Newsletter December 2020

Dear Lawrence School Families,

Hopefully this quarterly newsletter finds all of our students and families well.  This school year is absolutely a unique and challenging one. 

Students and teachers worked hard this fall to learn and adjust to the newly introduced instructional practices and they continue to get better with each class!  With so many of our regular school year routines having been adjusted, we felt it was important to continue with as many of our past practices as possible.  One of these items was this quarterly newsletter.   These short excerpts from various staff members are helpful to give an overview of information of the Lawrence School experience - for our families of remote and hybrid students alike. 

We understand that this school year poses challenges unlike any other year in the past, but we want everyone to know that we are here for you.  If you have an issue that you would like to bring to our attention, or a question about an aspect of the school, please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly and I will do my best to assist or get you connected with the appropriate person in the building to help.  If you have words of encouragement for our teachers, counselors or teaching assistants, please reach out to them directly - this gesture would mean a lot to them as they continue to find new and effective ways to support your children this school year.  

As the parent of a current 8th grader, I can appreciate the challenges that we each have to navigate during this pandemic.  But I’m confident that every effort is being made to provide all of our children with as positive an experience as possible given the current guidelines.  As always, your collaboration and partnership in this endeavor is sincerely appreciated.  Thank you for your efforts in having your children ready to learn, remotely or in person, and encouraging them to have a PAWSitive attitude about the 20-21 school year!

Sincerely,

Tom Bushy - Principal 

A Message from Assistant Principal Vieira,

Greetings!  As you may know, a significant portion of my job is dedicated to dealing with student discipline issues. I’m happy to report that overall students have been well behaved so far this year and I would also like to report how I have seen student groups really come together as learning communities in these unusual times. Student groups spend the whole day together as well as lunch which has created a different dynamic this year, but again overall it’s been PAWSitive! I am realistic about the fact that this is a tricky age and peer to peer issues will come up as the school year rolls along and we will work together to navigate these issues as they come up with a focus on maintaining and restoring peer relationships. 

An area I would continue to like to draw your attention to is reminding students of keeping their communications appropriate with peers. This includes new modes of communication we are using such as GoogleMeet, Zoom and chat features, in addition to other social media platforms. While we are embracing these new technologies we want to encourage appropriate use of these which are steps that we can take to make sure our kids are safe and not participating in, or being exposed to, bullying or harassment.  Please talk to your children about social media’s pros and cons and encourage them to report when they see something inappropriate. 

Finally, Mr. Bushy and I visited classrooms to talk about behavior concerns in a proactive way.  Our goal is to pre-address issues in an effort to support students and staff and a copy of our follow up slide presentation for students was included in Mr. Bushy’s parent/guardian communication that was sent out on November 20th.   

Sincerely,

Rebecca Vieira - Vice Principal