inclusivity across genders
Mr Leppard has instituted at his school a deep culture of coaching, guidance and feedback, development and professional promotion. A notable feature of his leadership is his ability to empower and develop his teaching faculty and support staff, and he has achieved this at BSAK by establishing BSAK Career Pathways. The Continuous Professional Learning budget is the impact of which has been massive on staff, very significant at this school as a percentage of income.
Mr Leppard’s personal and professional love of learning is also evident in his natural curiosity to understand, communicate and empathise with others from every walk of life. His reach within the community is evident in the links that he has created in diverse areas, where he enjoys sharing expertise and receiving feedback. He is the Chair of the BSME, has links with British Embassy, HMC, the Future Centre, and has established BSAK as a training base for other Abu Dhabi schools. He has very strong connections with parents and personally communicates with a comprehensive weekly letter that ensures that parents are informed and involved in the School. This has led to a very high level of parent satisfaction.
Head of Secondary, Teresa Woulfe told us:
“Mark has ensured that the School is fully inclusive, not just in words but actions, ensuring that all children have the opportunity to come to the School and thrive whatever their needs. In Primary, this inclusivity is evident in terms of an investment in curriculum adaptations and
enhancement, supplying support staff and facility adaptations. The impact of this focus is that the educational needs of all children, some severe, have been met and all are able to attend and access mainstream school, thereby keeping families together.”
Head of BTEC, Mebs Choudary, continues:
“Mark has championed and driven the provision of an outstanding and holistic education for all, by driving an unwavering commitment to the BSAK BTEC programme, the creative arts pathway, and a dedicated learning support department, to ensure that subject choices are wide and opportunities are available to all.”
Director of Sport, Johnny Coombs, stated his personal and professional gratitude to Mr Leppard:
“My special thanks goes to Mark Leppard for his commitment to sport and his assistance on and off the field. Our staff run UAE wide BSAK 7 series, our commitment to enable students to play fixtures in Dubai, our team training, the fun we achieve through house activities and our success in competition are a testament to the creativity that expresses our passion for sport and it wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t part of the ethos of the School.”
Elaine Rawlings, Head of Primary concluded:
“Mark is a great advocate for growth and development of staff and students and he has shown this at BSAK through his investment in research, people and
departmental priorities. In response to to a call for curriculum change for the
Primary School, he empowered our teams to prioritise the development of the
Early Years ‘In The Moment’ Curriculum and through a joint venture with the UK the delivery of our curriculum to Year 1-6. Transforming a curriculum to advance education takes time and energy, but this commitment to growth has set us apart internationally as a Centre Of Excellence in IAPS and BSME and successfully opened us up to local schools.“I cannot recall a time when Mark has turned down an invitation to get involved in the day to day fun of the School. Whether he is sporting a hat on Nursery Hat Day, reading a book on World Book Day, directing traffic, playing Father Christmas or tirelessly assisting with a sports event, he is always available to go above and beyond, in the spirit of building great memories.
“In addition to his involvement and commitment to BSAK, he also relishes his role as Chair of BSME, seeing this as an opportunity to learn, grow and share in so many ways.”
Parents support for Mr Leppard is unequivocal and passionately supportive:
“My child is musical, sporty and very likely to take the BTEC route at BSAK. It gives me great assurance that Mark’s own three children have been through the school and excelled on a similar pathway. The way in which Mark has opened up the curriculum to provide the very best opportunities for all students is so impressive…”
Students are equally complimentary of his achievements and impact:
“I don’t think that anyone can take for granted the complexity of the entire system at BSAK, whether it’s the surface level lessons, or the deeper relationships between teachers and students. It’s a large and breathing campus holding constant opportunities. I’ve loved every minute of being at this School and will treasure my time here.”
Over many years the impact of Mr Leppard’s leadership of The British School Al Khubairat has never ceased to impress us, and deeply. Every visit finds something new in his extraordinary school that we have never seen elsewhere. But, it is sitting with Mr Leppard, and his giving of his time so freely, that makes you realise just how exceptional he is. Deeply humane, emotionally intelligent, rich in life’s experiences, and something of a story teller with countless stories of children and what is important in life, each with a beginning, middle and hope-filled ending, that provoke thought and admiration in equal measure, Mr Leppard is one of those leaders who makes a difference, and does so with a heart as big as any you will find in the UAE.
