From a young ages Louise Hamilton has been a competitive swimmer, specialising in all three Butterfly disciplines. Training intensely with her local club and the Glasgow School of Sport for a period of time, Louise was regularly selected for Scottish Silver Squad training weekends and competed at several National and County events in her home country of Scotland.

At 19 years old Louise moved away from home to complete a Sport and Exercise Science degree at the University of Abertay, Dundee and continued to compete, this time for the University swim team where she competed at the British University and college sport competitions. Alongside her degree, Louise worked part time as a swim teacher, teaching the learn to swim programme with children and adults in her local community and assisted with the elite squad training program. In 2015 Louise then went onto complete a Post Graduate Diploma in Education at the University of Edinburgh and then began her teaching career by completing her NQT year in Scotland followed by a 2 year stint in Qatar before making the move to the United Arab Emirates, where she has worked for the past two years.

Louise is also an avid games player and plays recreational Netball and Gaelic Football and has an interest in Crossfit and Fitness. She is Swimming, Netball and Trampoline coaching qualified and enjoys teaching and coaching a variety of different sports. She is looking forward to working with all students at Arcadia from August 2021 and, can’t wait to start working with the Arcadia swim team.

Daniel’s multi-sporting experience started at the renowned Millfield School where he attended from nursery through to sixth form. During his school years he played age-group county cricket, hockey and tennis, representing Somerset. He also won the IAPS Tennis Singles and Doubles, as well as winning the Millfield Prep U13 team golf competition. For Daniel, these achievements marked the start of his exciting sporting journey.

In 2009, Daniel earned his first age-group international cap, representing Wales in hockey. He played at both U16 and U18 level before deciding that his main focus was to be cricket; his First XI cricket career saw him win the National T20 Championships in 2012 with Millfield, and he played a pivotal role in this team for the four years that he was a part of it. Daniel progressed his cricket, going on to play for Glamorgan Seconds and Wales Minor Counties. Whilst training full time with Cardiff MCCU, he made his First-Class debut against Glamorgan in 2015, alongside perusing his academics; studying a degree in Business and Events Management at Cardiff Metropolitan University, of which he obtained a First-Class Honours Degree.

Sport has aided Daniel’s love of travelling, presenting itself as an enabling factor which has granted him the opportunities to visit many new places. In fact, one of his most memorable experiences occurred through being a member of the MCC when, in 2019, he was invited to tour with the team to Costa Rica and Mexico where he played in the Central American Cricket Championship.

A Gap Year in 2013 saw the beginning of Daniel’s journey into education, having worked at Christ Church Grammar School in Perth, Australia in 2013 where he coached the First XI cricket team. Then, five years on, Daniel joined the successful, co-educational independent day school, The Cathedral School Llandaff. Progression within the establishment took him from PE teacher/Sports Coach to Head of Junior Boys’ Sport, at the same time, completing his PGCE in Physical Education. Daniel also holds coaching qualifications in rugby and cricket and is currently undertaking his ECB Advanced Cricket Coaching Programme (Level 3).

Both coaching and teaching enable Daniel to remain engaged in sport, but the main attraction is seeing the sense of achievement on pupils’ faces when they reach their personal and team goals. Having been described by many as a people’s person, being involved in education is extremely fulfilling for him. Daniel is really looking forward to working alongside an experienced department and is excited by the opportunity to learn from the expertise of his colleagues.

At aged 15 Joanna Pruett represented Great Britain in her first International, a Triathlon in Romania, and from there onwards as part of the World Class Perfomance Programme she continued to travel the globe representing her country. Joanna won medals at European and World championship competitions, travelling to the Athens for the 2004 Olympic Games, after qualifying in the Modern Pentathlon by winning a World Cup Silver medal in Brazil and Team Gold at the World Championships in Moscow. Whilst training at this high level, Joanna kept up her studies completing a degree in Sporting Performance and Excellence at the University of Bath.

After completing her Post Graduate in Education, she took her first teaching job at a high performing UK Independent school, before becoming Head of Sport in one of the UK’s largest and most successful Prep Schools, Danes Hill, where she coached the senior netball team to win the IAPS National Championships in 2013. Since moving to Dubai to join her Headmaster husband, Joanna has kept closely involved in coaching whilst welcoming three girls of her own.

She is a Level 2 ASA qualified swim coach and Level 2 QCF England Netball specialist, but also enjoys coaching an array of other sports.

Joanna is a high-level skier and horse rider and has already started coaching clubs at Arcadia in these areas. She is excited to be working with a world class sports coaching and teaching team at the school, particularly as her girls are all enrolled and sports enthusiasts.

I take a keen interest in all sports and I am a very competitive person in sport and in life, which I put down to having three brothers who are all equally as competitive as I am. I take pride in teaching as I get to develop the next generation of learners and I am given the opportunity to share my passion and knowledge with the Arcadia family on a daily basis. Physical Education is extremely important to me as I have grown up all my life being shown how important sport and exercise is for our body and mind, everyday I get to teach children something new about their potential in sport and help them discover their own skills and interests in the world of Physical Education.

After graduating from The University of Chichester, Mr Liam Hirrel taught physical education for 7 years in Greater London, holding various positions including Head of PE. He has spent the past three years in the UAE, working for the Ministry of Education’s Physical and Health Education department, teaching as well as training future teachers. Mr Liam Hirrel believes strongly in that Physical Literacy is as important to a student’s education as numeracy and literacy in setting them up for the life ahead.

Mr Liam Hirrel strives to create an environment where students are confident, independent learners and believes strongly in PE and Sport being accessible for all. He has been a part of the improvement of teaching and learning in many schools and this has allowed him to hone his professional skill-set whilst supporting colleagues to improve their own. Outside of teaching Mr Liam Hirrel enjoys a range of sports and has played football at a professional level and represented English Universities.