DECEMBER 2024

ÉDITO

Dear Parents, 

A quick flashback in words and pictures to the last month of the year before flying off to 2025 !

In December, our CE1 and CE2 pupils went to the Louvre, and our Maternelles made bread and scented the whole school with perfume - a real treat !

December also saw the launch of a new and exceptional collaboration between the teams of Estelle Corbière, in charge of our Body Mind Centering classes, and Hélène Gheysens/Fun Tech Adventures, in charge of our coding classes. Our older pupils recreated the baroque dances immortalised by Raoul Feuillet at the request of Louis XIV, accompanied by the Lego robots they had made and programmed so that they too could dance ‘du Feuillet’ ! Brilliant ! The whole thing was captured in a short video, which you can watch as you read on. 

And then we finished off 2024 with our traditional Christmas concerts: the little ones with Stacey Pavesi Debré and Music Together, and the older children in a rock version with Paul Solas ! Many thanks to them all, to Chelsea who wrote the script and rewrote the songs, and to all the teachers for their great job !

Of course, the Union School team,
led by our Party Girl Natalie,
also celebrated the end of the year in style ! 

For our last interview of the year, it is Lauren, co-founder with Igor of the wonderful Maison Ex-Libris, who brightens our spirits. In love with Igor, who enchanted us last month by talking to us with his characteristic humour and vivacity about the trials and tribulations of being a dyslexic student, Lauren tells us that she never stopped being top of her class, and ended up with a magnificent 20/20 average in her baccalauréat ! Today, she draws the Ex-Libris and is often inspired by Igor, who shares his general knowledge. We love absolutely everything about it at Union School ! 

All that's left for me to do now is to wish you - and the whole fantastic Union School team joins me - in wishing you a wonderful year 2025 full of discoveries, enchantment and shared joy ! 

To get things off to a flying start, and since we're all going to be celebrating Epiphany and/or indulging in some galettes des Rois, I'd like to introduce you to those of Belèn, mum of the adorable Léon. Belèn is opening her first bakery today right next door to the school, at 4 rue Gustave Courbet to be exact !
Go for it ! That's what the Union School community is all about !

Barbara

NB #1 
Don't forget that we have the great good fortune to welcome Grégoire Borst,
Director of the Laboratoire de Psychologie du développement et de l'éducation de l'enfant - CNRS - who will be talking to us about neuromyths. Mark your calendars and all come ! Grégoire is always fascinating. 

NB #2

Fred, one of our exceptional assistant teacher, HEC graduate, passionate about education and theatre, will be starring in over the next few weeks, in a play called ‘Un Air de Famille’. For those amongst you who would not know, it’s a comic play about a family's evening out for dinner every Friday, except that this Friday nothing goes according to plan... We won't tell you any more.

The play will run at the Guichet Montparnasse from 10 January to 16 February, i.e. for 6 weeks, on Fridays and Saturdays at 8.30pm, and on Sundays at 4.30pm. Tickets are available here!
GO, GO, GO !!!

AS IF YOU WERE HERE

The Union School Team Christmas party

DID YOU KNOW ? 
(YOUR KIDS ALREADY KNOW !)

Did you know that you can programme a robot to dance with it ?  

Estelle Corbière, our Body-Mind Centering teacher who also teaches Laban movement writing at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, worked with our amazing coding teacher, Lysa Damon. Together they came up with a project combining artificial intelligence, physical expression, mathematics and history. 

Inspired by scores published by Raoul Feuillet, Louis XIV's dancing master, the children programmed the movement of the robots they had built. By incorporating certain spatial concepts, they were able to highlight the paths (straight lines, curves, symmetries, etc.) and then form a student/robot dance.

This was a remarkable cross-disciplinary piece of work that also involved micro visualisation and macro projection in space.

Did you know as well that
Chloé Attal (7 years old - Year 3) won the Comité de Paris tournament! 
Well done, well done Chloé ! Outstanding !

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

Cyrus in our Nursery and his twin sister joined our school speaking no English.
Cyrus was soon charmed by his new class and teachers 
and is regularly heard saying:

‘I love you, maîtresse’

And another magical moment, Zoé to her Mum: 

‘Mummy, today Ian was not there, Barbara was not there, Natalie (her English teacher) was not there ! Fortunately, Katia was there !!’

IN CLASS WITH...

Little bakers in action !

After a special visit from renowned chef Alain Ducasse, our Petite Section students embarked on a delightful bread-making journey. Bread, a staple food across so many cultures, holds a special place in Ellen’s heart. A passionate baker herself, she often says the softest bread is made by young hands, as children never tire of kneading !

