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Burgundy Farm Country Day School
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October 17, 2014
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Quick Calendar
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October 18
Fall Fair
Don Mills Memorial Reception
October 22
Homelessness Walk
October 24
Middle School Dance
October 27
Make-Up Picture Day
October 30-31
Parent-Teacher Conferences, No School
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On Saturday we continue a great tradition and seasonal rite of passage--the Burgundy Fall Fair. With the range of weather we have had this week, we will be grateful for a 'normal' fall weather day, whatever that will be! With alumni, as well as alumni parents and faculty and neighbors and friends joining us, there will be rekindling for many of the Burgundy experience, an experience and joy that is for so many inextricably bound in the place that is our campus.
Early Saturday, before the Fair officially kicks off, we will hold a celebration of the life and contributions of Burgundy's longest serving director (now head): Don Mills, who led Burgundy from 1963-1986, a period of great changes in our nation and of significant growth in our school. Under Don's leadership, the school's core values flourished as we purchased the Cove and expanded the scholarship program. Don empowered teachers and helped the school maintain a progressive, 'what's best for children' philosophy while enhancing the stellar academic reputation of the school. Many important aspects of the school's identity were nourished during Don's tenure, none more than a tradition of excellent teaching.
That excellent teaching takes many shapes. On Wednesday of this week it was preparing students for the possibility of a weather-related emergency and then leading them when in fact we had to enact emergency procedures: first getting everyone inside during a severe thunderstorm and shortly after, while it was still pouring cats-and-dogs, going into a shelter-in-place procedure after a tornado warning was issued. Teachers not only got students quickly into the safe shelter locations but helped them to remain calm.
I knew Don only slimly, having spoken with him by phone on a very few occasions, never able to frame a visit due to his failing health and the long distance between coasts. However, I know that Don Mills would be proud of today's school in many ways, and most especially of our teachers and the community they foster and the students they care for and inspire.
Jeff Sindler
Head of School |
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Fall Fair: It's Tomorrow!
We're expecting a day in the low 70s tomorrow -- we may have clouds, but we don't expect rain! Three brief and essential notes:
Parking. There will be no parking on campus during the Fall Fair, so we ask you to park instead at Sunset Hills Baptist Church (3500 Franconia Road, corner of Franconia and Norton Roads). A shuttle bus will travel from the church to Burgundy starting at 10:45 a.m. The last shuttle will leave Burgundy at 3:30 p.m. If you choose to park on neighborhood streets, please park only next to a white curb (if you don't see a curb, you're in a no-parking zone). Do not turn around in or block anyone's driveway. You may be ticketed or towed.
Information Tent. Many thanks to all the parent, student, faculty, and staff volunteers who are helping to make the Fall Fair a great success tomorrow. When you arrive on the Blacktop, look for the Information Tent to check in and get additional information about your shift.
Will Call for Pre-Sale Fair Tickets. Did you order pre-sale tickets online? You can pick them up at the Will Call station, next to Blacktop Ticket Sales. Tickets will be available to purchase at the Fair on the Blacktop and at Games near First Grade. Don't forget to bring cash for the sales!
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 | | See fall at the Cove by visiting for Closing Weekend. |
RSVP for Cove Closing Weekend
This year we are closing up Cooper's Cove for the winter on the weekend of November 1-2, and everyone is invited to come help! RSVP to Vini by Wednesday, October 22 with how many people, for which meals, and any dietary issues. Cove Closing is a family-friendly event, and you are welcome to come for all or any part of the time. It's mostly a lot of hauling, packing, storing and weather-proofing, but it's also a time to enjoy the Cove with good company at a nice time of year. Days are busy but there is time to catch up around the fire in the evening. We promise to feed you well! All you have to bring is yourself, a pair of favorite work gloves, and the usual bedding/layers of clothing that you would for a vigorous Cove visit. Children of all ages are welcome, but parents are completely responsible for them and they will be put to work.
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Childcare for Parent-Teacher Conferences
Parent-teacher conferences are Thursday and Friday, October 30 and 31. There are no classes those days, but Extended Day will offer childcare to families, 8 a.m.-6 p.m.
Childcare only during your conference(s) is available free of charge. Childcare for the majority or all of the day is available for $80. If you signed up for the Ex Day Holiday Plan, October 30 and 31 are both included in that plan. Students should bring a lunch; snacks will be provided.
To register for either of these services, or if you have questions, please email Hugh Squire and Laura Motaweh.
