Dear Spartan Upper School Families,

We ended this week on a high note with Friday House Competitions – our walls, field and gym were ringing with happy voices and House chants. It has been a good week - students, teachers, and administrators have all learned a lot about the value of a growth mindset. While the students have worked hard to be on time to class with their materials, the teachers and administrators have collaborated to improve the quality of the students’ lunch/recess experience and brainstorm a way for students to negotiate the most difficult transition – getting from 6^th period to Lyceum with everything needed to work on HW and everything needed to go home. 

I am sure that many of you have heard reports from your students about the trials and travails of the first 8 days of school; that’s to be expected. I am sure the biggest complaints come about House bathroom passes, long lines at lunch, infractions for tardies, needing to leave their water bottle in their locker and not having what they need in Lyceum. To help you get a feel for the day your student is navigating, I have attached the daily schedule below for 6/7 & 8/9. In comparison to local ISD schedules where students have 5-minute passing periods, 40 minutes for lunch/recess and no other breaks during the day, GHWH has the same 5-minute passing periods, but a 45 minute lunch/recess, a 25 minute Morning Break and a 25 minute Lyceum.

             1^st period (7:50-8:50)

             2^nd period (8:55-9:50)

             Morning Break 6^th/7^th (9:55-10:20) 3^rd period 8^th/9^th (9:55-10:50)

             3^rd period 6^th/7^th  (10:25-11:20) Morning Break 8^th/9^th (10:55-11:20)

             4^th period (11:25-12:20)

             Lunch/Recess (12:25-1:10)

             5^th period (1:15-2:10)

             6^th period (2:15-3:10)

             Lyceum (3:15-3:45)

Bathroom use: students may use the bathroom in every passing period, during the 25-minute Morning Break and during lunch. This asks students to begin to prioritize and time manage. For those unexpected times when even the best laid plans fail, each student has 4 bathroom passes to use anytime during class each quarter. We all know that minimizing lost instruction time is the key to every student’s academic success.

Hydrating: students may hydrate at their locker between each class or use the water fountain. They are expected to take their water bottle to Morning Break, lunch, recess, PE, Lyceum and sports practices.

Lunch/recess: students have 45 minutes for lunch and recess. The 6^th/7^th graders go first to lunch and are allowed to stay in the gym until they have finished their lunch. Usually most are done after 25 minutes and head out to recess or help with clean up on the days their House is assigned. 8^th/9^thgraders are being allowed into lunch 8-10 minutes early from their recess if they choose to give them 25-30 minutes to eat. On top of that, the administration finally had the opportunity to sit down with the food vendor to demand more cafeteria workers to help serve the students in a quicker fashion. We are happy to report that as of Thursday every student who wanted a hot lunch was being served quickly and no student was rushed through their meal.

Locker transitions: Most of our 7-9 graders by Friday had figured out how to be to class on time with their materials. Teachers and administrators are working to identify those 6^th graders who may need some organizational support or transition planning so that they can make an efficient transition between classes. The hardest transition is the one between 6^th period and Lyceum. The teachers are rolling out a slight tweak to Lyceum on Monday that should help all students have what they need to study in Lyceum and make it home with all their belongings.

Let me encourage you again to be your scholar’s cheerleader by commiserating with them when they have a tough day, discuss with them how they can problem solve frustrations and encourage them to advocate for themselves at school when they need help of any sort. If you missed last week’s newsletter, here is an excerpt from my letter:

The process of growing up is fraught with all kinds of challenges, and that is not a bad thing. While there are some of us who get tossed more difficulties than others, we all can recount numerous ways in which inevitable or unexpected trials came our way. While going through them, I’m sure we all wished that some magical force would come along and wave them all away. What we know now is that all those things are what made us the strong individuals, leaders, and people of character we are today. There is no other way to get there but to just go through them – shortcuts don’t build character. Keith McCurdy, child psychologist and founder of Live Sturdy, says, “Children who learn to struggle well throughout their school-age years will grow up to be the natural leaders of the next generation.”

Everything about our daily schedule has been carefully planned and adjustments made when necessary, in an effort to give your student the best learning and community experience. If your student is having more than the average struggle, please encourage your student to seek out our Dean of Students, Mr. Womack, before school or during Morning Break and send him an email letting him know so we can follow up with your student if they do not seek him out. We are always open to your suggestions and concerns. Please reach out to me any time.

Best,

Trinette Keffer

Headmaster | Upper School

Thank you to all the students who tried out for JV & Middle School Flag Football, JV, Middle School Girls, and Middle School Boys volleyball teams! By Friday evening, you should have received an email from the coaches announcing who is on which roster, and any necessary schedules, payment links, BAND app codes, etc.

Good Luck to our Spartan Cross Country team as they compete in their first race August 20th at the Floresville Meet!

Our first Spartan Game Day will be August 31^st vs. Great Hearts Northern Oaks.

• Girls MS A Team Volleyball: 5:30 pm
• Girls JV Volleyball: 6:30 pm

To view a full game schedule, please visit our athletics website.

Do you have a scholar who is participating in athletics? Make sure you’re signed up for the alerts via Big Teams! This will be our way of communicating anything that occurs, so it is important you are signed up for alerts!

Don’t know if you’re signed up? Follow these steps:

1. Log into your Big Teams account at www.planeths.com
2. Click on the little person in the top right corner, it will say “My Profile” if you hover over it.
3. Click on Notifications
4. Click on receive notifications and updates via email (not all things can be sent via text so this is best practice)
5. It is recommended to also receive notifications and updates via text as well.
6. Click on the blue link under the two check boxes that says Update my Account
7. Make sure your email address and phone number are in the correct boxes.
8. Hit Save!

A few tips:

1. Make sure to check your spam!
2. If you feel as if you’re missing messages, please reach out to Coach Disney Alvarado at Elizabeth.disney@greatheartswesternhills.org.

Parents and Families of ESL Scholars--

Please click the button below to view the ESL Newsletter for August 2022!

All content will be trans-adapted for a Spanish version of the newsletter. Other languages are available through the S’more newsletter.

Si le gustaría leer este boletín en español, por favor haga clic en el

Boletín informativo para Padres y Familias.