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Happy New Year and Welcome Back to School!

We hope everyone enjoyed some well-deserved rest and special times with your family and friends during this winter holiday break.  We missed you and look forward to a second semester full of learning, growth, and joy.

We have so much to be grateful for this new year.  All of us here want to give a very special thank you to our amazing parents!  We are so appreciative of the many wonderful ways in which you treated us the week before break.  The food, sweet treats, gifts, and heartwarming notes made us all feel so special.  These moments motivate and remind us again why we chose to work at Winston School with your incredible students. 

Let’s start the new year with our hearts and minds open to all the learning and growth ahead of us.  Students, you’ve got a fresh start with this new semester!  Take what you’ve learned so far and dig deeper into your studies and personal growth.  You will be successful!  Know that Winston staff are working hard on programs, activities, and plans to finish the year strong.

This new year also starts the kick-off of our Capital Campaign!  Expect communications on our building plans, fundraising goals, and ways you can get involved.  The next phase of construction, which remodels the auditorium and front office building, is scheduled to start June 2026.  This is an exciting next phase that will provide incredible new spaces for students, staff, and community.   Winston School is getting the school campus it has long planned for and deserves!  Stay tuned for ways to get involved - we need you!

It's going to be a great year!  Wishing you the very best for 2026!

Kim Kanetis

Executive Director

As we head into a brand-new year, our advisory classes are leaning into a big idea: sticking with our goals, even when it gets tough. This is all about building the executive functioning skill of Goal-Directed Persistence and strengthening a growth mindset so students learn to say, “I’m not there yet, but I’m getting better.”

Wayne Gretzky said, “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take,” and that pretty much sums up what we want students to feel this year—brave enough to try, even if they’re not sure that they’ll nail it. Michael Jordan talked about missing thousands of shots and failing over and over again, and how that’s exactly why he succeeded, which is a perfect picture of goal-directed persistence and growth mindset in action.

We will also be spotlighting our ESLRs. Staff will be on the lookout for students who are helping a classmate, showing integrity, sticking with a tough task, or making our campus a better place, and students will be able to earn points for these positive choices that can be used for prizes and privileges at school.

At home, simple check-ins like “What’s one goal you’re working toward?” or “What’s something that was hard today that you kept trying on?” can make a big difference. Together, we can help students start this year knowing it’s okay to miss a few shots—as long as they keep taking them.

Save the date for Winston's spring camp experience in May 2026. 

Please fill out the form to express your interest in this camping trip.

Contact Joshua Weeden at joshua.weeden@thewinstonschool.org with any questions.

In chemistry, students recently carried out a hands-on flame test lab to reinforce what they have been learning in class. During this activity, they dipped four different metal solutions into a burner flame, observed the colors that appeared, and used these “color fingerprints” to connect each metal to its specific wavelength of light. This lab helped deepen their understanding of atomic absorption and emission by showing how energy changes in atoms produce the different colors of light they could see.

Saturday, January 10

~ 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM Saturday School

Tuesday, January 13

~ 2:45 PM - 3:15 PM Camping Trip Student Interest Meeting

Saturday, January 17

~ 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM Saturday School

Monday, January 19

~ No School: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Thursday, January 22

~ 8:45 AM - 12:30 PM - 11th/12th Grade Field Trip to California State University, San Marcos

Friday, January 23

~ 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM Winston vs. Sierra Basketball Game @ Carmel Valley Rec Center

Saturday, January 24

~ 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM Saturday School

Tuesday, January 27

~ 2:30 PM - 3:15 PM Parent Association Meeting in person or Zoom 

Friday, January 30

~ 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM Winston vs. Merit Basketball Game @ Carmel Valley Rec Center

Saturday, January 31

~ 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM Saturday School

~ 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM Community Resource Fair & Open House

Thursday, February 5

~ 8:30 AM - 1:00 PM - 12th Grade Field Trip to iFly Indoor Skydiving

~ 1:15 PM - 2:45 PM - San Diego Gulls Street Hockey Clinic

Friday, February 6

~ Honor Ernie Hartt Day! (Wear Green/Converse sneakers)

Saturday, February 7

~ 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM Saturday School

Thursday, February 12

~ STAR Growth Celebration

~ NASA/JPL Guest Speaker Assembly

Friday, February 13 - Monday, February 16

~ No School: Presidents' Day Weekend (No Saturday School)

Friday, February 20

~ End of Marking Period 4

~ 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM Winston vs. Sierra Basketball Game @ Carmel Valley Rec Center

Saturday, February 21

~ 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM Saturday School

Please consider giving what feels meaningful to you today.

Please join us on January 31st, for a parent meet and greet that will take place during our resource fair. Bring your own lunch and mingle with other parents in the auditorium. We hope to see you there!

We’d love your support in cheering on our Bulldogs at the basketball games this year. Our players and coaches have been working hard, and a loud, positive crowd gives them a huge boost. Please review the *updated* schedule, pick a few games, and join us in the stands to celebrate teamwork, perseverance, and school spirit!

Save the date for the Resource Fair & Open House!

Click here to register to attend the event or reach out to Lisa Kondrat at lisa.kondrat@thewinstonschool.org with questions.

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