Middle School Newsletter - April 27, 2022
Message From Division Director
As we head into Friday’s Advisory Day, please review the complete details shared last week and discuss with your child the importance of remaining vigilant, attentive and responsive to their advisor as they navigate busy city streets while engaging in the fun scavenger hunt activities. Please also remember that:
- Regular morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up times apply.
- All of our students and advisors will be off campus for the day.
- There are no classes or athletics.
- Seventh graders will need a bag lunch; eighth graders will need money for lunch.
Brian Lamont
Director of the Middle School
THE LATEST
Middle School Division Coffee — CANCELED
We have canceled the Coffee scheduled for Friday, May 6.
End-of-Year Schedule — Exams and Closings
Not that we are looking forward to the end of the school year, but I wanted to make you aware of our plans for the final week of the school year.
- Friday, May 27 — one exam and regular Friday classes; full school day.
- Monday, May 30 — Memorial Day; no classes.
- Tuesday, May 31 — two exams; full school day.
- Wednesday, June 1 — two exams; last full school day of the year.
- Thursday, June 2 — no classes; students may arrive before the closing program and may leave immediately after.
- 1-2 p.m. — Middle School Closing Ceremony and Grade 8 Promotion
- Friday, June 3 — no classes.
Middle School Exams
Like everything else in middle school, it is important to keep exams in perspective as part of our low-stakes training ground. Our focus is more on the review process and long-term study skills than the results. We view the benefits of the exam process to be:
- The process of preparing for a cumulative assessment.
- reviewing/synthesizing skills and concepts to cement learning.
- learning and practicing study strategies to help each student determine what works best for them.
- Assessing learning on a cumulative assessment.
- this can be an important gauge of student learning/synthesis/retention.
- The experience of taking longer assessments on consecutive days.
- in high school and beyond, our students will need to sit for longer assessments and learn how to manage time during an exam period.
Students will have exams in English (an in-class revision of an essay), history, math, language and science. Each exam will be one hour with extended time as needed. The remainder of the school day will consist of games and activities. More details will be provided in the coming weeks.
Tickets for the Upper School Musical, "Working," Are on Sale Now!
Performances are held on April 29 and 30 at 7 p.m. and May 1 at 2 p.m. "Working" concerns the hopes, dreams, joys and concerns of the average working American. In the course of one 24-hour workday, the audience meets and hears stories of various workers, including the schoolteacher, the parking lot attendant, the waitress, the mill worker, the mason, the trucker, the fireman, and the housewife. Tickets are free, but reservations at this link are suggested. Good seats go fast, so get your tickets today!
The next meeting of the Kaleidoscope Parent Book Club is scheduled for Monday, May 9, 8:30-9:30 a.m., in the Peterson Middle School. We will meet to discuss the book "Beyond Diversity: 12 Non-Obvious Ways to Build a More Inclusive World" by Rohit Bhargava and Jennifer Brown. We look forward to building and deepening relationships through this shared learning opportunity. All parents are welcome to attend regardless of your familiarity with the book selection. Please use this form to RSVP. Contact All- School Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator Miles Henderson if you have any questions
Preparing for the 2022-23 School Year Tile Launches May 2
Coming Soon: The Community of Care
The Community of Care is an event designed for our community to engage in dialogue, create connections and build community. This year’s community conversation will focus on the Flint Hill Core Values. We invite you to join us as we connect across constituencies and build a more inclusive community, one conversation at a time. Our discussion will also inform our upcoming Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programming.
This year’s event is scheduled for Saturday, May 21, 9 a.m.-noon in the Peterson Middle School. We invite students in Grades 7-12, alumni, parents, faculty, staff and leadership to join us for this important community event. Please save the date. Registration details will be provided in the upcoming weeks.
FRIENDLY REMINDERS
- Use this form to request additional RFID tags for carpool.
- Refer a Husky and the Admission team will reach out to them.
PARENT RESOURCES
Parents Council of Washington Virtual Event April 28
The Parents Council of Washington is pleased to host a virtual event on Thursday, April 28, at 7:30 p.m. with Dr. William Stixrud and Ned Johnson, national bestselling authors of “The Self-Driven Child,” to discuss their new book, “What Do You Say?: Talking with Kids to Build Motivation, Stress Tolerance, and a Happy Home.”