Every time we visit his school, and visit him, we feel privileged. He, and his school, should feel so proud. And as humble as he is, we hope that, just this once, he will thrill in our collective admiration of him, and that of all of those who speak so highly of him within his school, and across schools the length and breadth of the UAE.
Dr. Saima Rana. Principal and Chief Executive Officer. GEMS World Academy Dubai. Chief Education Officer. GEMS Education.
Web: https://www.gemsworldacademy-dubai.com/en
ADEK: Very Good with Predominant Outstanding Features
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/gems-world-academy-dubai
Dr Rana is CEO/Principal of GEMS World Academy – Dubai, Chief Education Ambassador for the Varkey Foundation and Founding Trustee of The Shahnaz Foundation. With a background in school improvement in inner-city schools, and a PhD in Education, Dr Rana has worked in areas with high deprivation indicators throughout her career, combining traditional school improvement techniques with a commitment to collaboration between the local community and businesses in order to accelerate regeneration and raise standards.
Dr Rana has worked as a senior educational consultant for Cambridge Education Islington with a particular focus on Teaching and Learning, Raising Standards, ICT, Assessment for Learning, Curriculum, Change Management and Building Schools for the Future. She has also served as a panel member and subject expert on several programmes and projects for the Department for Education (DfE) and the Office for Standards in Education for Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted), providing guidance on quality assurance, delivery and professional standards.
She has presented academic papers on Policy, ICT, Globalisation and Secondary Education at the Institute of Education, London, Trinity College, Dublin, The Knowledge Lab, London as well as at international conferences in Europe, the USA and China.
Dr Rana has also devoted herself to a variety of charitable educational projects, with a particular passion for building schools for poor children across the globe. She is the trustee of charitable schools in Pakistan and Kashmir, and provides teacher training to schools located in slum areas in Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Sudan and other parts of Africa. She is a global ambassador for Girls Education initiatives and is a mental health ambassador for Refugee Mothers, where she has worked with a number of organisations to support language learning. She also supports several street schools in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Her latest project is to build an orphanage and technical skills college in a deprived area of Pakistan. She believes passionately that education is the answer to eliminate poverty, inequality, and injustice, and has dedicated her career to the ideal of giving every child a world class education.
One of the most inspirational school leaders we have ever met, the one thing you take away from you after meeting this whirlwind of intellect, compassion, emotion, ambition for children and sense of purpose and duty, is that Dr Rana cares so deeply for the children under her care that nothing must come in the way of meeting their needs and doing the right thing for them. we actually wondered if she ever sleeps. There is a substantial sense of urgency about her perceived mission to put right the many wrongs of this world, and she sees the future success of children as her personal, as well as professional, responsibility. It clearly weighs heavily on her. It is when, however, you see the way she lights up when speaking with children, of all ages, and the way, at every turn as she leads us through her beautiful school, she smiles to bursting when pointing out how “everything here is now for children” that you realise what you have in front of you is a conviction educationalist. This is her life’s work – and it will always be. Of that she leaves you with no doubt.
Dr Rana throughout our extensive discussions questions everything, and has views about even more. The speed of her thinking and the agility of her mind is quite something to experience. It’s exciting, and you have to have your brain engaged to keep up. But it is this speed that has delivered the most extraordinary transformation of GEMS World Academy. She has achieved in a year what we have seen take a decade or more in other schools to get close to. She has paid a high price. Managing change is the gift of leaders, and it rarely, if that change is ambitious, urgent, serious and visionary, as it is here, does not cause waves. Leadership is not always a place that makes friends around you; it can be isolating to be disruptive of the status quo. Human being struggle with change. Many, understandably, take the easy way out. But if you are running a school, and your children depend on you, there is no time to delay. What Dr Rana has undertaken here is… courageous. The result is both visionary, ambitious and truly impressive.
