March 10, 2010

Dear Parents,

It feels like spring, and the children love the nice weather today! Although we are not entirely out of the woods, we are encouraging students to take home their snow gear to do some early spring-cleaning. Thank you for helping with this.

It was nice to see many of you at the Regalia last weekend. We could not have possibly held such a lovely affair without the help of many of our parents and teachers. The Development Office is busy tallying up numbers, and we are all anxiously awaiting to hear the results.

As we begin the third term and conclude parent teacher conferences, please remember that all of our teachers offer two help sessions a week either before or after school. Please contact your child's teacher if you are unaware of which days your child should attend. We are more than happy to do whatever we can to help the students succeed and understand that working in a smaller group or one-on-one setting can be extremely beneficial.

As we look at the month of March, there are many exciting events approaching. This Friday we have the Flag Assembly at 8:15 in the gymnasium. This is a time when we recognize students at St. Richard's School who were either born in another country or hold dual citizenship. If I have not contacted you and your child fits one of these two categories, please let me know as soon as possible. We will also celebrate our Global Readiness pillar and the preparation St. Richard's provides to enter our global world.

Next week our Grade 4 students will be marching in the St. Patrick's Day parade, and we will salute the Irish as we also celebrate the rich cultural make-up of our school. If you work downtown, please cheer on the students as they march proudly carrying flags and walking with a float of our Five Pillars of Success. I would like to thank Mr. Ron Roessler, parent of Megan Roessler, for constructing these LARGE pillars. Please check them out in the gym lobby. If you are interested in helping decorate the float next Monday or Tuesday during the day, please let me know.

We will also officially kick off our Healthy Dragon program on March 19 during our Lower Division Community Meeting. We will hear from Mrs. Christie Thrasher, parent of Mason and Samuel, as she educates our students on the importance of physical fitness. Students in grades 1-4 will begin walking/jogging laps during recess on Monday, March 22 with the goal of accumulating the distance of a half-marathon.  Students were briefly told about this program on Friday, March 12, and they seemed to embrace the spirit of becoming more fit. We talked about the importance of being fit in a physical, emotional, and spiritual sense, and this tied into our discussion during chapel about lent and the importance of forgiveness. Our kindergarten students spent today at the NCAA Hall of Champions and NIFS (National Institute of Fitness and Sport), and they also touched upon some of these same topics.

Friday, March 26, the last day of school before our two-week spring break, will include the 5th grade play of Richard of Wyck and the 4th grade Hoosier Puppets. We know the children are eagerly awaiting these events.

I would like to thank our Parent Organization for rewarding many of our teachers with grants again. Their support greatly helps the teachers' abilities to incorporate innovative ideas into the classroom. I would also like to thank our Early Childhood teachers for spending their Saturday participating in play-based observations and Miss Graber, Miss Napier, Mrs. Arena and Miss Read for attending a Handwriting Without Tears conference on a Saturday. Their dedication to our school is greatly appreciated. Finally, our math committee meets again tomorrow, and I will be sure to update you on the continual progress of this group. My door is always open, so please stop by if I can be of assistance to you and your family.

Make it a great week!

Abby Williams

Abby Williams
Lower Division Head
St. Richard's School
317-926-0425 ext. 109
awilliams@strichardsschool.org