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Dear Families,
I don't think any of us expected to have January this month, but here we are.
I find it necessary to make a comment about excessive absences and students being pulled out of class. Obviously, if your child is ill, don't come to class. If you have 102 degree fever, don't get out of bed to drive your child. If there is an urgent family emergency, don't come. I had call from a mom last year three hours after she delivered baby number three to see if her son could miss. If you just gave birth, don't come. (Our absence policy is designed to account for these situations.)
Other absences, however, have a huge impact on the continuity and quality of what your child and the rest of their class learns.
For example, if a catechist prepares a lesson on an important feature in the curriculum, and finds half the class absent for a sports or school activity, they might have to scrap the lesson at the last minute (because how else will they include all those absent) and then do something peripheral to fill the class time.
Continuity is also very important in a program that meets only once a week. I find, being in the classroom myself, the blank looks and frustration from a child who missed one or two classes and now feels quite left behind. Remember that we cover about a week of regular class time in a class period of 75 minutes. It is, by necessity, concentrated.
Our policy is that a student miss no more than 3 classes a year. That is 11% of our time together. A comparable percentage in the regular school year would be 21 class days - more than a month of school. As you can see, if a student missed that much class time their progress to the next grade might be affected. Each class in Religious Ed is the equivalent of about 6-7 school days.
Please do your part to minimize Wednesday absences so that we can deliver the best Religious Education possible to your child.
The Baby Bottles were due back last week.
You can still bring them tomorrow. The funds go to women and children in great need, so we hope they come back heavy with spare change. (And anything else you'd like to throw in.)
We had a great
Back to School Night last year and we're glad to welcome families back again. Please check out the details for November 20.
If we needed any other reminder, this last week has shown us that Chicagoland weather is not dependable - or rather we can depend upon it to complicate our lives. Please check out our
winter weather notification process
, so that you don't make any unnecessary trips.
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