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ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP TEAM

The Kings’ Education Academic Leadership team is a group of highly qualified and experienced individuals, whose focus is to ensure that Kings’ Education achieves its commitment to deliver ‘The Best By Every Child’. This is done by providing outstanding support and direction for our team of highly talented teaching staff.

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    Bede Higgins Director of Education & Principal, Kings’ School Dubai

    Bede obtained a degree in Mathematics and Psychology from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, followed by a Diploma of Teaching in Mathematics, Physical Education and Outdoor Education from Christchurch College of Education. He began his teaching career as a secondary Mathematics and Physical Education teacher in New Zealand before moving to the UK where he taught specialist Physical Education at a London preparatory school.

    Relocating to Dubai in 2002, Bede worked in two well respected British curriculum primary schools, firstly as Head of Physical Education and later as Assistant Headteacher. During this time, Bede completed his NPQH and a Master's degree in Leadership and Management.

    Bede joined Kings’ School Dubai as Deputy Headteacher in 2014, and was subsequently appointed Principal in 2016, a position he still holds. In 2023, Bede was promoted to Director of Education, working closely with senior leaders across the group to ensure that Kings’ exceptional standards remain high. 

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    Kevin Stedman Senior Education Adviser and Chair of Governors

    Kevin is Senior Education Adviser and Chair of Governors to the Kings’ family of schools. He is also the Director of his own education consultancy, operating internationally and specialising in all aspects of school design and the engagement of outstanding school leaders.

    Kings’ School Dubai, the flagship Kings’ Education school, is the only school in the United Arab Emirates to have achieved the rating of outstanding every year since inspections began in Dubai. Kevin’s foresight and vision, together with the ambition and creative ability of the company’s Chairman, have ensured that Kings’ has become a world-class leader in independent education. Two other Kings’ Schools are now open in Dubai, at opposite ends of the city, and the work continues to do ‘The Best by Every Child’.

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    Sajid Gulzar Principal, Kings' School Al Barsha

    Sajid has served in various leadership roles, including headteacher, principal, and executive director, in both primary and secondary schools. He began his first headship in 2009 and was most recently the founding CEO of a multi-academy trust in the UK. Sajid has a deep understanding of school improvement as well as the systems and processes required to run a school effectively. In 2015, he was appointed a ‘National Leader of Education’ and has supported schools to improve their standard of education ever since. He has inspected for Ofsted, worked internationally leading a teacher development project, and served as an advisor to the Department for Education.

    Sajid’s significant contribution to education has been acknowledged by the educational community and beyond and was honoured to be awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 2019. 

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    Kerry Dalton Principal, Kings’ School Nad Al Sheba

    Kerry joined Kings’ School Nad Al Sheba from Kings’ School Al Barsha where she fulfilled the role of Deputy Headteacher. Kerry's leadership experience includes six years as Headteacher in a village primary school in rural North Yorkshire, leading her school through several highly successful inspections, and taking an executive role in the development of a 60-school-wide Teaching School Alliance, as lead on mathematics and CPD for its School Direct students across the region.

    With a First-Class BSc (Hons) degree in Primary Education with Mathematics, there is nothing Kerry loves more than making connections between the classroom and the world beyond it, supporting teaching, and seeing children thrive as they learn.

    Appointed Local Leader of Education in 2017, Kerry developed a highly successful ‘Developing Effective Support in Mathematics: TA Toolkit’ training package with Yorkshire Ridings Maths Hub and STEM; is a published author of ‘Hands-On Maths’; and has worked as a mathematics consultant, working with schools in the UK, Channel Islands, and Dubai.

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    Lisa Passante Vice Principal, Kings' School Al Barsha

    Lisa’s teaching career spans over 20 years with experience gained both from the UK and internationally. Whilst in the UK, Lisa worked closely with the Local Education Authority as a Team Teach Tutor, training hundreds of teachers, administrators and support staff to develop teaching and learning strategies that improved pupil outcomes.

    In 2006, Lisa relocated to China where she undertook senior leadership roles, including Head of Primary and Principal. Working in highly competitive education markets in both Shanghai and Beijing, Lisa took a particular interest in educational marketing, which formed the basis of her thesis when completing her Masters in Educational Leadership in 2014.

    Lisa has been a Lead Improvement Partner with the Council of British International Schools (COBIS), supporting British international schools worldwide in achieving the COBIS Compliance and Patron’s Accreditation. She is passionate about ensuring all students have access to outstanding education and is immensely proud of the fact that she can support schools in their improvement journey to achieve this. Lisa’s educational philosophy is based around the notion that there are no limits to what each and every child can achieve, and as a school leader, sees it very much her role to facilitate these opportunities, enabling all learners to realise their dreams, no matter what they are.

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    Paul Taylor Secondary Headteacher, Kings' School Al Barsha

    Paul has extensive school leadership experience, in a range of sectors, spanning eleven years across three very different schools. Prior to joining Kings’, Paul was the Principal of a UK-based private, all-through, co-educational day and boarding school which dates back to 1753. In this role, Paul gained a wealth of knowledge across both the Primary and Early Years, as well as Secondary, giving him a great appreciation of the educational journey of a child from age three to eighteen.