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Clean Start Drive and Walk to End Homelessness
By now, all families should have received registration forms from Torun Walker for Burgundy's Walk to End Homelessness, to take place on Wednesday, October 22 during our All-School Meeting time. To complement the Walks in previous years, Burgundy students have collected t-shirts and clothing to donate. This year, New Hope Housing has expressed a great need for soap and toiletries. Sixth graders Ena Sullivan, Nina Wilson, Sofie Edwards, and Stella Davis are heading the drive. They write:
Middle School Students will be setting up donation boxes around the campus for the Clean Start Drive. This drive will be collecting bars of soap and small hotel-sized toiletries for New Hope Housing, which operates shelters and programs to end homelessness in Northern Virginia. The toiletries that will be going to help the New Hope Housing organization will be helping the homeless people in our community get clean and washed up. After a safe place to live and having food every day, the homeless in our community want to be clean so they can start to look for jobs. We will be holding the drive from Thursday, October 16 through Wednesday, October 22, the date of the campus Walk to End Homelessness.
So please send in both full-sized bars of soap and hotel-sized toiletries to your child's class or bring them to the main office or the Middle School Atrium before Wednesday, October 22. New Hope Housing and the people they help thank you for your generosity!
Ena, Nina, Sophie, Stella, and Charlene
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Yearbook Needs Your Help!
Beginning on October 25, the middle school students that make up Burgundy's yearbook staff will start work on the 2015 yearbook with advising from Kathleen Hennessey and Kham Chanthyasak. We need your help! If you have taken photographs at the Cove, in your child's classroom, or around campus, please share them. Below please find instructions on various ways you can upload photographs. To help the yearbook staff find your images, it is very important that you add tags associated with the yearbook pages/topics. For example, 8th grade Cove images can be tagged as: 8th grade, Cove, Cove 8th grade.
How to submit files and images:
1. eShare
Visit Herff Jones' eShare site and register to upload up to 10 photos at a time.
2. Herff Jones Phone App
Easily submit photos taken on your smartphone. Search for the app via iTunes or Playstore using keyword "Herff Jones." The school ID password/code is burgundy
3. Email
Send to khamstudio@gmail.com and/or yearbook@burgundyfarm.org. In your email, please include tag keywords (see above).
4. Printed copies of photos and memory disks/USB drives
You can place hard copies and memory disks in Kathleen Hennessey's mailbox in the main office. Please include the tags/keywords of photos. We will return hard copies and disk/USB to the student's teacher's mailbox within a week.
5. DropBox
If you would like to share photos using your DropBox account, give access to khamstudio@gmail.com and/or yearbook@burgundyfarm.org.
If have any problems with any of these methods, please contact Kham. She will be able to help.
Thanks in advance!
Kathleen & Kham, Yearbook Advisors
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 | Part of the group with trash collected from the water.
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Community Service Report
On a very wet Columbus Day morning, about 50 Middle School students and many of their parents braved the weather and assembled at Fountainhead Regional Park, where they went out in canoes, kayaks, and john boats to collect trash that had accumulated in the coves surrounding this waterway that is used as a reservoir for Fairfax County's drinking water. Although students hauled in a tire, a doll, lots of shoes, and various pieces of wood, the most common "catches" were pieces of Styrofoam and plastic water bottles. As one of the participants said, "After seeing this, I'm never going to use a plastic water bottle again!" We were all wet from head to toe, but everyone had a grand time and contributed to a cleaner watershed.
Additionally, it was wonderful to see the products of another one of our projects, fishing wire recycling centers, mounted at several places on the fishing docks near where we launched. We constructed them about four years ago as one of our Martin Luther King Day of Service projects; they were still in great condition, and are clearly being used to keep fishing wire out of the water and away from the fish.
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Reminders
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Fall Fair sale donations of used books, used media, and baked goods are still welcome today! Get all the details on donating.
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A reception and tree dedication for Burgundy's late director Don Mills will be held Saturday, October 18 at 10 a.m., before the Fall Fair. RSVP or share memories of Don by emailing memories@burgundyfarm.org.
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We give priority consideration to admission applications from siblings of current students and others in the Burgundy community. Applications are due November 15. Contact Lori Adams with questions.
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Parting Pictures
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A group of Coopers learn what it means to persuade with Mary.
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A breeze brings down a few more fall leaves near the Hawks' Nest, the 4/5 building.
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