The weeks leading up to the end of the school year are packed with celebrations that we love. Ahead of the graduations, shows, and tonight’s traditional Splash of Summer party, we enjoyed two evenings of After-School recitals this week. Students from 1st to 8th Grade, who take individual music lessons as part of our After-School program, took to the stage to play a piece they had learned and put their heart and soul into.
These are unique moments that often speak volumes about a school’s culture. In Taiwan, it would have been unthinkable to let a child perform in public unless everything was absolutely perfect—the way mistakes are perceived depends a lot on cultural context. They can be seen as a sign that you haven’t practiced enough, or, as is The École’s case, as proof of courage, motivation, and passion. When you work in a school, it’s easy to be blinded by the results and lose sight of the work it takes to get there.
I remember a similar event at the Lycée français in Shanghai, where an 8th grader sat at the piano and began playing the opening notes of “Comptine d’un autre été” from the movie Amélie. He was visibly nervous and seemed glued to his sheet music until, suddenly, it fell to the floor, leaving him without a safety net. The murmuring from the audience was quickly drowned out by the music that he continued to play to perfection. When you work in a school, it’s easy to forget that when we give our students the autonomy they deserve, they often exceed our expectations.
Over the past two evenings at The École, I saw students confident in their choices, proud to share their talents with their parents and friends in front of their teachers. I also saw some extremely touching moments—things you couldn’t make up if you tried—like Clara joining Mina on stage, giving her the courage to perform, which she did beautifully, encouraged by her friend and everyone in the room. When you work in a school, it’s easy to make eloquent speeches about values, but nothing comes close to seeing those values brought to life before your eyes by two first graders.
I also saw the teary eyes of our 8th graders as they took part in their last ever recital at The École—Louise, who started with us in Kindergarten and will be heading to Grace Church; Ella, who joined The École in Pre-K and will be starting in Trinity next year; and Alex who closed the show, emotional but happy, focused and proud. Alex has been with us since 2014-2015 when he was in Nursery with a certain Julien Budrino as his teacher—Julien, who later taught him how to play the drums in after-school. Alex will join Léman in September. When you work in a school, it’s easy to underestimate how much these connections and years spent together mean for our students.
These touching moments I saw—I know we owe them to the entire community. And as the African proverb goes, it takes a village to raise a child. When you work in a school, when you lead one, you know that nothing would be possible without the exceptional team you have the incredible good fortune to work with. Every year—and such is life—our team changes a little, and this year is no different; these end-of-year moments are bittersweet, but our ambition remains the same: to build the most beautiful village and the most beautiful school.
You can find the list of leaving and arriving staff as it stands today here. We will continue to update it regularly over the summer.