The achievement of Dr Rana at GEMS World Academy is to have root and branch transformed a school. That does not just mean flooding the school with investment wherever it was needed. That has been achieved – and the results just in terms of visual impact are breath-taking. But the bigger, more profound, and significantly more complex and difficult changes, are cultural. What Dr Rana has done is remodelled a school, root and branch, so that no decision is taken that does not put the interests of children first. When children are placed first in everything, no exceptions, change is massive. But so too are the impacts on those same children. Some might say she has given them a future they would never had had with out her. That is called changing the world in any ones language.
One final note. Dr Rana’s belief in empowering girls is important and serious. As she explained, it is too easy, and lazy, to be diverted by relating different issues facing young men, to girls growing up at the edges of a history of oppression of an entire gender. It is equally lazy to believe that structural inequalities have disappeared. It is the duty of educators to recognise this and ensure that girls are empowered in a world that has still not caught up.
You can read our extraordinary interview with Dr Saima Rana here:
We think that that Dr Rana has achieved great things, astonishing things – and in such a short space of time at her school. But my goodness, on this trajectory, Dr Saima Rana’s potential future achievements have the potential to transform education on a global scale. GEMS Education has exactly the leader, and deeply humane, child-centric, and progressive convictional educationalist, in Dr Saima Rana, to do just that.
Award Presentation
Best-Principal-Mark-Leppard-Winner-Certificate
The Top Schools Award for Best School for Best Principal and Head of School in the United Arab Emirates 2023 – 2024 will be presented to Mark Leppard MBE, Headmaster, The British School Al Khubairat, and
Best-Principal-Dr-Saima-Rana-Winner-Certificate-portrait
Dr Saima Rana, Principal and Chief Executive Officer, GEMS World Academy & Chief Education Officer, GEMS Education
The Awards will ne presented at a special Breakfast Celebration at The Emirates Golf Club on the morning of 16th November 2023. At the event the recipient of The Top Schools Awards 2023 – 2024 for Outstanding Contribution to Education will be revealed.
Historic winners of the Outstanding Contribution to Education in the UAE Award include H.E. Dr. Abdulla Al Karam, Director General of the Knowledge and Human Development Authority, recognised for his era defining leadership of Education in Dubai as a force for good; and the Varkey Family, for their instrumental role in shaping education in the UAE, and ensuring the life chances for generations of children, following the founding of GEMS Education in 1959.
Our Finalists.
Our extraordinary Finalists and those schools which have achieved outstandingly in so many ways for children in the Best Principal and Head of School category follow. Each of the following schools are recognised for their profound contribution to leadership in UAE Education:
John Bell. Principal. Bloom World Academy
Web: https://www.bloomworldacademy.ae
KHDA: Awaiting first inspection
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school–review/bloom–world–academy–dubai
Review: https://schoolscompared.com/new–schools–in–uae/bloom–world–academy–al–barsha–south–the–review/
John Bell is the Founding Head of Bloom World Academy – the first own-brand school launch by Bloom Education, best known, at least until Mr Bell’s opening of Bloom World Academy, for its Brighton Colleges across the UAE. A highly experienced, senior educationalist John Bell has worked in the education sector for more than four decades. Before moving to Dubai in 2018, Mr Bell was Director of Education at the Cognita Group of UK and International schools where he was responsible for the quality of education at 62 schools around the world. His carer has seen him leading Outstanding schools in both United Kingdom and Spain and Mr Bell worked as the Executive Principal and Director of Learning and Services at Innoventures Education in Dubai where he oversaw the strategic and operational delivery of education and the line management of six schools and eight early learning centres. Mr Bell has also served in an advisory capacity to national governments and co-chaired a working group of the Council of International Schools on safeguarding. He brings to every role a long track record of leading school inspections and training teachers and school leaders around the world in locations including the UAE, Jordan, and Singapore.
The story of the launch of Bloom World Academy is the stuff of novels. In the most simple terms, Bloom Education wanted an outstanding leader to launch a school which was to aim for the stars. Bloom Education wanted Bloom Academy, the school that took the Group’s name, to be the best in the world. And for that, everyone pointed them in the direction of Mr Bell. The deal was struck. And in return, Mr Bell wanted the investment and scope to build his dream of the perfect school for children, one based on the absolute best of every school he had experienced over forty years in education, and one that would add to the mix an uncompromising to do everything outstandingly well.