    Whilst Paul has a proven track record for achieving record results at both GCSE and A-Level within his schools, he is a passionate believer in the development of the whole child, with a clear educational philosophy that emphasises individual growth in an all-round sense.

    Paul is a hands-on leader who enjoys spending time in the classroom with pupils, hearing firsthand how they are progressing. Valuing his broader responsibility, he ensures that all pupils have the academic, extra-curricular and pastoral systems that will allow them to develop the intellectual and personality traits to succeed in the exciting but challenging world of today.

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    Wendy Prior Vice Chair of Governors

    Wendy has many years experience as a parent governor with Kings' schools and brings fifteen years’ experience in post 16 education. Additional to this, Wendy has worked as a lecturer, assessor, manager and consultant.

    Wendy has considerable experience supporting work-based training providers to become inspection ready as well as personal performance and professional coaching experience.

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    Robert Phillips Director of Inclusion, Kings' Education

    For the past 3 and a half years, Robert Phillips has led the development of Kings' Education's Alternative Pathway provision across the group. Robert's background in Special Educational Needs stems from his clinical work as a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA) in Dubai, where he managed clinical settings and provided inclusive practice consultation to over 30 different schools in the UAE.

    Robert relocated to Dubai in 2014 from the UK, where he worked in social services, advising mainstream schools and specialty settings on behavior and inclusive practice. Robert leads on Kings' Education's strategic vision for inclusive education.

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    Amer Al-Jafari Group Head of Arabic

    Amer is a highly accomplished Arabic and Islamic leader with an exemplary teaching and academic record. He holds a Master's Degree in Arabic Language and Literature and gained 10 years of experience as an Arabic teacher before progressing to the leadership role of Head of Arabic and Islamic. Amer has extensive experience in curriculum development and in training teachers, successfully inspiring his colleagues to take great pride in their Arabic language and Islamic values.

Please see the pages for individual schools for their respective leadership teams.


Corporate Leadership Team

The Kings’ Education corporate team is a dynamic, forward-thinking and highly skilled group of people who are there to support the families and staff of the Kings’ schools. The Kings' Education corporate team consists of:

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    Akshay Khanna Director of Corporate Services

    Akshay brings over ten years of experience in business development, corporate finance, financial due diligence, commercial due diligence, and statutory audit, to the Kings’ Education team.

    In the past, Akshay has worked at the likes of KPMG and GEMS Education and joined Kings’ Education in 2016.

    Since then, Akshay has played an instrumental role in the impressive developments seen at each of our schools. He has ensured we have invested, enhanced, and committed our resources to delivering the best educational experience possible to each student.

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    Basheer Appadath Head of Finance

    Basheer brings to the team more than twenty five years of diverse experience in financial forecasting, business plans for new ventures, financial analysis & management reporting, corporate & project cost accounting, treasury & cash flow management, business valuations & financial due diligence, and statutory audits.

    Basheer joined Kings’ Education in 2015 and has made immense contributions to our community since then.

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    Hugo McGlue Head of I.T.

    Hugo began his career in the I.T. services division of the UK’s Open University Head Office. Following several senior engineering, consultancy, and advisory roles, Hugo was appointed Director of I.T. Managed Services at the Aztec Group.

    In 2016, Hugo joined Nord Anglia Education. Hugo’s management roles covered the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Europe, where he became part of the central I.T. Change Advisory Board (CAB) for group-wide I.T. projects and implementations.

    Hugo Joined Kings’ Education in 2021 as Head of I.T. with a clear vision to further develop and transform the best-in-class I.T. facilities, alongside the outstanding academic provisions that Kings’ Education is known for.

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    Saeeda Jaffrey Head of HR

    Saeeda brings a wealth of HR experience to the team. She worked for PWC London and Middle East for ten years; working as a management consultant in the UK practice for five years, leading to a five year secondment as internal HR Business Partner in the Middle East practice.

    Saeeda has been involved in highly successful workforce transformation projects; has implemented staff engagement practices; and been instrumental in enhancing people strategies across a range of industries. We’re delighted Saeeda has brought the learns from such work to Kings’ Education.

    Saeeda is a passionate advocate for children's education and is the Patron and Board Member of the One Degree Academy School based in London UK.

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    Khayyam Abdu Head of Infrastructure

    Khayyam is an experienced Infrastructure, Facility Management and Project Management specialist, possessing 22 years of experience in construction management. He has been an active contributor in complex construction projects over a 20-year span in the UAE; and brought this expertise to Kings’ Education in 2020.

    Khayyam joined Kings’ Education as a site engineer, and has since progressed to become the Head of Infrastructure. He brings a keen eye for design brilliance to the role, delivering impressive expansion and enhancement projects to all our campuses. Alongside his team, he drives the seamless management of our facilities, and ensures every pupil is accommodated for in an impressive educational environment.