Upcoming Important Dates
Wednesday, August 12
Teachers return to school
Saturday, August 15
Outdoor Work Day
9:00 am - 2:00 pm
Monday, August 17
Back to School Night - Grades 1-5
5:30 - 7:00 pm
Tuesday, August 18
Back to School Night - Grades 7-8
5:30 - 7:00 pm
Thursday, August 20
Early Childhood New Parent Orientation
6:00 - 6:30 pm
Back to School Night - Early Childhood
6:30 - 7:30 pm
Friday, August 20
Early Childhood Meet & Greet
10:00 - 11:00 am
(Rain date, Aug 22)
|
|
Messenger At A Glance
Weekly Bulletin:
- RWS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement
- At-Home Learning Policy/Process
Administrative Announcements:
- Enrollment Deadline Reminder and Implications
- Welcome New RWS Staff
Programmatic & Pedadogical Announcements:
- Accessing Reports in BigSIS
- Google Classrooms Available for Review
Community Bulletin:
- Welcome Snedden Babies! & Meal Support
- Welcome Jafari-Lwanga Baby! & Meal Support
- Welcome Tickle Baby!
- Welcome Fee Babies! & Meal Support
|
We want to better understand what the school community is comfortable with related to social distancing guidelines and possible risk of students being in physical contact with each other.
As a result, we have created a survey for "Return to Instruction" that will help us better understand the comfort within our community as we make plans for on-campus learning.
Please follow the link above or
click here
to take the survey.
The survey will close on Monday, July 20 so that we can analyze and consider your feedback.
|
2020-2021 Academic Calendar
|
First day of Oak & Magnolia EC - Tues, Aug 25
First day of Acorn EC - Thurs, Aug 27
First Day Grades 1 to 8 - Mon, Aug 31
Please click link below to view the 2020-2021 academic calendar below. Questions? Please contact
Nancy Cross.
|
|
RWS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement
|
|
The Board of Trustees and College have unanimously approved the below statement from the RWS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee for our school. This statement has also been added to our school
website
.
Richmond Waldorf School welcomes students, families, faculty, staff, and guests of all races, ethnicities, cultural and religious heritages, socio-economic backgrounds, geographic origins, gender identities, sexual orientations, and family structures. We educate our students to respect the dignity of all people and we reject discrimination in all its forms. We seek to create, embrace, support, and nurture a diverse and inclusive community where everyone feels respected, connected, honored, and valued.
|
|
At-Home Learning Policy/Process
|
|
Dear RWS returning and new community members,
I am writing to give you as timely updates as the College, Administration and Board of Trustees are making decisions and plans around our reopening of school. As always, please reach out to me with questions, suggestions, concerns and ideas.
ncross@richmondwaldorf.com
We are glad to be in a position to reopen school! RWS is putting in place and upgrading facilities and protocols to alleviate as much as possible health and safety issues for our students and staff as they return to on campus learning. Our private school affords us a smaller school enrollment and class size than larger public schools, also lunch is enjoyed within the same classroom group. The CDC Guidelines for classroom spacing at the same time limits the number of students per class. We are happy to have new families joining us and anticipate many ‘full’ classrooms. The precautions we are taking allow us to better manage our learning environment and operations of the building.
We have established a policy and process for COVID-19 related “At Home Learning”. Administration and the Pedagogical Task Team is providing, based on your questions, a policy for “At Home Learning” for COVID-19 related health instances, where there is a medical, physical or emotional reason for a student to remain at home and not attend on-campus learning.
We want to work with each student to ensure they feel comfortable and ready to learn on their campus. When circumstances arise where this may not be possible, we will provide a distance model in accordance with required documentation submitted.
Please read the policy and process below. Should a community parent wish to make this request for the start of our 2020-2021 school year, I ask the written request and accompanying documentation be to me by August 17, 2020.
Establishing Outdoor Learning Spaces is also a concerted effort to enhance student learning. Several of these spaces will be tented to provide sun, heat and inclement weather shelter.
