Last night, I finished up my informal gatherings with our families. The last one happened to be with a very merry group of 7th and 8th Grade parents. I would like to extend a hearty thank you to all those who took the time to join and share their experience as a parent at The École with myself and Philippe. And thank you and hats off to Philippe, who joined me for each gathering! In addition to being a pleasant way to spend an evening, the gatherings were also very insightful.
The feedback we received about The École is extremely positive. Moreover, each of our meetings, without fail, started with glowing thanks to the entire team for having been able to open the school and for giving all of our students the opportunity to come to school every day. Parents also consistently highlighted the quality of our teaching staff as well as their commitment. That doesn’t surprise me in the least when I see the projects that our school is completing even despite the constraints that we are facing.
Ambitious Projects
I am surely going to forget to mention some projects, but we actually have no time to be bored thanks to the creativity of our teachers. From Dara Herschenfeld’s wonderful work on the election process with the 2nd graders—the results of which, we must mention, were published the same day, with Oreos voted as best cookie—to the Middle School outings to view street art that Mme Bendinelli proposed, with the support of her colleagues. From recycling in the Maternelle building, coordinated by Virginie Martin, to the Kindergarteners’ Friday market. And from the Halloween festivities this past Monday thanks to the help of our PA to the 3rd graders’ world tour and their splendid posters that are brightening up our hallways.
An Inspiring Endeavor
Today, I wanted to take advantage of this letter to highlight a new initiative. The 5th Grade students and their teaching duo: Christelle Beaujon and Evelyn Cordisco are behind this project. As part of their work on children’s education rights, the students are actually organizing a school supply drive. This drive will benefit a school in Brooklyn. For this, they have prepared posters and decorated boxes to gather the donations. This drive will take place in both buildings. I could describe the project in more detail, but it is better to hear the students talk about it themselves. You can listen to them explain the project here and learn what supplies are needed. Please note that we are only accepting new, unopened supplies.
On my side, I would simply like to congratulate our students and teachers on this initiative. It is all about commitment, generosity and selflessness. The mission of The École is to encourage our students to become enlightened, open and agile citizens. It’s one thing to say that we want to do this. It’s a completely different thing to find concrete ways to actually succeed in doing it. At The École, I am very happy to see our staff putting projects into place that are inspiring, ambitious, rich and open to the world. These projects endeavor to fulfill the values that we are advocating and the goals that we have set for ourselves. I can only encourage our teachers to continue along this path and to ask our families to answer the call of our 5th graders. They are counting on us.