Dear Flint Hill School Families,

This week is one filled with high energy here at Flint Hill. As you know, there are colorful Spirit Days that are taking place this week, and the students in all three divisions are dressing up as part of this celebration. Spirit Week gives them the opportunity to dress in various themes and enjoy doing something a bit out of the ordinary from the routine.

This coming Saturday, Homecoming will mark an incredible milestone in the school year, just as next Monday, October 22, will mark the end of the first quarter. While it may still feel like the school year just started, and we have just begun to feel the chill of cool weather in Northern Virginia, we are at a significant moment which coincidentally falls right at this same period. Where has the time gone? While we have all been absorbed in being actively engaged in our enormous array of school events, time raced right past by us!!

When you think about Homecoming, it is more of a fall festival for Flint Hill. The purpose of the event is to bring our entire school family — across all grades — together and to celebrate our pride in being Huskies and being a part of our phenomenal school. So what do you need to know about what’s left this week?

Please keep in mind that in addition to ongoing Spirit Days, there will be lots of activities and events for children and adults alike. Please check the list of activities for Friday and Saturday. I promise you, Homecoming Weekend is going to be an inspiring and fun weekend. It will get your adrenaline pumping.

This year, we added a special ceremony to the schedule to kick things off. On Friday at 4:45 p.m., there will be a ribbon-cutting for the renovated Fitness Center on the Upper School Campus. Our Annual Fund allowed us to install brand new equipment for our student-athletes, and we re-painted the entire area to make it much more attractive and enticing for our students. While it has been in use this fall, the official opening and ribbon-cutting will be held on Friday afternoon. If you cannot come in person, it will also be streamed on our Facebook page, so people can tune in remotely to see this special moment.

Each year, our celebration draws an enormous crowd of Flint Hill families, friends and neighbors. As I noted in my letter last week, please feel free to invite guests to join you so they can see the school family at one of our best moments. In fact, prospective families often join us for this event as part of their process for determining whether Flint Hill is right for them. If you meet any of these families, please join me in making them feel welcomed and comfortable immediately. The Homecoming festivities will come to an end with the annual Upper School Homecoming Dance.

Finally, I want to emphasize the importance of our Husky pride and the ability to look to the future. All of this is about pride in being Huskies. From spirit wear to cowbells and pompoms, it is the pride that we will all display as we cheer on our teams, which all have had outstanding fall seasons! Our dance team will perform at Friday’s bonfire, and all of our fall teams will be recognized, including cross country and golf, which do not have matches on Saturday. Three of our fall teams have been ranked in the area, the volleyball team continues to move forward, in their quest for not only the conference but the state title, and the football team has had a winning streak that now extends to almost two years! Girls’ soccer is also having one of their strongest years. We need to show our pride in who we are as a school and in the leadership and dedication demonstrated by our students.

This is a good segue into my point about our ability to look to the future. The role modeling that our Upper School students provide for our younger students is key. The way they act, their spirit, their sportsmanship, and the positive examples that they consistently set help younger students to look ahead and realize that someday it will be them on the fields participating in those games. Our fans will be cheering them on and they will be the ones setting the example and the tone for younger Huskies soon enough.

Please join us! Getting together is great, and it gives us an opportunity to cheer for our teams and our school with pride. It is wonderful to know that you are a part of something much larger than yourself. Together we can make this fall weekend a unique moment in time that we can all cherish as we are well underway in this school year. So hold on with a big smile on your face, have some Flint Hill gear in tow, and we look forward to seeing you this weekend.

Best wishes to you!

Sincerely,

John M. Thomas
Headmaster