William R. Stixrud, Ph.D. is a clinical neuropsychologist and founder of The Stixrud Group, as well as a faculty member at Children's National Medical Center and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine.
Ned Johnson is an author, speaker, and founder of PrepMatters, an educational company providing academic tutoring, educational planning, and standardized test preparation. He hosts the PrepTalks podcast and is a sought-after speaker and teen coach on study skills, sleep deprivation, parent-teen dynamics, and test anxiety.
In this PCW Speaker Series event, Stixrud and Johnson will focus on how to communicate with kids in a way that supports the autonomy and self-drive that are important for healthy development. They will emphasize practical communication strategies for building a strong emotional connection with our kids, communicating healthy (versus toxic) expectations, fostering intrinsic motivation, and helping kids find their own reasons to change when they are struggling. Because communication is hardest when things are not going well, the presentation will emphasize how to get "buy in" before we share our experience and advice, how to change the energy when it feels like we are trying to force our kids, and how to manage conversations when emotions run high.
The presentation will be followed by a Q&A period. Please submit in advance any questions you may have to administration@parentscouncil.org.
All PCW member school parents, administrators, faculty, and staff are invited. Register Here
Upcoming Events
To help protect the integrity and privacy of virtual events, we have placed all the links to Google Meet virtual events in Husky Hub via the All-School Calendar.
Advisory Day
Friday, April 29
All students will be traveling to Washington, D.C. to engage in teambuilding and an advisory scavenger hunt. Complete details are available here.
Upper School Musical, "Working"
Friday and Saturday, April 29 and 30, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, May 1, at 2 p.m., Olson Theater — Lower School Campus
Grades 5-8 Spring Band Concert
Thursday, May 5, 7-8:30 p.m.
Olson Theater — Lower School Campus
Grades JK-12 Parent Education Series: Kaleidoscope Book Club
Monday, May 9, 8:30-9:30 a.m.
Grades 5-8 Spring Percussion Concert
Tuesday, May 10, 7-8:30 p.m.
Olson Theater — Lower School Campus
Grades 5-8 Spring Choral Concert
Thursday, May 12, 7-8:30 p.m.
Olson Theater — Lower School Campus
Grade 7 Parent Dinner Sponsored by Parents’ Association
Saturday, May 14, 6-9 p.m.
Two-Hour Delayed Opening, Faculty/Staff In-Service
Tuesday, May 17
Grades 5-8 Spring Orchestra Concert — rescheduled from May 3
Tuesday, May 24, 4:30 p.m.
Olson Theater — Lower School Campus
Helpful Links
Flint Hill Positive Case and Close Contact Exposure Protocols
COVID-19 Vaccination Status Dashboard
All of these links can be found on the COVID-19 Health Information tile on the Resource Board.
Reminder: Keep Everyone Healthy by Staying Home if Sick
If your student has fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea, you should keep them home to recover. They must be symptom-free for 24 hours before returning to school.
Parents' Association
Don’t Forget to Register! Golf Invitational and Skills Clinic
Space is limited for the tournament, but there are plenty of spots available for the Skills Clinic, presented by AutoScandia. Join Clinic Co-Chairs Mica Howard P’19 and Sibel Unsal P’22 for an hour-and-a-half of casual conversation and golf skills taught by pros. Afterward, enjoy lunch together and get a chance to win some great raffle prizes, including a Kendra Scott necklace or two tickets to Signature Theater. Thank you to parents Sherri and Mark Bredesen P'22 of AutoScandia for their generous sponsorship of the clinic!
All abilities are welcome, so grab your spot here! Interested in volunteering? Sign up here.
Volunteer Opportunities in the Den
Parent volunteers are needed to help sell concessions during Middle School breaks, athletic games, and also at Springfest.
Sign up for a shift in the Den during Middle School break or one of the athletic games.
Once a Husky, Always a Husky
It was a beautiful weekend. The Toast to Celebrate John was sensational! It was so nice to be able to honor our headmaster for 17 remarkable years at Flint Hill. It was fun to see his face after each surprise: his portrait, two of his three sons surprising him, the Flint Hill Family Album that you all contributed to, the incredible gifts to a financial aid endowment in his name, the touching video of our community honoring him, and the reveal of the Middle School terrace to The John M. Thomas Terrace. Read more.
NEWS ON THE HILL
