Meet the Team

Susan Adshead began her teaching career at Edge Hill University in the United Kingdom back in 2009. After teaching in a Primary School in the North West of England for three years, she began a new chapter in her career by moving to Abu Dhabi. After working at Al Muna Academy for three years as the Head of Key Stage 2, she moved onto the role of Assistant Principal at Al Mamoura Academy.

As an educator, the pastoral wellbeing and social and emotional development of students have always been a priority of Susan's as she firmly believes that children make the most academic progress when they feel happy, healthy and safe. Susan is thrilled to be part of the Al Mamoura community and describes it as a place where everyone belongs.

Emma MacDonald started her career in London in 2005 as a Secondary English teacher, becoming a Head of Year in 2009 and spending 5 years developing a group of excitable Year 7 students into mature and well-educated Year 11s.  In 2011, she was promoted to Senior Leadership, alongside her Head of Year role.  When her year group graduated Year 11, she made the decision to leave the UK and work internationally, a decision that led her to Dubai in 2014.  She has since held various senior leadership roles.

Emma has worked as a leader internationally for over seven years; five in Dubai and two in Malaysia before returning to the UAE to take this role in Al Mamoura.  Her leadership responsibilities have included whole school learning and teaching, curriculum and professional development, whole school innovation, pastoral leadership and faculty lead for Language and Communications.

Emma has a First-Class master’s in Education and Leadership as well as a range of senior leadership qualifications, including her NPQSL.  She is also currently studying for her NPQH qualification.

As a leader, she is conscious that the well-being of the students will always come first.

Saoirse Hall started her teaching career upon Graduating from The University of Warwick in 2008. She began teaching in Key Stage One in a school in Coventry later that year. Saoirse stayed with this school for the next six years, gaining experience across different year groups in Key Stage One. While at the school, Saoirse began to develop an interest in leadership and sharing her expertise with others, this led to her appointment into Middle Leadership roles, including Head of English and Key Stage Leader.

In 2015 Saoirse applied to Al Mushrif intending to gain some experience of teaching abroad and widening her skillset. Saoirse was delighted to work with Al Mushrif and then followed them to their new site under the name of Al Mamoura. Over the next few years, Saoirse continued to work hard and progress back into leadership, undertaking the role of Key Stage leader and then in 2019, was appointed as Assistant Principal. Saoirse is passionate about ensuring the delivery of an exciting and innovative curriculum, that is accessible to all. She believes children should be provided with opportunities and challenged to be the very best they can be.

Danielle started her teaching career in 1997 when she began her Bachelor of Education at Marjon's in Devon. She has held many leadership positions during her career, and she began teaching in Tottenham, London in 2001, working as a Teacher of PE and Head of Year in a fresh start Academy.

Before teaching at At Al Mamoura, she was an Assistant Principal in Al Ain Academy Prior to this she was an Associate Assistant Principal at an outstanding Sports Academy in her home county of Cornwall, UK. She was a designated Child Protection Officer, Duke of Edinburgh mentor and Head of Year.

Danielle brings a wealth of experience to Al Mamoura Academy. As a professional for teacher training, Danielle mentored and trained many teachers over the years and continues to support this for the Aldar group by being one of the lead facilitators for the Best Practice Network, NPQ programme, and growing our leaders.

Last year she completed the National Qualification for Head Teachers and had a significant impact on the secondary school she was working at in Al Ain, seeing outstanding progress and attainment in the last two years of IGCSE and IAL results. She has high expectations of all and brings a culture of success for all; students believe in themselves, creating an environment that is challenging and nurturing. She believes in developing a growth mindset in students, parents and staff, enabling educators to develop the child in a holistic and well-rounded way. She is thrilled to be working at Al Mamoura Academy and looks forward to collaborating with the whole community.

Sandra has always had a passion for teaching, and once she completed her BSc in Mathematics, she knew that her career path would be in teaching where her focus would be on making young minds fall in love with Mathematics.

Sandra started teaching in South Wales through the medium of Welsh, where she learnt to be bilingual with her teaching.

This experience opened her eyes to the struggles that some students face when something is taught to them but not in their native language and has since developed her teaching technique to support all students.

Sandra has had many opportunities to develop within her career and has taken on many leadership responsibilities from Head of House, Deputy Head of Faculty and then onto being a Head of Faculty.

When Sandra moved to Abu Dhabi in 2015, her career started at Al Yasmina Academy as a Mathematics teacher and Head of Year.

She then moved to Al Mamoura Academy in 2019 into the role of Assistant Principal for Curriculum and Assessment. Sandra has been part of the team that has developed the curriculum to offer many opportunities for all students to study the subjects they have a passion for working with students and families to ensure that they make the right choices at the right time.

Andrew Lett started his teaching career in Northamptonshire, England where he taught for six years at two different schools after receiving his degree in teaching from Lancaster University in Primary Education. Mr. Lett moved to Abu Dhabi eight years ago and has held a variety of teaching and leadership roles with a range of focuses including pastoral, curriculum, student achievement and assessment.

Andrew joined Al Mamoura Academy last year where his passion and dedication for teaching and ensuring children’s wellbeing, happiness and safety has created a nurturing environment for students to grow and exceed their own expectations.

Andrew is very happy to be a member of Al Mamoura Academy and looks forward to many years of achievements as a part of our family.