We were honoured to celebrate the eighteen families whose children have been ACS Doha students since 2011 in a special dinner during our week of celebrations in November. We spoke to some of these families to hear how ACS Doha has impacted their lives for a decade.
We were honoured to celebrate the 18 families whose children have been ACS Doha students since 2011 in a special dinner during our celebrations in November. Some of these families tell us how it has impacted their lives.
For Elena Rosca, the warm welcome was contagious. From their first meeting with the Admissions team back in 2011, the Romanian-born mother of Vlad (Grade 9) and Robert (Grade 7) was impressed with the interest they took in her sons and how welcome they were made to feel.
“It’s that thing you pass on, as a member of a community, to the next person, and so on. And that’s how a community is built. We’ve always felt we belong, we’ve always felt respected, and we’ve always felt part of a community,” she explains.
For her husband, Alexandru, the familiarity provided a safe – and sociable – environment. “As soon as you’re engaged in any activities or dropping off your kids, you know almost everyone,” he says. “We’re really happy and blessed to be part of the ACS community.”
Pre-Covid, he enjoyed having a coffee with other parents after school activities – be it basketball, swimming, or football – and having a chat with the teachers about their plans to see if they could help in any way, as a community.
Being in an international environment is one of the many benefits. “Our children are basically Third-Culture Kids,” Elena explains. “They’re Romanian, but were born in Qatar and speak several languages. So having that influence and internationalism, being exposed to it everywhere, is really important to us.”
They’re open-minded, they respect other cultures, religions and nationalities, and I’d say this is definitely the mindset of being in an international environment. It’s amazing. There are only a few places I can think of where you can have this type of environment.
Elena has seen ACS Doha from both a parent’s perspective and also as a teacher, after she joined the school’s Early Childhood division.
Seeing their children develop their skills, supported by progressive programmes and a variety of learning opportunities has been rewarding for the Roscas. They think the new campus facilities are amazing and will be really good for their kids.
However, they do reminisce about when their sons were in Early Childhood at the previous, considerably smaller campus, and Alexandru did the drop-offs each day. Elena says: “Alex would freak out because he would get to work really late because he would bump into so many people to say ‘hello’ and have a chat, and that was something that was really nice!”
Both sons were active in the sports programmes, representing the school at swimming and basketball, and they are looking forward to the resumption of activities post-Covid. Vlad represented ACS Doha in a Dubai swimming competition and came back with four medals – a very proud moment for both parents.
And in a year or so, Vlad and Robert will be joined at ACS Doha by their little brother, who is now aged two.
The Roscas in 2011
The Roscas in 2021
Avril and Christiano at the old campus
The family today
An earlier photo of the Jafris
The Jafris in 2021
Sebastián Soria & Gabriela Cabrera are parents to Avril (Grade 10), Christiano (Grade 7) and Thiago (Grade 1). The couple moved from Uruguay 17 years ago for Sebastián’s career as a professional footballer, where he currently plays for Qatar Sports Club.
At the time ACS Doha opened, they only had their eldest child, Avril, who was in Kindergarten. They acknowledge there were so many options for schooling in Doha, but the warm welcome they received at ACS, along with recommendations from friends helped them make their choice. The International Baccalaureate was a key driver in their decision.
“Originally, we didn’t now long we’d be staying in Qatar – not realising we’d still be here after 17 years – and we thought we would be moving to another country, so the International Baccalaureate would have been ideal for our children to continue their education. We would have been more limited by a British or US curriculum,” explains Sebastián.
“We really like the mix of cultures and nationalities, and knowing there would be other people in the same situation as us who may be travelling around. We’re still here but some of the people who choose the IB do it because they know they’ll be going to another country. We like how patient and easy-going the teachers are. For our children, it’s worked really well.”
They value the support available within the school community. “Every time you need something you would always find someone there for you, to give you an answer, to help you. There’s also carpooling, and hanging out with other mums,” says Gabriela.
We have many friends from many different nationalities, and for the kids to share that is very important. Here you can share all of those experiences together; we, as their parents, and them, as our children, so I think this is really important. I don’t see the difference because, even though we’re all from different countries, lifestyles and cultures, everyone is open to welcome you.
A passion for sports runs in the family and the children are looking forward to the return of the after-school clubs. Thiago is doing parkour, Avril will play basketball and for Christiano, it’s football.
“This campus is really amazing for sports. Not only will our own students enjoy it but those from other schools too,” says Sebastián. “The social aspect is important, to share this campus with other people. I have other friends who were coming here to do BE Basketball, and they thought the school was really amazing.”
Gabriela adds: “Our daughter is really into music and she’s joined the band, so she’s really happy. It’s nice that they have so many things to choose from.” One of the things that has impressed them most about the school was how it responded to Covid-19.
