As I reflect on my sixth year at Barnet School I continue to feel very grateful for the opportunity to serve in such a warm, supportive, and welcoming community. The community’s unwavering support of its school and its faculty and staff is commendable and very much appreciated. I want to recognize our faculty and staff as dedicated and caring people who understand the importance of keeping the best interests of children in mind whenever decisions are made. Our students continue to be interested in learning, enthusiastic, inquisitive, energetic, and well behaved, most of the time. For those times when a few of our students have difficulty behaving, we have instituted some new procedures to address their challenges. Beyond that we are embracing Vermont Positive Behavior Supports (VTPBS) a statewide effort to help school teams form behavioral and discipline systems that support students’ learning and social development. For the past year Barnet’s team has been attending workshops and monthly meetings to prepare for a four-day institute this summer. Team members Jean Densen, Nedra Willard, Susan Jensen, Cindy Mosedale, Bill Douglas, Cathy Browne, Susan Persson, and I will attend the institute and return with an action plan to train other staff members and to implement positive behavior supports for all students. The purpose of school-wide PBS is to establish a climate in which appropriate behavior is the norm. Introducing, modeling, and reinforcing positive social behavior is an important part of a student’s educational experience. We believe that teaching behavioral expectations and rewarding students for following them is a much more positive approach than waiting for misbehavior to occur before responding. We are looking forward to an enhanced, more positive, school climate in the years ahead! 1. What do we expect students to learn? “We strive to be a supportive community of learners in which every member meets the highest standards. We do this through respecting differences, encouraging risk-taking and questioning, collaborating, being creative, celebrating, finding joy in learning, reflecting, self-motivation, and self-discipline. We will continue to ask ourselves those challenging questions noted above, look at student work together, and further improve upon a collaborative culture that enhances student learning. We continue to revisit our assessment practices. Many teachers explored and shared Formative Assessment practices throughout the past year and others attended training during the summer. We will keep families informed as new practices develop. Our enrollment continues to grow. New registrations for next year have increased our enrollment to 182 K-8 students and 35 pre-schoolers, for a total of 217, compared to 205 this year. We welcome our new families and look forward to their participation in our school community! Sincerely, |
Barnet School
163 Kid Row
Barnet, VT
05821phone:
(802) 633 - 4978
fax:
(802) 633 - 4497