In the 1950s, the American philosopher J.L. Austin introduced the concept of performative utterances to describe the rare situations when words produce reality. For example when the President announces that the session is open, then, almost as if by magic, the session opens. Or when you say ‘I do’ at the town hall and next Read more about Learning from Home[…]

To be frank with you, I would have much rather written to you today about something other than the fact that Andria and I are leaving TES. That said, it would have been just plain rude of me not to use the opportunity of this letter to thank you for the avalanche of kind words Read more about Our Team[…]

This letter is coming to you on a Wednesday this week, following an announcement that I made to French Section staff earlier today. I wanted to be sure that you learnt what I had to say directly from me, rather than second or third hand. Before I get into those details though, I cannot break Read more about Resignation[…]

Did you know that the French and German Sections of Taipei European School officially constitute a “Eurocampus”? It’s got nothing to do with Brexit, we’re not intentionally excluding the British from the party, it’s just that the denomination “Eurocampus” is applied uniquely to cases where French and German schools work together under the same roof. Read more about Eurocampus[…]

After a week far from school, I was happy to be back behind my desk yesterday. I’d like to thank Andria, who handled a number of sensitive issues at TES that I couldn’t take care of from a distance. Speaking of sensitive subjects, there is one that recurs regularly – the level of learning at Read more about Concerns and reassurances[…]

On Tuesday 19 November, just before 5pm, in the presence of the French Representative Office in Taipei,  Mr Gilles Almosnino, the head of the Aefe Asia-Pacific zone, and our CEO, David Gatley signed a new version of the partnership agreement between TES and the AEFE. The previous version, signed in 2011, needed to be updated Read more about Partnership[…]

Voltaire encourages us to cultivate our garden, and those of you who follow our Facebook or Instagram accounts will have seen that it is exactly what we have been doing lately; in primary and in secondary we have been planting seeds. It’s an Eco-School initiative dreamt up by our students, and assisted by the coordinating Read more about Seeds[…]

The pleasure I take in talking about our school never diminishes, whether I am defending it or presenting it to guests and visitors. I am always enthusiastic about the French Section, which is fortunate because we have a lot of guests at the moment. Over the coming days my PowerPoint skills will be put to Read more about Visitors[…]

I am sorely disappointed not to have been at the primary campus yesterday to visit the – by all accounts – magnificent FSPA Halloween Bake Sale, which delighted the little, and the not so little ones at EPC. Admittedly, I could probably have made it with a bit of schedule juggling, but I am terrified Read more about Visible and Invisible[…]

I would like to talk to you today about something that is unique to the French system of education, something that is so intrinsic to our way of teaching that we forget to mention it, the freedom of our teachers when it comes to their teaching and learning methods – their pedagogical freedom (la liberté Read more about Pedagogical Freedom[…]