Our budding bakers mixed warm water with yeast and sugar, marvelling at the bubbles forming on the surface. They observed the dough rise, discovering how air bubbles create the bread's fluffy texture. When their golden rolls emerged from the oven, the children’s joy was contagious—clapping, cheering, and savouring their handmade creations.

This hands-on activity not only brought smiles but also taught our students about science, patience, and the joy of making something from scratch.
Bravo to our Petite Section bakers !

WHEN I WAS A STUDENT...

In December, we were extremely lucky to welcome Lauren and Igor, founders of Ex-Libris. This time Lauren answers our questions. 

Tell us about your school in a few words ?

Mon école primaire avait une particularité: c’était une école Montessori. Au lieu de devoirs, nous avions des potagers, des ateliers, des jeux et surtout de l’autonomie. C’était une vieille école Montessori hollandaise, fondée en 1922, dont les couloirs avaient une odeur si reconnaissable mais si étrange (un mélange de vomi et de lino vieilli…). Le Montessori a ses traditions, ses bizarreries, ses coutumes et même ses chansons. Chaque midi avant de déjeuner (à base de tartines ramollies de pain de mie dans des petits tupperwares colorés) nous chantions la même chanson, des paroles traitant de nourriture sur la mélodie de Frères Jacques. Certains après-midis, nous pouvions choisir comme activité, au même titre que faire de la broderie ou d’écrire des histoires, de ‘nettoyer des cuivres et des bronzes’. L’odeur du Brasso, liquide de nettoyage de métaux, me rappelle donc de joyeux souvenirs d’enfance. Tout cela me paraissait à l’époque tout à fait normal.

Were you a happy student and why ?

Pour ma part, et complètement aux antipodes d’Igor, la salle de classe était mon royaume. J’étais la plus heureuse des élèves. J’étais ce qu’on appelle ‘le chouchou’ des professeurs. J’étais très bonne à l’école et recevais beaucoup de compliments de la part de mes professeurs. Le seul moment où j’ai commencé à être une élève malheureuse était lorsque j’ai dû commencer des cours de natation. C’était un domaine dans lequel je ne recevais pas les compliments des professeurs. J’en garde encore des souvenirs désagréables.

Heureusement les cours de natation ont cessé et les compliments ont repris. Jusqu’au bac - que j'obtiens avec 20/20 de moyenne. Mon professeur de mathématiques baptisa ensuite sa salle de classe à mon nom. Difficile de ne pas prendre la grosse tête !

Was there a teacher who made an impression on you and why ?

Mon professeur de piano, Martin Turner, un pianiste anglais retraité, s’était rapidement rendu compte que la pratique quotidienne n’était pas mon fort. Son désespoir de me revoir chaque mercredi, devinant à mon visage et mon jeu hésitant, que je n’avais encore une fois pas rouvert le piano depuis que je l’avais refermé le mercredi d’avant, l’a poussé à trouver des stratégies pour me faire pratiquer. Un mercredi, il est venu avec un beau carnet neuf. Ce carnet devait devenir mon “practice book”. Je devais y tenir un compte-rendu quotidien des pièces pratiquées, des gammes exercées, et tracer ainsi ma progression. Les semaines suivantes, il me félicita de ma diligence en lisant mes comptes-rendus de pratique extrêmement détaillés. Le carnet se remplissait au fur et à mesure. Little did he know — que chaque mercredi après-midi une vingtaine de minutes avant sa venue, je noircissais le plus de pages possibles de réflexions colorées et approfondies sur ma prétendue pratique quotidienne. Mon talent au piano, lui, restait inexistant. Bizarre…

Mes parents n’avaient pas besoin d’autres signes pour savoir que mon élément était véritablement la plume, et non le piano !

A particular school memory ? An anecdote ?

Quand j’ai quitté les Pays-Bas pour m’installer en France avec mes parents, je devais me rendre à un arrêt de bus tous les matins en vélo pour aller à l’école. Je mettais mon réveil systématiquement 1 heure plus tôt, afin de pouvoir m’arrêter en vélo dans un champ à mi-chemin, m’y allonger, et lire.

A recommendation for an outing, workshop or activity for young and old ?

Allez donc jeter un œil à l’exposition Christofle au Musée des Arts décoratifs ! Non seulement vous serez éblouis, mais si vous avez fait comme moi une école Montessori, cela vous renverra à vos souvenirs de polissage…