March 21, 2020
Welcome to this edition of The Westminster Weekly, where you will learn about what's been happening recently at Westminster School! We welcome story suggestions from parents, students, teachers, and alumni. Please email your news to  Mrs. Nancy Schuler .
Mark Your Calendar!
Upcoming Events

March 16-April 6
SCHOOL CLOSED

March 16-20
"Snow Days" & Prep for Distance Learning

March 23-27
Distance Learning

March 28-April 6
Spring Break

April 7
Planned Re-Opening of School
(will be re-evaluated as needed)

School News
"Just So Stories" Cross-Curricular Projects
The 5th graders recently finished reading Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories in Miss Foster's English class. Rudyard Kipling is known for his whimsical and entertaining tales. His stories were written to explain the origins of natural phenomena in a way that combines nonsense and absurdity with irony and wisdom. For this project, the students wrote their own version of a "Just So" Story. After going through the steps of the writing process, they published their final drafts in technology class. The students also learned about M. C. Escher and his tessellations in math and art class and applied this knowledge to creating their own tessellations, which represented the animal featured in their story. The result of this cross-curricular effort is truly meaningful and impressive! Thank you to Mrs. Ellmyer, Miss Foster, Mr. Le Moigne and Mrs. Ahn for cooperating on this project-based learning effort.
6th Grade Celebrates Medieval Day
On Friday, March 13, (the last day of school before closing) the 6th-graders celebrated Medieval Day. The sixth graders arrived in amazing costumes for a full day of medieval fun. The festivities began with a team competition solving medieval style puzzles, such as pictograms and number games. Then Norse visitors arrived on Westminster’s shores, hailing from The Longship Company in Accokeek, Maryland. The students learned about and examined their Viking faering boat, the Gyrfalcon , which was on display on Westminster’s front driveway, followed by a presentation of authentic Viking clothing, weaponry, and reproduction artifacts of Norse daily life. Next, the sixth graders headed out to Westminster’s field for a series of games that children of the Middle Ages would have played, including hopscotch, knucklebones, quoits, and hoop and stick races, building up an appetite for the fabulous feast provided by their devoted parents. The day wrapped up with an amazing workshop from the London Brass Rubbing Company, whose presenters taught the students about medieval culture and showed them the proper technique for brass rubbing, which the sixth graders then practiced by making their own artwork to take home at the end of the day. While having a fantastic time, the students were immersed in a medieval experience which brought their classroom studies to life.
6th Graders' Dream Ch â teaux
Mme Bowen's 6th-grade French students wrote about their dream homes in some of France's most famous ch â teaux. In these creative projects, the students drew a floor plan of their home and labeled all of the rooms in French. Most impressive were their essays, written completely in French. They added pictures, maps, and other details to complete the final product. Bien joué !
Westminster Prepares for Distance Learning
The closure of schools across the state of Virginia due to COVID-19 has challenged educators to become creative with delivering a quality academic program to students. Westminster School has developed a distance-learning plan that is already showing promise. While nothing can take the place of being together as a community in our beautiful school, our staff is determined to do the best we can to come close to that.

Westminster will implement many tools to keep the students engaged in learning through Google Classroom and live classes on Zoom. The Westminster staff met on Thursday through Zoom and yesterday, each grade met to practice the Zoom platform. The trial runs went quite well and we are ready to move forward on Monday with our plan. Understanding that this endeavor will be marathon and not a sprint, parents, teachers and students will see what works and doesn't work and adjust accordingly. We are so proud of our staff for their positive attitudes, determination, and creativity and grateful to our parents for willingly forging ahead. We can do this!
Alumni News
Former Student's Entrepreneurial Success
We recently caught up with Christopher Capbert , who attended Westminster School through the 7th grade, a member of the class of 1994 . Chris has visited Westminster many times over the years, and even though he is not a graduate, he constantly tells us how much his Westminster experience impacted the person that he is today.

What have you been doing since Westminster?

After completing 7 th grade at Westminster, I attended Holy Trinity School in DC, and returned to Fairfax for my high school to PVI, where I made lifelong friends, before attending University of Western Ontario, London where I earned a degree in finance, for my undergraduate university studies. After college, I moved to the DC area and worked for SAIC in my field of finance. From those days, I think the curiosity to be a business owner and entrepreneur had begun coming to life within me. During the time, I was dating my girlfriend, who is now my wife, and observing the challenges of being in a high-heel shoe all day and evening, the idea of flexible, soft and easy to carry shoes was born in our minds and it became the origin of what is now our company, Cinderollies . We were featured on the "Today Show" In 2015. Three years ago, in 2017 we went all in on the business and I am happy to say that we are doing well. Last year in 2019, our product was featured on "Good Morning America," and the company keeps growing each day. We are also proud parents of two kids; my daughter was born in 2015, and two years later my son was born. We are lucky to be able to travel and visit family in different places and we recently visited my brother in England. My youngest sister is in DC but the rest of us are spread out giving us good reason to visit different places more often.

How did Westminster Impact your life?

Westminster is a place that as a kid you may not necessarily like the discipline and curriculum, but as you grow older, you realize it's worth it and appreciate what you truly received during those years. It is unlike any other place; all the teachers and administration work hard to develop well-rounded humans where the arts and drama are a big part of student life. The program’s wholesome approach nurtures the confidence and self-esteem of the student enabling him/her to better present themselves in society. The Shakespeare and Greek mythology component to our education were both unique and enriching and I look back on those as my favorites.  If I am a successful entrepreneur today, the foundation was built in Westminster.  I always thought one day if I were to teach a subject, it will be Greek mythology! I must add that when I arrived to high school and began taking classes, I realized how prepared I was and ahead of others around me.

Message to future parents:

Do not even hesitate and think twice if you want to raise well-rounded kids that are more than just adept in one subject or two. If you want them to be able to carry themselves well in high school, college and later in society and in life, you have found the school to guarantee that.  Your student will be well-rounded and confident and, with hard work, become a successful person in life. The discipline the school instills in the students is so evident in the school field trips and separates them from others due to the well-mannered behavior and proper etiquette that is expected. The kid you raise, with the help of Westminster, will go out into the world much richer in character and ethics, as a result. If I lived in the area, my kids would be going to Westminster.

Message to current students:

Try your best to appreciate your time in the school. It may seem hard now, but the payoff is great. You should know the staff in this school will never give up on you ; and are your extended family cheering you on. Try and appreciate what you got and understand what you may not like to do today is what builds you stronger for future and will fulfill your life.

Thank you, Chris for taking the time to share your thoughts! We would love to have you speak with our Upper-School students about Entrepreneurship. Let's make that happen!
Word of the Week
e·rad·i·cate
/əˈradəˌkāt/

verb

destroy completely; put an end to.
"This disease has been eradicated from the world."

Did You Know?
Given that eradicate first meant "to pull up by the roots," it's not surprising that the root of eradicate means, in fact, "root." Eradicate, which first turned up in English in the 16th century, comes from eradicatus, the past participle of the Latin verb eradicare. Eradicare, in turn, can be traced back to the Latin word radix, meaning "root" or "radish." Although eradicate began life as a word for literal uprooting, by the mid-17th century it had developed a metaphorical application to removing things the way one might yank an undesirable weed up by the roots. Other descendants of radix in English include  radical  and  radish . Even the word  root  itself is related; it comes from the same ancient word that gave Latin radix.
Food for Thought
Amidst the anxiety, uncertainty, and even fear we may be feeling during this time, perhaps it would be helpful to find some positives. This blog post by Robert Shmerling of Harvard Health Publishing gives us some to think about, while recognizing that the situation is indeed serious.

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