From the Head of School

 Happy New Year

I don’t have too many memories under 10 years old, but I do remember my first day of school.  My dad took me in, right up to the three large steps of the first year classroom, which he insisted I ascended alone.  I got to the top, where the waiting teacher asked  my name.  I turned for confirmation from my dad that it was ok to speak to this strange lady, but he was gone. I was terrified.

We have welcomed more than a dozen new families to ISA this week, and more will start in the next month or so.  I hope they don’t feel the same sense of terror of abandonment I had my first day all those years ago; nevertheless it can pretty be scary to start somewhere new, even if we have also been looking forward to it. 

New students are paired up with a ‘buddy’ - a classmate selected by the teacher to help their new friend find their way about. In Elementary, the classroom teacher also keeps a special eye on new arrivals and is the point of contact with home; in middle and high school this is the job of the advisor.  Students know that if they have any deep concerns they can always pop in to see our counsellor, Valerie DeGraw,; Valerie should already be familiar as she has lots of contact with families before they arrive.  

It is not just the student who is new; the whole family is, and all of them have joined our community.  I am very grateful to the Parent Teacher Organisation (PTO) for organising welcoming events, including the welcome coffee this morning.  The PTO works hard to promote a sense of community, even as we are restricted in the events we can hold.  

Before the pandemic, we loved having parents in the building.  It is great to have them see where their children spend so much of the day, and also act as a forum to meet us and each other.  We are having to put this on hold still, but can invite in individual parents, so next week our middle and high school ambassadors are giving campus tours to new parents in their section.

We can’t promise that starting new at ISA won’t be scary, some may even feel the terror I did as a five year old, but we make every effort to make sure that students settle quickly and families feel part of our community.  I would like to welcome all our new families, and welcome back our returning ones to a new calendar year with more opportunities than the last.