“I think ACS was the best school to manage the Covid situation. We have friends who have kids at other schools and we were really impressed how ACS managed everything so well. They were very supportive of the kids, and us,” says Gabriela. “It was a hard time for everyone but, actually, it was a really good year for our kids, particularly when we were able to come back to 100% capacity, unlike other schools."
The Dualehs arrived in Qatar from the US with their two daughters, Karima (now Grade 11) and Mariam (now Grade 10). Mr Mahmoud Dualeh, who works at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, was keen for his daughters to learn about Islamic and Arabic culture as part of their studies. Their son, Ilyas, was born in Qatar and is now in Grade 3.
Something that set ACS Doha apart from other schools his family visited was that it wasn’t governed by a particular country’s curriculum. “From the start, ACS Doha had its unique educational approach and is open-minded as a school. For the success of an international school, made up of locals and ex-pats, open-mindedness is an important value,” he explains.
Mahmood also appreciates the emphasis placed on community.
Alongside the academic programmes, sport is something that has played an important role in his daughters’ ACS Doha experience. Keen basketball players, they successfully petitioned to have a girls’ team and recruited other players. Mahmood cites this as an example of “giving them the ability to start something and see it through,” something he feels was made possible because of the supportive environment at ACS Doha.
Both daughters participated in ACS Doha’s externship programme last year, with Karima working for Facebook and Mariam based with an investment start-up. Mahmood was impressed with the confidence and maturity they demonstrated when working with employers and delivering their final presentations. “By the end of the eight-week program, they presented like professionals”, he recalls.
As his daughters reach the end of their time at ACS Doha, what’s next? Karima would like to go into engineering and plans to attend a US university, while Mariam is still open about what the future holds, but is passionate about social justice issues.
“When I talk to my three children, what stands out to me is their enjoyment of learning, and how they are becoming independent learners.” Mahmood concludes.
As a parent, you feel you have an input and the school listens. Teachers, staff, students, and parents all work together for the success of the school. I would describe ACS Doha as a ‘learning organisation’, you see and feel improvements year-on-year.”
The Jafri family moved to Qatar from Canada when their eldest daughter was two-years-old. Amira (Grade 11), Aliya (Grade 8) and Muhammed (Grade 5) all attend ACS Doha.
Saima Jafri’s middle daughter, Aliya, was already at pre-school elsewhere when ACS opened in 2011, but felt she wanted to put her into a proper school programme. She had accepted a place at another school and hadn’t had a good feeling about it, but knew it would only be for a year, by which point she could transfer to the school her elder daughter, Amira, was then attending.
Things changed that summer when she received a message from a friend telling her that she had enrolled her kids into a brand-new school, ACS Doha. When Saima looked into it, she discovered it wasn’t far from the family’s house, so went to visit.
“The campus seemed really nice and the admissions officer was friendly and she showed us around. And we said: ‘You know what? Let’s go for it!’” Saima remembers.
The Pre-K programme for Aliya was ideal. The school was small at that time. I liked how the Head of School and Deputy Head would stand outside each morning and would be very visible and welcoming, greeting everybody, and the vibe was really nice. It was a nice way to start your morning.
She recalls the lovely feeling she got at an early Family Fun Day when there were around 200 students at the school – a feeling that continued. And then the time came for Aliya to join the British international school her elder sister had been attending for three years.
Saima could already see that Aliya was learning through play at ACS and there wasn’t stress. As she advanced towards Kindergarten, she was learning to read, write, but it wasn’t stressful, compared to Amira’s experience.
“I just didn’t feel comfortable with the decision, so I asked my elder daughter if she’d mind if we’d move her to ACS, and she seemed OK with it, so they both ended up being there.
“Our biggest reason for switching was the welcoming nature of everybody and the feeling we got when we dropped off and picked up our children. Our security guards from Day One have been amazing. They know us and they genuinely feel happy. I couldn’t say that about the other school, where we didn’t feel we belonged.”
Saima is looking forward to the resumption of community activities post-Covid, such as the International Fair, although they have been able to participate in poetry nights and other events over Zoom, which have helped keep the community alive.
“I think because we’ve got such a strong community coming through, my children have made lifelong friends and I’ve made lifelong friends. This all comes down the school fostering these relationships, wanting the parents involved, and making them an active part of school life as well. This gave us the opportunity to meet and work together, particularly with people you may not have crossed paths with before.”
She also values the fact that many teachers have been here for a number of years, which promotes familiarity.
When it comes to her children’s experience at ACS, Saima believes they “got lucky” due to the size of the previous school and being able to participate in a range of activities, such as sports and weekly broadcast, Good Morning ACS.
On the academic side, Amira enjoys biology and chemistry, and is very excited about being able to perform experiments in the new labs on campus. Muhammed loves to run, so having the opportunity to run on the track now is amazing. Saima is looking forward to being able to use the sports café when the facilities reopen while her daughters are boxing and playing basketball. Amira is planning to study in Canada after High School.
ACS Doha hosted a special celebratory evening in honour of our founding families at the Ritz Carlton on 17 November.
