We are launched! A new school year is underway. I want to welcome each family, new and returning, to the 2011-12 school year at Friends School. It has been very exciting to greet so many old friends, and to make some new ones. As we reported in the Summer Bulletin and Notes to Parents, a lot of work and preparation has gone on over the summer and we are poised for a wonderful year.
Before the school year officially started, we held our annual “Ice Cream Social” for Prekindergarten, Kindergarten and First Grade students. That evening a returning 4th Grader excitedly pulled me over to the flower garden behind the Noel-Baker building to show me the Monarch Caterpillars he’d found. I asked how he knew they were Monarchs and he said because they had yellow, black and white stripes around their bodies, and because they were on Milkweed plants, and Monarchs love to feed on Milkweed. He was right of course, and together we spied five caterpillars. He then explained to me how they would soon be making their chrysalis, after which they would emerge as butterflies and then start their journey south to Mexico! Here was a student filled with excitement about a wonderful mystery of nature he has learned about at Friends School. He was equally excited to be returning to school, and ready to learn even more new things about Monarchs and other subjects.
This is what we strive for at Friends School. To provide students with numerous hands-on learning experiences that lead to their unquenchable excitement about discovery and knowledge. When this process goes on year-after-year, with an ever-increasing level of challenge, we graduate 8th graders who love to discover and learn, and who in the process have also learned a lot about themselves. They are then ready for the increasingly independent challenges they will face in high school and beyond. A wonderful year of exploration lies ahead. I can’t wait to see what mysteries our students will uncover and discover as the year unfolds.
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