At just before midnight I went to pick N° 1 sprog up from school. She had just returned in a coach from Frankfurt where she and her triumphant school team mates had won the biennial three-day Eurosport competition among teams from all of the European schools, from Culham to Alicante, from Varese to Karlsruhe. The teams competed in badminton, basketball, handball and the biathlon (swimming and tennis). As I drove her back home. It was as though I was sitting beside a warm stove but instead of heat she was radiating a sense of happiness derived not from any individual performance but from the team’s efforts and the team’s achievements. All right, this is a proud parent moment but, not for the first time, I also find myself thinking that when the European Schools are good they are very, very good. As the tired but ecstatic teachers and pupils tumbled out of the coach it was immediately obvious that this was an experience none of them would ever forget.