Adnoc Schools - Sas Al NakhlPrincipal & Leadership Team

Adnoc Schools - Sas Al Nakhl is led by Principal Chelsie Brines, whose trajectory through the school is a compelling signal of institutional stability. Joining in 2016 as a Social Studies teacher, she progressed through Assistant Vice Principal and Deputy Head of Teaching and Learning roles before being appointed Head of the Male campus in September 2022 and whole-school Principal in June 2023. Her academic credentials are strong: she holds a Certificate in School Management and Leadership from Harvard Graduate School of Education and an MA in History from East Carolina University. This is a leader who has grown with the school over nearly a decade — a meaningful contrast to institutions cycling through external appointments.

Above campus level, the school is managed by Aldar Education, Abu Dhabi's largest private education operator, on behalf of ADNOC. The Board of Trustees is chaired by Mr. Yaser Saeed Al Mazrouei, Executive Director of People, Commercial and Corporate Support at ADNOC, with group-level oversight provided by CEO Sahar Cooper and Executive Director of Education Stephen Sharples, who brings over 20 years of international school leadership experience. This layered governance structure — corporate board, professional operator, and experienced campus principal — gives the school an unusually robust institutional framework for an Abu Dhabi American curriculum school.

The 2021–2022 ADEK inspection rated overall leadership effectiveness as Good, with governance specifically rated Very Good — the highest sub-rating in the leadership domain. Self-evaluation and improvement planning, partnerships with parents, and management were all rated Good. Inspectors noted a school culture that actively invites parental participation, and the Chairman's published message reinforces this, explicitly committing to strong parent-teacher partnerships as a school-wide priority.

On teaching quality, the inspection found teaching rated Very Good in both the KG and High School phases, with Good ratings across the middle years. This phase-specific strength at the bookends of the school is notable. The school employs 208 teachers supported by 33 teaching assistants — a meaningful additional layer of classroom support. The reported student-teacher ratio of 1:17 sits above the Abu Dhabi city average of 1:13.6 across all curriculum types, meaning classes at ADNOC Schools SAN are somewhat larger than the city norm — a factor worth weighing, particularly in the middle school phases where teaching was rated Good rather than Very Good. [MISSING: staff qualification percentage data]

A standout institutional achievement is the school's National Identity Program, rated Outstanding by ADEK in 2023 — a distinction that reflects both leadership vision and the school's unique demographic, with 96% of students being Emirati. The school has maintained a consistent Good overall rating across three consecutive inspection cycles — 2015–16, 2018–19, and 2021–22 — which speaks to organisational resilience rather than volatility. The absence of any rating decline over seven years, combined with a newly appointed principal who rose through the school's own ranks, suggests a stable and self-reinforcing culture.