News & Weekly Letters

Last night, with a nod to Proust, I went to bed early. It’s been an intense week, as you know, marked by the visit of Mr. Olivier Quénis and Mr. Ludovic Sauvage as part of The École’s French Ministry of Education accreditation review. Since the start of the year, Sophie and I have worked hard on the administrative side of things, which allowed the inspectors to have a clear idea of how the school operates (an operation that is a bit out-of-the-ordinary when viewed from France: a private, independent, bilingual school, with benefactors rather than a board of governors…that hosts parties for 350 people in a ping pong club!)*

After the myriad of fictional characters roaming the corridors this week for Spirit Week, next week will be marked by the arrival of two very real visitors! As I announced here, we’ll be welcoming the inspectors from the Agency for French Education Abroad (AEFE) as part of The École’s accreditation renewal process. Over the course of two days, Mr. Quénis, the inspector for Primary, and Mr. Sauvage, the inspector for Middle School, will take a 360-degree look at our school to grasp its nuances and understand how it works as fully as possible. Every school has its own background and context; there is no such thing as a single universal model.

I’m writing this letter from the airport in Toronto, where I flew on Wednesday to attend a conference with 30 colleagues from other schools like ours that blend two curricula. I also had the pleasure of visiting my friend, Norman Gaudet’s school, Toronto French School, which is renowned as a model for small schools with limited resources.

I never tire of remarking on (and loving) the number of fascinating events that take place at The École. It makes things difficult when I have to travel somewhere for a few days (like Orlando, where I am writing to you from today) because it means I’ll miss something. Occasionally, I decide to turn down prestigious invitations so I can stay at school and keep my FOMO at bay.

It’s time for the first round of parent-teacher conferences, so even though I feel like I’ve barely blinked since back-to-school, enough time has actually passed for our teachers to share some initial feedback about your children. These meetings are an important benchmark in a school’s life, one that justifies the shift from the usual school schedule. This year, there’s an additional feature: a new one-day Elementary camp on Monday, organized at the request of TÉPA and made possible by our new facilities.