Vanessa Robitaille joins ACS Doha as Deputy Head of School this August. We caught up with Vanessa she starts an exciting new chapter in Qatar.
Vanessa Robitaille joins ACS Doha as Deputy Head of School this August. Currently Deputy Head of College at Brighton College in Bangkok, Vanessa has enjoyed a truly international career, in China as Head of Science, then Deputy Head of the Senior School at Dulwich College Suzhou. Prior to her current role at Brighton College, she was founding Head of Prep School at its sister school in Abu Dhabi.
Vanessa grew up in Kenya, on the edge of the Maasai Mara. After completing her education in Nairobi, Vanessa went to the University of Oxford to read Human Sciences, followed by a PGCE at the University of Cambridge, before returning to Kenya to teach in two British prep schools.
She is married to Chris, a Canadian, and their grown-up children are attending universities in Canada.
We caught up with Vanessa before she starts an exciting new chapter in Qatar.
What inspired you to teach?
I don’t remember a time when I didn’t want to teach. I’m the eldest of four, and I have three younger brothers, two of whom are quite a lot younger. We grew up in the middle of nowhere, living in tents at one point. Being isolated, the four of us had to be each other’s best friends, as there was nothing else to do.
As I was a bit older and could read and write, I felt my brothers should be able to do the same, so I spent hours teaching them, much to their horror! Around the age of 12, I remember sitting under a tree, making workbooks for them. The other thing we loved doing was going off on our bikes on adventures, and I would be in charge. Teaching was something I always wanted to do; It was something I loved and something I knew I was good at. My parents instilled in us a love of learning, and we were brought up in a learning culture.
I left Kenya to go to Oxford University. Being at Oxford was a real learning experience in more ways than one, being beyond a ‘third-culture kid’ to being in an environment that was all about learning. I spent hours in libraries and did a degree [Human Sciences] that allowed me to look at lots of different aspects of science and geography. But after that, I just wanted to get back into the classroom, and going back to Kenya enabled me to do that. I worked in two fabulous prep schools and knew from the moment that I walked into my first science lab that this was the right decision.
People talk about the moment when a child’s eyes light up, and I do remember a moment when I was very young and straight out of university.
My mum gave me an antique key that I keep in my desk now because it reminds me that – whether you’re dealing with a sad child who just needs to chat or whether you’re dealing with a very academic child who’s trying to get a top grade in an exam – it’s all about unlocking something.
What drew you into international education?
Kenya is home for me, and I honestly thought I would stay in Kenya forever. My husband, Chris, is Canadian and had been in Kenya for six years when I met him, so Kenya had always been an adventure to him. When we got married, there was always a little bit of me that thought: “I want to feel like that.”
When teachers left to go on to schools in different countries, there was part of me that felt envious. It was something that was brewing inside me for years until the opportunity came to teach at a British school in China. Chris and I talked about it and decided we wanted an adventure for us and the kids.
Vanessa with her family
Everyone thought that when we left Kenya, we’d go for two years and come rushing back home, but we never have done. We absolutely loved it. Kenya is still there and we go back as much as possible, but we’ve never regretted going overseas and have lived long enough in every country to get to know it.
You meet amazing children and you meet amazing teachers, who are all looking for something a bit different, and you get to know people from a completely different culture, and that’s been incredible.
Tell us about some of the highlights of your career
Taking children out of the classroom has always led to particular highlights. Getting a group of Year 8 students to the top of Mount Kenya has to be up there. On a similar theme, I vividly remember my first Year 2 camping trip, and the excitement of getting six-year-olds out of boarding school and under canvas.
In the classroom, I’ve predominantly taught science, and one of my regular highlights was when we start the children off in the science lab in Year 5. Teaching them how to use a Bunsen burner and then doing flame tests with them, when they don’t know very much about chemistry, is always a highlight, because you put some potassium salt or lithium salt in the flame and it completely changes colour. Their faces are a picture! I look forward to that every year, as it’s absolute magic!
And, of course, being a teacher and seeing children come out the other side, whether they’ve had an emotional time and you see them blossom again, or having achieved the exam results they want, is fantastic.
What appealed about the role at ACS Doha, and what are you most looking forward to?
I was really interested in joining a school that would build on my experience; having spent my career in the British independent curriculum and environments I was looking for something different. When you first see adverts that vary from what you have done before, you assume the schools won’t be interested in you because of this, but I was quickly assured that ACS wasn’t like that and they were just looking for the right people. It was wonderful to learn that they trust that when they get the right people, they’ll bring their own experience and be quick to pick up what ACS is doing. The lack of judgment was something that made me feel that ACS was special.
I’m very much a people person and it’s about the children first. I think it’s important that anyone within a school who is making decisions is ensuring that the children are always absolutely at the centre.
I am very much looking forward to arriving in Doha and to meeting the team but most of all the students. ACS Doha is at a very exciting stage; with the new campus and all that lies ahead as we (hopefully) move on beyond the COVID-19 pandemic and I am so excited to be a part of this journey.
Vanessa on Mount Kenya with her students
