You may not believe me—after all it is April Fool’s day—but often around 12:30, a little fairy knocks on my door. She brings me a little cookie that she very skillfully baked herself. She often comes to see me with one of her friends. We talk a bit. About our plans for the break, what they’re learning about in class… The little fairy’s cookies are usually chocolate. Often, they are colorfully topped, with pink or blue usually. The other day, there was even some banana on top. That little fairy is named Paula. She is in 4th Grade, and her baking is already heavenly.

Behind every fairy, if we pay close attention, there are always others hiding. At The École, we are lucky: we have a lot of fairies. There is one who greets all of the children in the morning. She knows all of their names, all of the families. She arrived at school early in the morning; she’s often the first one here. She is always smiling, always has a nice word to say, always has a kind thought for everyone. She passes out the lunches, looks after the library, takes charge of a group of students, ensures that the saliva tests are distributed. Then, she says goodbye to everyone, always in the same good mood, and heads home, often the last to leave. That fairy, I know that some of you will have recognized her, is named Fawzia. And we are so lucky to have her amongst us.

Then, there is the fairy who organizes, makes phone calls, reorganizes, makes more phone calls, places an order, substitutes for a teacher who has an emergency, turns around, subs for an SLA who had to do something elsewhere, answers 10 messages. In short, she multiplies herself and is already on the 4th floor even though you just passed her on the Lower Level. She speaks every language on earth or nearly every one. That fairy is named Sirine. And like all good fairies, she does all of this with grace and wit. She does it in a way that may make you think that all of this work was done with the simple wave of a magic wand. But we would obviously be very wrong in thinking that.

So there it is, April Fool’s day or not, you can believe me: a school is made up of people like this, of little girls and others who aren’t so little anymore. They can brighten your day with a simple gesture or word or through their work. A huge thanks goes out to them, as well as all of the others, whom, due to lack of space, I am not able to mention today.

During the break, the administrative team and I are going to take advantage of a bit of calm in the buildings to take stock of various projects with which we are tasked. These include sorting out the timetables for next year, deciding who is going to teach which class, the construction projects that will be going on this summer, etc. I will soon be able to invite you to some information sessions that will take place in mid-May. During those meetings, we will talk about the start of the next school year. And we will discuss the new developments for 2021-2022.

For the second week of the vacation, The École will be closed so that everyone can take a well-deserved break. So, I will see you, some of you in any case, on Saturday, April 17th when you come to drop off the saliva tests that were distributed this week. And I am already looking forward to seeing you again on April 19th. Hopefully COVID will leave us in peace and allow us to have a calm return to school. Meanwhile, I hope that our families will really make the most of these two weeks off. And I hope that our teachers will be able to recharge their batteries. Be safe and enjoy yourselves.

In the meantime, around 12:30, I will be listening carefully to see if I hear, by chance, a little knock on my door.