Dear FASRI families,
The faculty, staff, and I are excited to welcome you all on Tuesday for the 2013/14 school year. Our teaching team is in the midst of an enriching, informative week of orientation and training.
Your children's teachers will soon tell you their individual plans for the year, and for now I am pleased to share some new, school-wide initiatives that our Education Directors will launch next week. These changes will take some transition time for our students, so please do help reinforce them at home.
Addressing teachers and staff by their last name
From first to eighth grade, this will be common practice now. Instead of calling teachers by their first name, students should address faculty and staff by Mr. or Ms., Monsieur or Madame/Mademoiselle.
Attendance
Chronic lateness adds up to a lot of class time missed, and student performance can suffer. As we announced in the spring of last year, our teachers will be much more vigilant about student tardiness and absenteeism this year.
We want to ensure that every child has an equal chance to succeed, and being in class is a major part of that.
- Each classroom will start the day with a morning meeting, which sets the tone for the day. In order to let your child arrive and settle in without feeling rushed, have them to school before 8:15 for Middle School and before 8:30 for Elementary. Maternelle is more flexible, but 8:30 should be your target drop-off time.
- Please do your best to schedule appointments outside of school hours.
- Too much missed class time (more than five incomplete days) can affect your child's performance and may result in some form of consequence or accountability on their part.
Better teacher-parent communication
We are working hard to give each of you a better experience with your child's teacher. To this end, our teachers will communicate news from the classroom regularly to you.
In addition, if you have questions or concerns, you can expect a same-day response in most cases, if you write before 4 PM. Messages sent after 4 PM will be answered the next business day.
The Education Directors and I believe that these adjustments to school life will be beneficial to our students, staff, and families. Let's work together and make this the best year that we can.
I look forward to seeing you next week. Please read on for more important information for the school start.
Kind regards,
Dominique Velociter
Head of School