May Update from our Head of School

We have made it to May! Never did we anticipate that our school year would look like it has for the last two months, but this is what the Lord had in store for us! We have handled it very well as a school community and I am pleased with the teaching and learning we have been able to accomplish this last part of the school year.

One thing that has stuck out as I have met with our faculty and School Board (via Zoom of course!) is how thankful they have been. This shelter in place season has brought about unexpected blessings, which are encouraging to hear. I have listed a few below…

●     “Being able to teach remotely so that I could spend time with my recently widowed mom.”

●     “Having more time around the dinner table with family, especially with no worry about rushing to the ‘next thing’”

●     “Unexpected time at home with children who would normally be away at college.”

●     “Unexpected time at home with children who will soon be leaving for college.”

●     “For the parents and students in how they have responded to distance learning.”

These are just a few of the things I have heard from our folks and they have really blessed me. I hope these reports bless you too.

This time has had challenges of course. One of the most eye-opening things to me is that the number one reaction of our teachers to distance learning is sadness. Our teachers miss our students, your kids! It is interesting because they are teaching the same material. However, doing it from a distance is not the same! They miss the relationship in teaching. The interactions! The feedback! The wide-eyed wonder. And I do too! My conversations with students confirm that this is a two-way feeling. Many of our upper school students say they miss the personal encouragement and understanding their teachers give them when they are together with them in the classroom. We have listened and increased our use of live classrooms in order to maintain better in person relationships between students and teachers.

We know many of our families have been deeply impacted during this time in different ways. Please let us know how we can pray for you and support your family. We are here to help.

Lastly, we are busy planning for next school year. We do plan to be back on campus in August but at the same time we are strategically planning for a variety of things if there is another outbreak. Specially we are looking at how to ensure the health and wellness of our students and faculty on campus, how to better accomplish distance learning if we have to use it again, and how to prepare if a faculty member has to be out for a long period of time. We do not take the virus lightly and I hope that encourages you and gives you even more confidence in our school.

I continue to be proud of our faculty, students, and parents in how they quickly pivoted to distance learning. With how fast everything transpired I honestly do not see how we could have done it any better. There has continued to be excellent learning as we seek to “present our students complete in Christ.” Now let’s finish strong! God bless!