News & Weekly Letters

I learn something new every day—from colleagues, from students, and from families. It’s something that makes me happy and makes my job a fascinating one. I feel incredibly lucky. Sometimes, I learn about something I had no idea existed, often I learn things I should probably have known, other times I “learn” something I used to know and had forgotten. For instance, seeing as it’s my tenth time planning a new school year, you might think that I could do it in my sleep—after all, isn’t it just the same process year in and year out?

We build bridges in France. And I’m not talking about the structures that allow us to cross from one side of a river to another—although we do of course have plenty of those, some of which are pretty famous, like the one in Avignon where we dance in circles (and cannot actually cross!). The bridges I’m talking about are symbolic ones that allow us to connect a public holiday to a weekend. If, for instance, the holiday falls on a Thursday, we build a bridge by taking the Friday off work.

This week was chockfull of meetings and I would like to thank you all, on behalf of The École team, for taking the time to attend. It’s the first time since I arrived in New York that we’ve been able to hold these meetings in person and the teachers were very enthusiastic about sharing their approaches and methods of work with the class parents. Since the start of the year, we’ve been surrounded by children who apply themselves to their learning, are serious and engaged in class conversations, and are happy to be in class with their friends. I was excited for the parents to meet the teachers, particularly the new ones, so you could see who is behind it all.

More than the first day of school, it’s the annual Back-to-School picnic that truly heralds the start of a new school year; it was a real pleasure to see so many of you on Randall’s Island last Saturday. I’d like to thank and congratulate Bolek for the seamless organization (I don’t know how he does it, imagine coordinating an event for 800 people during the first week of school!)

It dawned on me on Tuesday—right in the middle of my back-to-school speech to the middle schoolers—that this year is my 10th school year as a head. It might seem like a lot; you’d imagine I would have tired of it by now, but I have the perfect antidote: I work at The École where inertia is impossible—the rhythm of the school year is too frantic to allow for it!