Sarah Brannon is the founding Head of Preparatory School at Brighton College Dubai. She brings over 25 years of international school leadership experience to her role which spans highly successful stints in British curriculum schools in Germany, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.

Sarah has a Masters in Applied Educational Leadership and Management and the National Professional Qualification for Headship from the UK and has a deep interest in the development of young people as a whole and preparing them for the future.

Sarah introduced the IPC curriculum to Brighton, which is a curriculum that supports the academic, personal and international development of pupils, and was the BSME lead for IPC. The importance of critical and creative thinking is also something Sarah is passionate about and she is the UAE director for the ‘Tournament of Minds’ and runs activities in College that promote this.

Katy Cooke is a founding member of the College Leadership Team at Brighton College Dubai and joined the College in the pre-operational phase after five years as Head of Reception at Dulwich Prep London in the UK, one of the UKs most prestigious Prep Schools. She studied at Birmingham City University, gaining a First-Class Honours degree in Primary Education with QTS and is looking forward to continuing her studies in the near future. Katy has leadership experience in international schools and the UK and has a great deal of knowledge about the UK Prep School system.

Katy is passionate about early education and understands the importance of creating a nurturing and happy environment in which pupils can thrive and develop emotionally, socially and academically. She places a huge amount of importance on kindness and feels that instilling an understanding and appreciation of kindness in our youngest pupils is fundamental when preparing pupils to be successful global citizens.  

Sarah gained her BA Hons in Spanish from the University of East Anglia, spending one year studying at the Universidad de Zaragoza in northern Spain. She later returned to study for her PGCE, specialising in primary languages with part of her teaching practice spent in the public school system of Zamora, Spain.

Sarah began her career teaching in Suffolk, England and later moved to Dubai where she worked for a prestigious British curriculum school in a middle leadership role. Prior to working at Brighton College Dubai, she spent two years living in Ontario, Canada, where she taught English as a second language.

As well as a passion for languages, Sarah has a love of the arts and enjoys instilling music and drama into her classroom.

Ben Tabner obtained a Physical Education and Teaching with QTS in 2012 and began his teaching career in Southampton, UK where he led Science across a partnership of three schools and was a school behaviour lead. He was also a Head of Standards for Year 3 and Mathematics.

In 2018, Ben moved to Dubai where he taught in an 'Outstanding' school and was subsequently promoted to Head of Year 6 in 2019, achieving year on year outstanding results. He also led on Emirati pupil provision and was a school leader for High Performance Learner.

Ben enjoys being innovative in the classroom and has always kept up to date with new and innovative pedagogy to enhance the learning for the pupils, he also believes in developing the pupils for the rigour of the 21^st century and for life after school.

Ben aims to support the staff in creating outstanding learning experiences for all the pupils by supporting in curriculum development; promote a love of learning that also extends beyond the classroom and help to develop a holistic school experience for all the pupils of Brighton College Dubai.

Holly studied Psychology at university before completing her PGCE in Primary Education, specialising in Early Years and Key Stage 1. She has also completed a Post Graduate Certificate in Special Educational Needs Coordination.

Before joining Brighton, Holly spent more than ten years teaching at a primary school in Surrey with an attached specialist resource provision for children with Autism. Alongside this, she undertook five years in the Senior Leadership Team in the role of Assistant Headteacher for Inclusion/SENCO.

Holly has previously been responsible for the provision and progress of groups of pupils including children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and pupils with English as an Additional Language (EAL). In her role as Assistant Headteacher, she developed the whole-school mental health and wellbeing, attachment awareness practice and the school’s racial justice strategy and formed part of the school’s safeguarding team.