In late June 2025, the BSN’s incoming CEO Louise Simpson sat down with five Senior School Voorschoten students to answer their questions and introduce herself prior to taking up her position at the start of the new academic year.
Max: You’ve worked in both Brazil and the UK. How has that shaped your view of education?
Louise: Brazil is a really, really fascinating place. It’s a place of enormous contrasts, and most of the people I worked with were very wealthy at this very impressive school in this huge and bustling city. Everything was hot and happened at great speed.
It made me think about what’s important in education, because, in fact, what the parents wanted [in Brazil] was exactly the same as the parents I had worked with in the UK.
Parents want you to flourish, be happy, have lots of opportunities, and go on to live a fabulous life beyond school. Even in a different environment, I kept being reminded that that is at the heart of everything.
Working internationally brings a broader perspective. You meet people who are often more adventurous and globally minded. That sense of cultural awareness is something you all have as third-culture kids; it’s a real strength.
Shuyan: Over my years at the school, there have been some teachers with whom I’ve had a strong connection and made a lasting difference for me. Were there teachers who made a big difference in your life?
Louise: In my Junior School, in Year 5, I had the most inspiring teacher, his name was Mr Ingham. He made everything fun! Our classroom was turned into a submarine for our Maths project. We went to different places in our submarine, and we would come up, having arrived on an island or a beach somewhere, and we’d do a particular kind of Maths. We had submarine identity cards, and each person had a different responsibility. There was a captain and a second mate, and I was probably the torpedo person. Oh, my goodness, we absolutely loved him.
Then in the Sixth Form, I had a wonderful teacher called Miss Knapton. She was my Geography teacher. Miss Knapton was harsh, but she did that to create a relationship and to make people understand that her expectations were high. If you were coming in down at this level, you weren’t going to get on very well.
She made us realise that you work hard, keep going, and do the best you can. She was amazing! Also, she was such a traveller, and we got to live through her photographs of all the places she’d been to, which inspired us to travel ourselves. So, I loved geography.
I hope in a few years, you’ll be able to say similar things.
Blau: Why did you decide to get into education, and what motivates you now?
Louise: Well, do you know I spent a long time trying not to get into education because my dad was a teacher, and he was quite an unhappy teacher. He went deaf quite early in his life, which I think complicated his life in the classroom.
After some time in the Netherlands as an au pair, I ended up taking a job at an independent boarding school, not far from where my parents lived. I thought I’d just go and be a Biology Technician for a short while, then travel to New Zealand, and then decide what I’d do next.
Four and a half years later, I had qualified as a teacher and been totally taken in by what a great education can do. I don’t mean just what happens in the classroom, necessarily.
It’s the relationships. The things that happen on weekends and when you go off on trips. It’s the teachers who have done amazing things that inspire you, and that whole holistic, character-building element of education. It had me hooked.
Now I’ve worked in seven different schools and have served as Head three times.
What motivates me is that there’s always something new to learn. I love being surrounded by young people. Sometimes they get things wrong, and there’s nothing better than seeing someone improve, reflect and say, “Oh, I’d like to do things differently.” That’s what drives me and keeps me going.
Chiara: What are your plans and priorities for the school?
Louise: My priority is first to understand the school. When you apply for a job as a school leader, the question is always asked: “What’s your vision for the school?“
It’s difficult to have a vision when you haven’t yet lived and experienced the school. Additionally, it must not be my vision; a school’s vision must be shared by the pupils, parents, staff, alumni, and the broader community.
The most important thing is what is best for you all and providing you with the very best educational experience possible. That might mean facilities, like swimming pools, or different teachers, or it could be different courses. It might mean structuring the day slightly differently or offering more co-curricular activities. There are lots of different aspects that contribute to this, and the experience will be different for everyone.
We need to continue providing that individualised journey for each of you, as a pupil at the BSN. That’s what I’m absolutely determined to do.
If you ask me in a year, I might be able to be a bit more precise about what that looks like. At the moment, lots and lots of listening, lots of talking, lots of consultation, lots of consideration, lots of looking at different data, and that kind of thing.
Johanna: What do you think makes BSN special, and what made you apply for this role?
Louise: I came here for the first time ten years ago, when the BSN was having an inspection in 2015, and I was part of the inspection team. I was based in this building with a large team of 20 inspectors from around the world. I remember being so impressed and thinking, ‘Wow, what a great place’.
When I got a phone call and someone said, ‘Would you like to be considered for this job?’, well, there aren’t many places that could take me away from Devon, but The Hague is an interesting place to be, and the BSN is a special school, so here I am.
Chiara: What motivated you to become an educational leader?
Louise: The first time I took on a leadership role in education, I’d only been teaching for about three years, or so. The Head of Department was a lovely man whom I adored, and unfortunately, he had a heart attack. My bosses asked me to step in as we were only a few weeks from a school inspection. I wasn’t sure I could do it, but I decided to give it a go.
We went through the inspection, and it was all very positive. I learned lots. I made lots of mistakes. I worked very hard, and then when Dr Burns recovered and returned to the school, I handed the position back.
I realised that I quite enjoyed making decisions, helping people, supporting them, and developing them. I moved, got a new job, and ran my own department, which led to me being a Deputy Head, and then to becoming a Head. I’ve worked with many different leaders since then, some inspiring, some less so—but each has taught me something. I think that’s quite useful as well.
Shuyan: What are your hobbies?
Louise: My two dogs, Bertie (a four-year-old, bouncy, and crazy cocker spaniel) and Betsy (a nine-year-old, begrudging, short beagle), take up a lot of my time. I love walking my dogs and rowing. My daughter rows, so we have a rowboat, and I may bring that with me when I move here. With my husband and daughter, we enjoy going to the cinema, eating out, and that kind of thing.
Blau: We know that you’ve visited all of our BSN campuses. What is your first impression of them?
Louise: I think you have great facilities. They’re all well-maintained and full of young people doing amazing things with their friends, which is what should happen in school. There’s a lot of energy, and it’s been very positive to see.
Schools are not about their buildings at all. It’s about how it makes you feel, what happens there, and what those relationships are, as well as what’s going on in that space. It comes back to what we were saying about relationships. Relationships are very, very important in education.
Max: If you could change, take away, or make one school rule, what would it be?
Louise: I think it would be that everyone needs to smile more. Because when you smile, other people smile back at you, don’t they?
And when you smile, you feel more positive. When you feel more positive, you get more done, you feel more energetic and more optimistic. You feel more, well, more everything, actually. So that’s what I would say. Smile more.
