The French Section is proud to be opening a Cinema and Audiovisual studies option for our secondary students. Our aim is not to watch big-budget Hollywood productions together – kids can access that kind of cinema easily enough by themselves. What we are proposing, through the study of lesser-known though not exactly obscure films, is Read more about Moviedoers[…]

Taiwan has announced plans to make English its official second language and to thereby become a bilingual country. Although it is not yet clear how exactly such an ambitious project will be carried out – there are a number of hurdles to overcome first – the aim is nonetheless clear: to create an environment where Read more about Taiwanglish?[…]

Bis repetita placent. That which pleases is twice repeated. It is the case with Latin, which we are pleased to reintroduce as an option in middle school after a year long hiatus. Historically speaking, Latin has occupied an important position in the French education system. Just like maths, it was long considered a highly selective Read more about Latin is back[…]

The streets of Taipei were animated last weekend, as households all over the city welcomed their deceased relatives back for Ghost Month. I hope all of our Taiwanese community enjoy the festivities that the month will bring. The food and joss money offerings to the visiting ghosts of relatives are a sign of the respectfulness Read more about Learning spaces[…]

My colleague Mr Rey gives me a bit of a hard time for rarely mentioning mathematics in my Friday letters. I have a confession to make: as a student, I was a disciple of Flaubert’s in his belief that maths harden the heart. However, it is Mr Rey who is right: we need to talk Read more about Maths in France[…]

I closed my last letter of 2017-2018 referring to Heraclitus, who said that no man steps in the same river twice; everything changes from one time to the next – the water, its banks and those who bathe in it. It’s a pertinent metaphor when it comes to our school; everything feels familiar about this Read more about Back to school[…]

Every year the month of June brings with it a mix of celebration and anxiety. Watching Wednesday’s end-of-year primary show, it was hard to imagine that the children on the stage – dressed up and radiant – are the same ones we will meet in a few years as young adults preparing to face exams. Read more about From showtime to exams[…]

The hottest topic in French education news at the moment is Parscoursup, the new platform for managing university applications. In short, students select the schools or universities they would like to attend and, if their academic performance is up to scratch, they receive offers from the institutions they have chosen. Obviously, it doesn’t always work Read more about Parcoursup[…]

The end of the year is fast approaching and another school year has flown by. Last August, I wrote that the year ahead held numerous challenges for us and that we shouldn’t allow ourselves become complacent. A school that doesn’t move forward, that fails to call its practices into question, that always falls back on Read more about Innovations[…]

This weekend we are hosting the third edition of the Nuit du c0de (c0ding night). The event was dreamt up in 2015, not only as a fascinating pedagogical project, but also as a platform for us to show the world what a dynamic, ambitious school the French Section is; a means for us to make Read more about Nuit du c0de – 3rd edition[…]