It is so telling when you see Mr Bell with fellow school leaders. He is admired and liked. He combines perspicacity, intellect, ambition and the capacity to make you smile. On a stage with his peers speaking about education he creates magic, and sets debates alive with humour, inspiration and good sense. He speaks clearly, without obfuscation, and takes you with him. You want to be part of his journey.
It is, however, when you look at what he has achieved at Bloom World Academy, that you understand just why Bloom Education wanted him. He has created a unique, extremely high performing, hugely respected school. It is one alive with the talents of children. Under his leadership it seems that talented children are everywhere. Education here works magnificently. The pride of parents in their children is so deserved. At the Festival of Schools, its was Bloom education children, and their families, whilst showcasing the Performing Arts, that, for many of us, made the event. The gasps of wonder, and no small amounts of joy, at the performances of Boom children, and the closeness of parents and teachers, is something you simply do not forget.
Mr Bell is at the early days of building his perfect school – and it is already in our view one that the UAE can celebrate as one of its best. Goodness knows what is to come, given the achievement thus far. But we can expect, under Mr Bell, to be one that celebrates and nurtures the success of children, academic and whole child, in ways that make the heart sing.
Fiona Cottam. Chief Academic Officer. Sobha Group. Principal. Hartland International School
Web: https://www.hartlandinternational.com
KHDA: Very Good with Outstanding Features
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/hartland-international-school/
Fiona Cottam is a graduate of University College Dublin where she majored in Classical Music and English. She joined Hartland International School in 2016, following an extended hugely successful career with GEMS Education. Initially joining Jumeirah College as Principal and CEO in 2009, she led the school to “Outstanding” in 2010. In the years following, Mrs Cottam Fiona held a number of senior roles in GEMS including Director of School and Senior Vice President New Schools. Prior to relocating to the Emirates, Mrs Cottam was the Headteacher of Wilmington Grammar School for Boys in Kent, where she was the first female leader of the school in its history. Under Mrs Cottam’s leadership, Hartland is today ranked a Very Good School with Outstanding Features by the KHDA, a ranking it has held for two years, and one secured on just its third inspection. Outstanding school status is within touching distance.
If the above gives a practical way of contextualising Mrs Cottam’s achievements, it is what drives her we think that is for more telling:
“It would be easy to cite inspection outcomes and school examination results as great achievements which they are of course, but for me it is something a little less tangible: for me it is the knowledge that I have had a personal and positive impact on the lives of 1,000s of young people over the years. Whether this was in challenging schools in the UK or in the wonderful schools in Dubai that I have had the opportunity to work in, that relationship and impact on students and their achievements and my instilling a belief in themselves is something that I am especially proud of. The proof of this is difficult to measure, but perhaps it can be exemplified by the large numbers of former students and families that I remain in close contact with to this day.”
Speaking with our sister site, WhichSchoolAdvisor.com, Mrs Cottam continues:
“Someone who once said, “Great leaders do not set out to be great leaders: they set out to make a difference.” I am not sure if I can call myself a great leader, but I do believe that I have made a difference in a positive way to the lives of others. Whether this is through challenge or support for our students, our staff or our families, the potential impact that we can have on thousands of lives is incredible and one that we should take seriously as our greatest responsibility.”
It is this recognition of the responsibility that comes with leadership that we think is the foundation of all our great leaders in education. It always comes too with an understanding that the greatest gift of leading school is the responsibility for, but also the opportunity of, transforming the lives of children.
Rachel Higgins. Principal/ CEO GEMS Jumeirah Primary School and Head of Jumeirah Schools
Web: https://www.jumeirahprimaryschool.com
KHDA: Outstanding
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school–review/gems–jumeirah–primary–school
Review: https://schoolscompared.com/all–through/dubai–all–through/arbor–school–al–furjan/
Rachel Higgins is the Principal of GEMS Jumeirah Primary School. In 2023 she celebrates her twentieth anniversary at one of the most adored and respected Primary schools in the Emirates. During her tenure Mrs Higgins has held a variety of posts including, Vice Principal, School Improvement Leader, Deputy Head and Head of Year.
