News & Weekly Letters

It’s my favorite season. The trees and streets of the West Village are covered in multicolored leaves, the stoops are lined with pumpkins, it’s chilly out, and the sky is blue as an orange, as Éluard would describe it. It’s the time of year for dressing up–for anyone who was wondering, last night I was channeling Bob Harris in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation. Last year, I wrote about the importance of play at school, and I was delighted to see the playfulness of our parents on display at the Halloween for Grown-Ups event–starting with Philippe and Laurence, who were magnificent as Mary Poppins and Bert the chimney sweep.

The World of Work is back for its eleventh season at The École in 2024-2025! We are delighted to welcome a variety of industry experts to meet our 8th Grade students in their classroom and share their professional experience, values, background, and knowledge with them.

I almost didn’t write to you this week as I was giving serious consideration to a radical career change following my debut last week as an Instagram starlet. Andria managed to make me see reason and talked me out of it. So I’m picking up my pen again this week on the eve of the October break to write a letter in praise of the girls of The École who have made their presence well and truly felt since the start of the school year.

As announced at the end of the last academic year, we will relocate The École Elementary and Middle School to the building next door. After hashing out the plans and with many not-always-fascinating minutiae involved, we now intend to write to you every second week to keep you up to speed as best as possible.

One of the advantages of growing up in a small town was definitely being able to leave school alone from a young age and bike home (picking up a baguette for goûter on the way). No need to sign a nanny up on Focus or to call a friend panic-stricken because you’re caught in an interminable meeting or your train is stuck in a tunnel. No need for an air tag to track your child and make sure they’re moving in the right direction.