Vol. 12, No. 9 Tappahannock, Virginia, April 2010

Dear St. Margaret's friends and families,

In April, as students, teachers, and parents look forward to the final weeks of the school year and the traditions they hold, all of us at the administrative and board levels have our eyes set much further ahead, and that is how it should be. While many of the fine details of the next school year are already in place, like the calendar and the academic and sports offerings, we continue to evaluate the more qualitative aspects of living in a school community in discussions among ourselves and also with teachers, students, and alumnae.

This winter, our Board of Governors identified the study of mission and messaging, the words we use to convey our mission, as one of their priorities over the next year. Over the last several months, George McDowell has led the faculty, administration, Board of Governors, Alumnae Council, and our students through an exercise asking each person to write 4 words and 2 sentences that convey the essence of St. Margaret’s School. We look forward to gathering a parent perspective at Spring Family Weekend.

Even though each group now sees the school from different life stages and perspectives, there were numerous words that rose to the top of each group’s list: community, friendship, diversity, and challenging. Now we will turn our attention to what the differences were and look more deeply at the impact of the school before and after graduation. Each group will consider ways in which our communications, policies, and practices can affirm the enduring commonalities and explore and respond to what we’ve heard.

This is but one step in our preparation of a thorough self-study of our school in prior to our 10-year accreditation visit by a team of educators from within the Virginia Association of Independent Schools. The value of this process is the time we spend together on reflection and exploration followed by all we learn while going through the process. Another essential element will be on-line surveys developed by VAIS distributed to all of our constituencies during the 2010-2011 school year. I look forward to your participation and to sharing more about the process and outcomes with you.

And, have no doubt, even though our attention is on the future, all of us here are eagerly anticipating our roles in all the spring traditions that move seniors to alumnae, younger students to leaders, and bind all of us together throughout these next two months. I look forward to sharing many occasions with you!

Sincerely,
Margaret R. Broad,
Head of School



 

Independent Study 2010:
Seniors Pursue Varied and Exciting Career Paths with ISP's......

News from the College Office:
Seniors Decide on Colleges While Juniors Prepare for Next Year......

International Festival:
Around the World in an Afternoon......

My River Views:
Features a letter from Lissy, Renata, Natalia and Ani......

Did you know! Each year our students enter work into the Essex Women’s Club Writing and Art Contests. In art at the local level our students earned 2 third places, 2 second places and 2 first places. First place prizes go on to the regional level and there they earned another first place and second place. Erica Houng’s “Cat & Mouse” was chosen as the People’s Choice at Regionals. In writing (poetry) our students earned 2 first places locally. A third entry received and Honorable Mention. Those first places went on to earn 2 third places at the regional level. Madie Bolles’ “Telescope” will go on to National Competition.

Alumnae Association Upcoming Events Your event calendar is at www.sms.org/alumcalendar