“AN ADVENTURE” awaits Dunbar Grammar School’s headteacher, who will next year swap one side of the world for the other.

Claire Slowther will leave the secondary school at the beginning of the summer holidays and jet out to Vietnam, where she will become head of the secondary school at the British Vietnamese International School (BVIS) in Hanoi.

The move – some 6,000 miles – presents a new chapter for Mrs Slowther, who has been at the county secondary school since January 2013.

She said: “My husband Craig and I love travelling.

“I have got a world map in my office and we love South East Asia.

“I have lived in my hometown of Bonnyrigg my whole life.

“Even when I went to university, I stayed at home and I have lived within a mile of my childhood home.

“Spreading my wings and moving abroad, the experience of living and working abroad, is something I have wanted to do for a long time.”

'A place we could see ourselves living'

Mrs Slowther and her husband, who works as a postman, visited Vietnam in 2017 and travelled from the north to the south of the country.

The headteacher, who previously worked as head of science and taught biology at Haddington’s Knox Academy and was depute headteacher at Tranent’s Ross High School, described her Vietnamese as “rudimentary”.

About 90 per cent of the pupils at the school are Vietnamese but there is a British curriculum, including GCSE and A Levels.

She said: “We went to visit lots of different places and we really did love Hanoi when there.

“It has got a real Vietnamese feel to it – it is not Westernised.

“We felt it was a place we could see ourselves living.”

The recruitment process saw Mrs Slowther interviewed virtually before last month visiting the country, which is home to more than 97 million people, for a face-to-face interview.

And the news was made official to staff, pupils, parents and carers at Dunbar Grammar at the end of last week when a letter was sent out.

'An adventure'

Mrs Slowther described her time at the school, including six years as headteacher, as “phenomenal” and said that it had been “both a pleasure and a privilege”.

The 42-year-old, who has visited more than 40 countries across the globe, said: “It has made it a real thing because people know.

“There is no going back now – we are really doing this and packing our life into suitcases and moving.

“People have been really supportive.

“Students, staff, parents and carers have been in touch and they recognise it is an adventure.

“It is not leaving to go to another job – it is an adventure.”

The departing headteacher described leaving Dunbar Grammar School as “extremely difficult” but was also keen to help in the process of finding her successor.

The recruitment process is expected to get under way in the New Year and Mrs Slowther was happy that there was a period of handover before she departed.