News & Weekly Letters

I mentioned to you a while ago that one of the challenges The École faces is preserving our identity despite an everchanging demographic–there is a constant flow of families that join us and families that leave. Last year, those arrivals and departures were coupled with my wish–as a newcomer myself–to bring a fresh perspective to the school.

As I was putting on my Clark Kent/ Superman costume this morning, I remembered how, when I was younger, I took issue with traditions. I couldn’t stand the rhythm they seemed to impose on my life and I shirked them whenever I could. Then time passed and through education, I discovered a universe where traditions are in fact important milestones in children’s learning. My grudge against them softened.

I had the good fortune to sample some delicious hot chocolate and scrumptious freshly baked madeleines during Noémie Tessier’s visit yesterday. Noémie, Executive Pastry Chef at Angelina Paris, New York came to meet our 7th and 8th graders as part of the World of Work (WoW) program, masterfully coordinated for eight years now by Franck Le Martelot with the assistance of Gayle Hampton.

As the first part of the school year draws to a close, it’s time to take stock of how things are going so far. With that in mind, I set time aside this week and last to meet individually with colleagues that are new to the school this year. First impressions are always invaluable and provide us with a fresh perspective on our identity and our way of doing things. In the same ‘taking stock’ mindset, we also sent a questionnaire to parents of newly enrolled students at The École– I will undoubtedly discuss those responses with you in a future letter.

Transparency has been a hot topic this week. Primarily due to news of a positive COVID-19 test–a result that turned out, as we now know, to be a false positive, with the subsequent tests being negative (the flipping of values that makes a negative result a good thing and a positive test a nightmare continues to perturb me).