We are finishing up our first week of the new school year, and it has been a joy to see the enthusiasm of the students similarly matched with the enthusiasm of our faculty as children return to "school mode" after the long summer break. During Wednesday's assembly, I spoke about the importance of welcoming our new students as we have 121 new children in the Lower School this year. I am confident our new students will quickly find Academy an inviting and friendly school. A very warm welcome to all Academy families and especially our new families joining us.
Each Sunday, you will receive an email from our parent association's LS leads Candice Singleton and Jen Neviaser with a link to read my weekly newsletter. This is the normal way I communicate with our families, and there will be an article and information shared by me weekly. I encourage you to read it weekly to see what is going on in the Lower School and what is on the horizon. For this first week, however, I will share the information in this letter
Car Line
Please remember a few important details to help us move the car line along:
- Phones are not to be used anywhere when driving on campus -- this is for the safety of all of our students and is especially important in the car line.
- When dropping off, please have your child unbuckled, goodbyes exchanged and backpacks ready to go when we open the car door.
- Pull all the way forward when dropping off and picking up.
- For safety reasons, all exits occur on the passenger side.
- When picking up, please have your name card clearly visible on the passenger side of your windshield at all times on campus.
Back-to-School Night
Back-to-School Night is on Thursday, August 29. The evening begins for all parents in the Dining Hall at 7:00 pm. Following introductions and other information, parents will move to their children's classrooms for specific classroom information. This evening is for parents only. There is no childcare offered at the school for this evening, so please make necessary plans in advance.
Parent Conferences
Parent Conferences will be on Friday, August 30. Scheduled times will be sent home by your children's teachers. These conferences are "listening conferences" where teachers listen to you tell them about your children and share important information. There is no school for lower school students on that Friday (but there is school for middle and upper school students).
Lower School Campout
The Second Annual Lower School Campout will be held on September 20-21. Please use
this link
to learn more. We had 43 families join us last year (see photos) and look forward to another fun-filled campout next month. To register, click here.
Parent Book Club
The Parent Book Club will continue this year, and the first book is entitled
The Opposite of Worry
by Dr. Lawrence Cohen. He is a co-author on several of Dr. Michael Thompson's books we have discussed in previous book discussions, and you can find his book in many public libraries as well as
online
. We will read and discuss the book in two parts. For the first discussion, we will read chapters 1-5. For this initial gathering, we will meet in the Huntington Room of the Dining Hall on Wednesday, September 25, from 8:30-9:30 a.m.
Parenting Article
This week's article is from the University of California Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center and is entitled "
With Kids, Love Is in the Little Things
." For those new to Academy, this site is an excellent resource for families.
Warm regards,