Currently the school is being deep cleaned and made ready with cleaning supplies and materials for each room. Teachers will receive more intensive health and safety training when they return, including the updated Emergency Response Plan.
|
|
Administrative Announcements
|
|
Enrollment Deadline Reminder and Implications
|
|
As you know, July 31 is our enrollment deadline and is coming up quickly. With all the recent developments of return-to-school plans in the Richmond area, our Enrollment Office has been inundated with admissions interest. We are excited to see this interest in our school, and yet with our smaller class sizes, this will undoubtedly affect families who have not completed their child's enrollment in TADS. While we empathize and understand the uncertainty our community is facing, our school faces this same uncertainty, and we will have to make the best fiscal decisions to ensure our longevity.
Following July 31, we will finalize our re-enrollment rosters for teachers, and anyone who is not signed up will not be included on the roster. Teachers will not buy supplies for your child. Further, that space will be open for a new family to fill. We will not hold spaces for returning families after the deadline.
Parents will need to inquire with
Valerie Hogan
as to whether their space is still available following July 31.
Please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you for your understanding and support.
|
|
We are excited to announce that
Michelle Israel has been hired as the Spanish Teacher
for the 2020-2021 school year. Michelle received her BA in Graphic Design from Universidad Iberoamericana and holds a Teaching Certificate for Spanish. She has experience teaching children ages 2-14.
We have also hired
Gloria Freeman as our new Business Office Administrator
. Gloria holds a BA in Accounting and an MBA with Accounting concentration. Gloria will be relocating from Wisconsin, where she has been employed at the Milwaukee Area Technical College.
Both Michelle and Gloria will begin work at the beginning of August. Please join us in welcoming them to our community!
We are sorry to announce that Rebekah Wilcox (Karma Jane) is relocating and will not be returning as After Care Assistant.
Interim Director of Administration
|
|
Programmatic & Pedadogical Announcements
|
|
Accessing Reports in BigSIS
|
|
Student End of Year reports were released to parents in the
BigSIS portal
on June 26, 2020. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about accessing BigSIS and your child's report.
Thanks,
Administrative Specialist
|
|
Google Classrooms Available for Review
|
|
For students who wish to review content in their Google Classrooms from Spring 2020, the classrooms will be accessible until July 23, 2020.
|
|
Welcome Snedden Babies! & Meal Support
|
|
Please join us in congratulating Brittany Snedden, Chris Snedden, and Lillian Snedden (of the Acorn EC class) on the birth of twins
Freya Alese Snedden and
Keagen Lawrence Snedden on June 9. Freya was born at 12:15 pm, weighed 6 pounds, 10 ounces, and was 20 inches long. Keagan was born at 12:16 pm, weighed 5 pounds, 15 ounces and was 19 ½ inches long.
|
|
Welcome Jafari-Lwanga Baby! & Meal Support
|
|
|
|
Please join us in congratulating Emmani Jafari-Lwanga, Rashid Lwanga, Qasim Jafari-Busuulwa, Mariam Jafari-Nassali, and little sister Aaliyah on the birth of baby Nefertiti Zahara Jafari-Lwanga on July 1st. Qasim graduated from the 8th grade this past school year. Mariam graduated from RWS in 2019.
|
|
Please join us in congratulating Caitlin Britton, Derick Tickle, Ori Tickle, and Elladora Tickle on the birth of baby boy Levon Oakey Tickle. Caitlin Britton was an assistant in the Magnolia EC class, Ori Tickle attended Oak class and Elladora attended Acorn class this past school year. Baby Levon was born on July 1, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. and weighed 7 pounds.
|
|
Welcome Fee Babies! & Meal Support
|
|
Please join us in congratulating Emily Fee, Michael Fee, Fin Fee (of the Magnolia class) and little sister Heidi Fee on the birth of Martin Francis Fee and Augustine (Gus) Robert Fee on July 5th. Martin Francis arrived at 1:51 pm, weighed 6 pounds 10 ounces, and was 20.25 inches long. Augustine (Gus) Robert arrived at 2:17 pm, weighed 6 pounds, 10 ounces, and was 20.5 inches long.
|
|
|
Parent Volunteer Interest Survey
|
|
As we transition to the summer months and preparations for the 2020-2021 school year, the PA asks that every parent take a moment to fill out the Parent Volunteer Interest Survey for next year. It takes a village to run the school and there a variety of tasks, committees, and events you can support.
PA Moderator
|
|
Celebrating 100 Years of Waldorf Education
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
