With back to school nights complete (Ooops – not High School yet – that’s next week), let’s reflect on what we’ve heard in recent days. First, you should have heard broad goals and timelines for key events in the coming months and should have a general sense of how the year will unfold. You won’t know everything and our plans are flexible in order to take advantage of unique learning opportunities. But, the general flow of the year should now be evident.
Second, you should have a better understanding of our International Baccalaureate framework and how it helps us to weave content into deeper understanding. I saw this in presentations throughout the school at both the Elementary and Upper School opening events and in the classroom presentations in a variety of formats. In essence, you should now be seeing the mastery of how inquiry is used as a backdrop to give students ownership of their learning, making it both relevant and accessible. The real gift her is that our students will retain more learning and the learning will be more usable in new settings, something that education strives to assure at every opportunity. Our capable and talented staff will work tirelessly to ensure scaffolded experiences that are both challenging and rewarding for students.
Third, you should now have a sense of how we will keep you informed of student progress. Depending on the age level, the systems were described for you and our work to keep you informed of both process and product will expand significantly. You are already seeing some evidence of this. This is one area that was a clear focus for us coming out of the parent survey. We have embraced that feedback and will seek to improve in this area across the school.
As a responsive and reflective school, our aim is always to keep pushing to greater levels of capability and accomplishment. We never stop and the work is never done. But, the talented teams of teachers are up to the task of working closely with you to assure student outcomes.
Facility Access
Hopefully, we are now settling into our main patterns. Parents seem to be adapting well to wearing their badge at all times and thank you for this! To help with after-hours access to the facility, we’ve prepared a document to guide you on the times that access is available. In general, access to the building is only for scheduled and arranged activities outside of normal school hours. Open access to indoor facilities is only during scheduled and published times. Outdoor areas are accessible but limited by requirements for school ID and supervision. While our outdoor areas are accessible, they are not the same as a public park and we depend upon our community helping us to take care of the entire campus and show responsibility for the care of our equipment and spaces. Scheduled events will take priority over any open use. The entire document is here: Campus Access – School Hours
PowerSchool
We have initiated our annual PowerSchool update of contact information update and permissions. You must now complete this process before being able to access other PowerSchool features and we are logging your completion of this important GDPR and personal information task. ALL parents must login to PowerSchool and submit their responses. Parents who have not done so by next week, we will be calling you!! If you need help accessing your Powerschool account, please see our divisional office staff or write to support@aswarsaw.org for assistance.
Looking forward to seeing you all at the two upcoming PTO events. See below, but really important to come and join us for the gatherings. Adults can join us for the Mixer this weekend and the wonderful PTO BBQ is the following weekend – fun for the whole family. Exciting and powerful way to create community at ASW!