Greetings to all returning students and families and a special welcome to the 34 new students and families we have joining us this fall. Since their retreat in the spring, the teachers and staff have been collaborating and planning to ensure a challenging, engaging, and inspiring educational experience for your children. We are all looking forward to an exciting school year, full of change, growth, and exploration.
A copy of
School Wide News will come home with your child each month. In addition you will receive weekly notices and updates from your child’s teacher. Both communications will also be posted on our website at
http://www.hopkintonind.org/, enhanced with our teacher’s wonderful photo journals of each week’s events and activities.
At our
faculty retreat this fall the teachers and staff used the poem
Wooden Boats by
Judy Brown as a springboard for reflection and discussion about how to continue to craft and polish our evolving Multiple Intelligence, place-based curriculum. Their curriculum maps, which have been in the works for over a year, will be up on our website soon and ready for you to see and discuss with your child’s teacher at our Back to School Night on September 25th. Preschool families are welcome from 4:00-5:00 and Elementary and Middle School parents from
5:00-6:00. We look forward to seeing you there!
The poem also encouraged us to consider the many unique gifts we bring to the craft of teaching; the creativity that lies at the core of our profession as educators. I know that many of you also have special talents and interests and we encourage you as always to share them with our teachers and students.
The theme of this year’s curriculum is “
Norumbega: Where the Mountains Meet the Sea: the People, Places, and History of New England and New Hampshire.” This course of study lends itself well to enrichment opportunities that will expose the children to the discipline, artistry, and history of New England Arts and Crafts. We have planned a number of Craft Circles for the fall that will bring local folk artists to the school to share their skills and talents with our students. Look for details in up-coming class pages!
You will see some
new faces at school this year. JoEllen McCaffrey joins us as a preschool teacher in the Quechee classroom. JoEllen will also be coordinating the science curriculum with the elementary grades and offering a nature explorers class in the after school program one day a week. Pat McCabe joins us from Sunapee and will be teaching our middle school students History, Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science. Rebecca Cloutier and Paula Ward will be helping out in the Amoskeag and Pemigawasset classrooms respectively. Rebecca is a seasoned kindergarten teacher, most recently at Bow Elementary. Paula was the founder and director of the after school program, Bow Kids Inc. and will lend her experience to running our after school program this year. Please join me in welcoming all of these new faculty to HIS.
Marek Bennett, Marilyn Knapp, and Lisa Whipps will be returning this year in slightly different capacities. Marek will be teaching Spanish and Music part time on Wednesdays and Fridays and providing website and technology support for the school and faculty. Marilyn will teach Middle school math and support the science and language arts curriculum for the 3rd and 4th grade students. Lisa will be assisting Sara in the Abenaki classroom in the mornings and will also be developing and supporting an early elementary literacy program in the afternoons.
This year we will have a
common lunch period for grades 1-7 at 12:45 in the Multipurpose Room or outside on the picnic tables as weather permits. We hope to make this a joyful community gathering and welcome you to join us if ever you can.
We will be offering Pizza on Wednesdays again this year starting on September 17th. If you would like your child to participate,
please fill out the attached form and return it to your child’s teacher.
Included here are our offerings for After School Programs. We have several new offerings this year and hope to have more variety again in the spring. We are also pleased to be able to provide extended care until 6:00 pm this year.
Before school drop off this year begins at 7:00 am. The regular drop off time is 8:15 am for the Upper School and 9:00 am for Preschool. Preschoolers with siblings in the Upper School may arrive as early as 8:15 as well. If you need to drop your child off or pick them up before or after these times, please be sure to sign them up for extended care.
Teachers will dismiss students at 3:00 to the area behind the fence near the parking lot. Please wait for students to exit the building and pick them up.
We installed a beautiful new swingset over the summer. Many thanks to the Haydinger Landry family for this generous contribution to our playground.
As you may know, there have been a few cases of head lice reported in Hopkinton over the summer. Attached you will find some information about how to treat it. Please let us know if your child should present with a case. We will continue with all of our regular hygienic practices, but in order to be proactive we would ask that for the first few weeks of school students refrain from bringing personal items such as stuffed animals or pillows from home. The kindergarten and preschool teachers will give every child a special bag for their belongings and we would ask that you store all personal belongings that go back and forth between home and school in these at least for the first month or so of school. Thank you for your cooperation in this.
It has been a busy summer full of new beginnings and new adventures for me and my son. As I take on my position as Interim Head of School, I am so grateful to everyone who has helped to make this transition a smooth one. Thanks especially to Paul Dann, the Board of Directors and all the members of the Transition Team: Courtney Huff, Jodi Burnham, Eileen Eber, Deb Marcou, and Heather Staples. Their warm support and intelligent guidance have been invaluable to me. I look forward to working with them throughout the course of the year.
Feel free to call the office (226-4662) or stop by to see me if you have questions or concerns about anything. I look forward to getting to know you in the year ahead.
Jeremy showed us how to install a kestrel house high up in a tree on our wetlands.
If we're lucky, we'll have a kestrel of our own living here by next Spring. See the Early Elementary Blog for more photos of our kestrel visit.
