Thank you from the Staff to all of you, our beautiful parent community!
May 23, 2023
Dear Families,
It is hard to believe that there are less than four weeks of school left, and less than three weeks until our eighth graders graduate. There is a fullness of feeling during this time as each of us, students and teachers alike, look for ways to finish well. We might find ourselves worried about not getting it all done. And yet, we will get enough done. We are all certainly looking forward to the adventure that summer brings. And our graduates to the adventure that high school brings. At our prayer assembly on Monday, the 2nd graders shared with us vivid descriptions of where they found joy in the world. It was a moment to see through their eyes beauty in the world and remember our blessings.
I had a chance to talk with our fourth graders last week about some things I had been thinking about. Things that help create a sense of well-being in our community. My niece always spoke of the restorative power of hydration and communication. And I agree, they go a long way in our work to problem solve our conflicts. I also told them that I find inspiration in our mission to embrace Gospel values and perhaps the most important quality we can foster is to be compassionate in all we do. It is never about what someone else should do but what each of us can do to craft our best selves and make our world a better place.
Last week brought so much kindness on the part of students and parents toward all of the staff as the week unfolded with coffee and flowers and treats and thank you notes. Thanks to all of you from the bottom of our hearts. And thank you for the wonderful Staff Appreciation Lunch on Thursday–so much wonderful nourishment!
A huge thank you shout out to Sam Stack for organizing and spearheading our upper school drama extracurricular program. She and I met yesterday and talked about this being the first full production for our upper school in four years! And the students did a fantastic job performing Seussical for the whole community. The theater arts are alive and well at St. Anne.
We are busy working on several initiatives that you will hear about over the next couple of weeks. I wanted to reassure you that the work we are doing in a number of areas will be communicated to you soon. Ongoing work is being done in the following areas:
- Learning to Learn Fund It Initiative for 2023-24: I have been meeting regularly with Barb Peterson of Sound Academic Coaching as she crafts a program of learning on Executive Function for our parent, student and staff community. She has created a target topic of the month for us to coordinate our work around. Look forward to a monthly parent boot camp where you can learn how to support students in their growth and learning!
- One to one laptop program for 5th-8th graders for 2023-24: A detailed description of our program is being finalized and will be shared with the community soon. Work to craft a robust, workable and effective 1:1 program has been in the works for over a year. During this last month we have been setting up our Schoology platform which will serve as a single learning management platform for students and teachers.
- End of Year Survey: We are currently crafting our end of year survey to give us feedback on our programs. We will use data from this to help strengthen our school.
- 100th Anniversary Celebration–1923-2023: We are getting ready to launch our 100th Anniversary celebratory year. Mary Sherman has been chairing a planning committee to organize fun events and activities. We had a special logo designed to use throughout this celebratory year! And we have started scheduling some fun community events throughout the year. Stay tuned for details!
- PreK Licensing Process: We continue to meet and move forward with the full day program licensing requirements. The architect and contractor met with us today and we are scheduling summer work required for our licensing. We will keep the entire community updated on progress.
Upcoming Dates:
- Thursday, May 25, 4pm: Night of the Notables!
- Friday, May 26: All School Free Dress
- Thursday, June 1: Learning Celebration (No school this day–but every student will have a scheduled time to come in and share with their parents some of their great successes throughout the year.)
- Friday, June 2: Field Day
Stay Well,
Heidi