Education Consultancy · Dubai · GCC

A sacred
trust. أمانة

Something precious placed in your care, to be returned whole. We built Amana around that word.

Crisis Readiness Safeguarding Wellbeing Teacher Placement
أمانة
A sacred trust.
Every child is an amana.
Every school is an amana.

We are not a recruitment agency.

We are an education consultancy — and the distinction is not semantic.

A recruitment agency fills vacancies. Its unit of success is the placement. A consultancy works differently. Our unit of success is the outcome — measured in children's progress, staff who stay, leaders who grow, institutions that strengthen year on year. Our work begins long before a role is defined and continues long after it is filled.

The word amana is Arabic for a sacred trust — something precious placed in your care, to be returned whole. We chose the name deliberately. Education is the closest thing our society has to that definition: a parent hands a child to a school, and a school hands that child to the teachers, counsellors, and leaders who will shape how they see themselves and the world.

We built every part of Amana around one question — would we want this for our own children? If the answer isn't yes, we don't offer it.

Our training architecture, our safeguarding standards, our crisis readiness, and our approach to staff wellbeing are all built around that question. It is why we exist, and what we measure ourselves against.

Six services. One standard. Every child an amana.

Every engagement is bespoke. These are the capabilities we bring to each partnership — combined, tailored, and delivered to the profile of your school.

01

Crisis Management & Preparedness

Evacuation and lockdown protocols, crisis communication for leadership teams, staff confidence under pressure, and structured support for students during periods of regional instability. Designed for the realities schools in the Gulf face today — delivered personally by a Certified Crisis Management Professional with a NATO and military intelligence background.

02

Safeguarding & Compliance

Enhanced pre-placement safeguarding review, DSL support, annual safeguarding audit, and inspection-ready documentation aligned to contemporary UAE, Qatar, Saudi, and UK standards. A named safeguarding lead for every partnership, available to your DSL as an independent sounding board.

03

Mental Health & Staff Wellbeing

Structured wellbeing and retention programmes for teachers and leadership, recognising that the cost of losing good staff dwarfs the cost of keeping them. Student wellbeing support designed for the recovery period following disruption. The return to the classroom is the start of the recovery, not the end of it.

04

Teacher Preparation & Placement

Consultancy-led placement of educators and leaders into schools across the GCC. Every educator we introduce completes our in-house preparation programme before their first day — safeguarding, behaviour, inclusive practice, cultural fluency for Gulf settings, digital literacy, and parental engagement. An educator who arrives ready, not one who needs to be readied.

05

Continuing Professional Development

CPD programmes for the teachers you already have. Subject and curriculum mastery, specialist SEN, EAL and inclusion programmes, digital and AI fluency, and structured wellbeing and retention training. Delivered in person, in live online cohorts, or as self-paced digital modules.

06

Leadership & Board Advisory

Leadership pipeline development for middle leaders, aspiring leaders, and senior leadership coaching. Board-level advisory for flagship institutions and group operators. Strategic counsel as your institution evolves — because the partnership does not end when a placement is made.

The Amana Method.

A four-stage approach, refined across more than 200 institutional partnerships, designed to deliver the right outcome — not merely the fastest one.

01 · Discover

We listen first.

A structured audit of your school's ethos, values, strategic priorities, cultural dynamics, and specific challenges. Documented findings you keep — whether or not the engagement proceeds.

02 · Design

We build to fit.

Findings become a bespoke blueprint: the precise capabilities required, the training architecture around them, and the measures by which success will be judged.

03 · Deliver

We execute with care.

Placements, training, crisis preparedness, and leadership coaching — with senior oversight at every stage. Every educator arrives prepared. Every programme is built, not bought off a shelf.

04 · Develop

We stay present.

Monthly or quarterly strategic reviews, continuing professional development, and strategic counsel as your institution evolves. Most of our value is delivered after the initial engagement closes.

Mark Stanley
Founder & Managing Director

My background is unusual for education. Seven years as a Military Intelligence Analyst with HM Forces — including an operational tour in Afghanistan (Op Herrick) and a KFOR deployment in the Balkans — followed by three years inside NATO's Situation Centre (SITCEN) during the Libya and Syria conflicts.

Before Amana, I spent nearly a decade building one of the UK's most trusted education recruitment businesses — over 10,000 placements across education, social care, and government, with more than 200 institutional partnerships. I relocated to Dubai to build Amana on the ground, because the Gulf deserves the same standard of partnership I spent that decade learning how to deliver.

The work closest to my own background — crisis management and preparedness for schools — is delivered personally. It is the credential that differentiates Amana from every competitor in the market, and it is not delegated.

Credentials
  • Certified Crisis Management Professional (CCMP)
  • Member, Chartered Institute of Security Professionals
  • Designated Safeguarding Lead (Education)
  • NaCTSO Action Counter Terrorism — Awareness, Education & e-Learning
  • Instructor, Overlord Academy
  • Children's Safeguarding Certified
  • Enhanced DBS · Dubai Police Clearance
  • LLB (Hons) Law — Contracts specialism
Service
  • 7 years — Military Intelligence Analyst, HM Forces
  • 3 years — NATO HQ Situation Centre (SITCEN), Libya & Syria conflicts
  • Op Herrick veteran · KFOR Balkans tour
  • Contracts & Procurement Manager, NATO

The people behind the promise.

Katie Stanley

Director of Compliance & Safeguarding
Led our UK operation through ISO and REC accreditation. Built the quality assurance frameworks that underpin everything we do. Oversees all compliance, finance, and pre-employment safeguarding. Her standards are non-negotiable — and that is precisely the point.

Tala Sunba

Head of Strategic Partnerships, GCC
Fifteen years in the UAE education sector. Deep relationships across international schools in the Gulf, an intimate understanding of what school leaders value, and the cultural fluency to bridge British operational rigour with GCC expectations.

Gurdeep Jandu

Head of Client Solutions
Over 15 years of recruitment experience across health, social care, and education. Manages client relationships, diagnoses staffing challenges, and designs the solutions schools depend on. Consultative, thorough, and relentlessly focused on the right outcome.

Josh Dhesi

Education Consultant, Gulf Region
Specialist knowledge of the Gulf education landscape, working closely with independent schools across Dubai and the Northern Emirates. Rigorous candidate screening combined with a genuine understanding of what makes each school unique.

Louie Di Maio

Education Consultant, Gulf Region
Focuses on Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, and the wider GCC, building partnerships with schools that share Amana's commitment to quality. International background and attention to detail that ensure every engagement is handled with care.

Mark Stanley

Founder & Managing Director
Former Military Intelligence Analyst and NATO SITCEN analyst during the Libya and Syria conflicts. CCMP, CSyP member, Designated Safeguarding Lead, instructor at Overlord Academy. Relocated to Dubai to build Amana on the ground, in the community it serves.

A complimentary briefing for school leaders.

In light of the recent disruption across the region, we are offering a confidential 45-minute crisis readiness briefing to Heads, Principals, and senior leadership teams across the GCC.

Delivered personally. No agenda beyond understanding what your school is carrying, and sharing the frameworks that have worked. No cost. No pitch.

Request a briefing

The first conversation costs nothing. The standard starts there.

Let's start with a conversation.

Every engagement at Amana begins the same way — with a short, confidential conversation about your school, your priorities, and the pressures of the moment. No agenda. No commitment on either side.

If any of our work sits close to something on your desk — whether that is crisis readiness today, a safeguarding review next term, or a leadership pipeline over the next academic year — we would welcome the chance to talk.

Every child is an amana.
Every school is an amana.

Mark Stanley
Founder & Managing Director
Office Dubai, UAE