8 June 2018

Dear Parents,

Week 12 closed in a flurry of Field Trips for Duke of Edinburgh Medallists, Keys Winners in the Middle School and the Winning House in the Junior School. And our taster for the World Cup: on Wednesday the Staff vs. Students Football Match was won by the Staff (just!) 4-3.

Our final Cambridge IGCSE Exam was on Thursday; Mongolian State Exams have been safely negotiated and End of Year Reports and Grades issued to Parents of all ESM Students.

The celebrated Mongolian Film Actress Suvd Namsrai spoke, most graciously, to a packed audience and then presented some awards at ESM’s 7^th Prizegiving and Graduation Ceremony. It was another memorable ESM occasion with a review of many different aspects of the school: from the wide and distinguished listing of International Universities our graduates are entering, to the enviable Sports Results across the Board where our teams have so often demonstrated our dominance over opposition UB International Schools. The Artistic heart of ESM was showcased in a range of dance and declamation. Our 70 Graduates were sent on their way to a rousing 3 Cheers from the Assembly.

The Shakespeare Festival brought together a series of highly pleasurable playlets, including an outstanding extract from The Tempest, performed by the Middle School, with the Tennis Courts taking up the role of the Globe Outdoors Theatre. There were games and frolics, To Be Or Not To Be in many languages, a quiz, dancing around the Maypole Tree and more, before the Bard himself appeared, looking very chipper at his age of 454.

Two days earlier, the Summer Concert at the National Amusement Park was another Spectacular, brimful of talent with Flashmob and the UB Brass,some great singing by the Choir and reprises of the Year’s Musical Theatre.

Then this Monday saw a wonderful Junior School Break-Up Assembly, including the launch (most successfully) of the School Orchestra with Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.

For some days in the last month, we have been like Shakespeare’s Lackey,who from the morn to set sweats in the eye of Phoebus. It has been hot. Now the Term and the Year has ended, with much to be grateful for and happy about in ESM: a place that is really transitioning itself into an exceptional school.

Gillie and I send very best wishes for Naadam and the Summer to all of our students, staff and parents. We rejoin the ESM Colours for the Opening Ceremony on 16 August.

Kind Regards,

Graham Hill

Director

The English School of Mongolia