Dear Upper School Parents, Students and Faculty,
We have now completed two weeks of our new synchronous virtual schedule. The support and feedback we have received from all of you as a community has been greatly appreciated. Parents have been supportive; students have been engaged; and faculty members have risen to the challenge. In short, things are going as well as I could possibly have expected as we have embarked into uncharted territory, still requiring much exploration.
With that being said, we are noticing that students, teachers and staff are grappling with dramatically increased screen time, while making continuous adjustments (for example, one day this week Myschoolapp would not properly load) and trying to come to understand the realities of our new normal. We would like to provide relief moving forward.
Beginning with the week of March 30, students will attend their synchronous classes as scheduled on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. We will continue to rotate A and B days. Moving forward, on Wednesdays we will move to a less structured asynchronous model allowing teachers to offer live extra help for those students who are falling behind or would like more support; to provide small group review; and to conduct make-up testing as necessary. Your daughter’s seven individual teachers will provide more information to her regarding each course, her individual needs in the course and what she should plan to do on Wednesdays for the highest level of success.
One factor that we took under consideration was the potential impact on the nationally standardized Advanced Placement courses. With the adjustments that the College Board has made to the upcoming assessments, we do not believe that our schedule adjustment will in any way negatively impact instruction for students in those courses. Nor will the adjustment compromise the content and learning of other courses. All students will, however, have more time to stretch, be with their families, be outside and exercise - all activities that we highly recommend to provide balance.
The feedback and input that members of all constituency groups provided over the past ten days positioned us to be able to make a well-informed decision. Your input matters, so please continue to stay in touch. We understand that the impacts felt by each family are different, and that they too are ever changing. We want to be able to support all of our students.
Yours in Christ,
Julie Boyd
Upper School Division Head
What to expect next week:
(Your daughters know their class times)
- Monday A1-A4 classes begin at 8:17 a.m. and will be complete by 3:15 p.m.
- Tuesday B1-B3 classes begin at 8:17 a.m. and will be complete by 1:10 p.m.
- Wednesday- Teachers will be working with individual students to provide appropriate support as necessary through the school day.
- Thursday A1-A4 classes begin at 8:17 a.m. and will be complete by 3:15 p.m.
- Friday B1- B3 classes begin at 8:17 a.m. and will be complete by 1:10 p.m.