Rachel Higgins trained and taught in London, England; her degree in Psychology led to a passion in education and she completed her P.G.C.E at Brunel University. Mrs Higgins began teaching at Feltham Junior School, UK in 1996, where she was Mathematics Coordinator. She moved to Stanley Junior School, Teddington, UK (1998-2003), where she worked as Mathematics and Assessment coordinator, and Year 6 teacher. Mrs Higgins took on the roles of Teacher Governor and Senior Management Team member.
In 2002 she completed her N.P.Q.H., the UK standard required for Headship.
The real story, however, cannot be found in a bio, however impressive. It is both remarkable and telling that any educationalist would stay at, and remain so committed to, a single school. There is no doubt that GEMS Jumeirah Primary School is GEMS Education’s flagship Primary, nor that this is a deservedly Outstanding school. But this is a school that has been made what it is today by Rachel Higgins as much as the school has inspired and kept her. Her achievements here are remarkable. One of our Judges said to us:
“Rachel is the unsung heroine of UAE Education. She works tirelessly, never seeking accolades or the limelight. She achieves endlessly. JPS is really her life’s work – no one can imagine the school without her. She captures perfectly for me what I always imagine as the archetype conviction educationalist, one disinterested in baubles and trappings, and driven only by the needs of children and her school. She is exactly the type of Principal I most admire, the one that would aspire to being if I were a Principal. Principled, steadfast, human and serious, Rachel is someone that could lead any school magnificently, but has found her home at JPS.”
We know too that Mrs Higgins is held in the very highest esteem within GEMS education, and is one of the organisations most trusted and respected leaders. The UAE is very, very lucky to have her.
Dedication.
The Top Schools Award for Best Principal in the United Arab Emirates is dedicated to the late Jason Jonathan King in recognition of his inspired contribution to Education and Children in the UAE – and for being a deeply humane and compassionate human being.
In memorium
Jason Jonathan King
Principal Regent International School Dubai. (January 2021 – February 2023)
Head Teacher Sunmarke School Dubai. (August 2017 – January 2021)
Head Teacher. Principal & CEO. The Cambridge High School, Abu Dhabi (August 2012 – August 2014).
Deputy Director of Education. GEMS Education. (September 2010 – August 2012).
“I was fortunate enough to meet Mr King on a number of occasions, and have never forgotten him. My last visit was at Sunmarke School where he rushed me around the school on a mission to explain how the school’s children were the centre of his universe and that post-16 education for them was the best that any school could ever provide. He was sincere, impassioned, fascinating to speak with and he captured near perfectly what we mean when we speak of conviction educationalists. His life was the students at his school. He could not have believed more in his school, or them. His loss to the Emirates is real.
In this Award for beyond outstanding school leadership we recognise this quality and all the many other qualities that go into making a Principal of a school someone you do not forget and who has a profound impact on the lives of children and the teachers under their care. The responsibility of leadership as a life of service and vocation for the benefit of children, is heavy. Their achievements are hard won and astonishing.”
Johnathan Westley. Managing Editor. SchoolsCompared.com. 2023.
A final note.
The Top Schools Awards takes over a year to produce. It engages with parents, students educators and educationalists over countless months, and the work invested in these Awards is the stuff of sleepless nights and deeply felt responsibility. We produce these Awards to celebrate our amazing schools, our magnificent teachers – who are the centre of the universe, our school leaders, whose lives will be judged by their impact on children, and the amazing students that they build a future for. These Awards are only about recognising this – in a world in which our schools and educators have far, far too little recognition. If on exploring these Awards you do one single thing, it should be to reach out to each and every one and thank them for all they do, each and every one of our schools, teachers and school leaders. You have absolutely no idea how much that would mean.
© SchoolsCompared.com. A WhichMedia Group publication. 2023 – 2024. All rights reserved.
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