News & Weekly Letters

On Monday, I welled up in the middle of my speech during the Kindergarten graduation; I was overcome by emotion at the sight of the children that I had first met three years ago when they were in Nursery – they were masked up, and we were all keeping a social distance of one meter. I would have loved for you to have been at the Maternelle Building on Monday and to have seen how wonderful they were on stage.

2022-2023 has been a special year for high school placements at The École for two reasons: first, our 8th Grade class is the largest graduating class we have ever had, and second, it marks the start of our partnership with Léman Manhattan. This partnership was created to provide our students with an almost automatic enrolment pathway – with no tests and less stress! – to one of the most prominent international schools in New York City, whose students are accepted into top-tier universities every year.

More than 10 years ago, I was living a relatively carefree life in Shanghai. During the hot, humid months of fall, I filled my lungs with the scent of street food wafting from the carts dotted around the old town. Andria sat behind me on my knockoff electric Vespa, and we zipped, helmet-free, around the Former French Concession, pinching ourselves at our good luck and relishing our adventurous lives.

This evening an annual tradition is taking place–we are hosting a reception to welcome the parents who will be joining our community in September. Our Director of Admissions Mireille Desalm and I are looking forward to seeing them again–we already met every new child and parent as part of the admissions process–and to giving them a taster of our legendary social gatherings on the rooftop of the Maternelle Building.

Every school tells its own story. We all talk about it – kids, parents, colleagues, and even people who have a limited view from the outside. All of these narratives combine to form the story of The École. I hear that story just as often as I contribute to writing it, and I add to it just as much as it informs my decisions.