Weekly Message from Head of School 2023/02/26-2023/03/04
Dear Keystone Community,
Warm Friday greetings to each of you! I have spent the last couple of days in Sishui with a small group of colleagues beginning to re-awaken our collaboration and engagement in that incredible rural community. Due to the support of generous families and friends of the school we have completed a wonderful facility that will enable us to be a part of the community in a sustainable and co-operative way. This was the first of several trips this spring, hopefully leading up to some students having the chance to travel there in pilot programs later this semester—stay tuned!
In other news this week, families of Keystone students are beginning to return to campus! Part of how I would like to learn from family presence on campus is through a series of learning walks. These would be hour long sessions in which I engage in my favorite pastime—strolling around campus, with a small group of parents. We may also add some students and faculty and staff to the mix in the near future. The purpose of these learning walks is to introduce (or re-introduce) families to the campus and learning environments and to support and accelerate my learning about the Keystone parent community. I can’t wait!
Some guiding questions for this series of learning walks will be:
What do we feel, see and notice when we are on Keystone's campus?
What excites us about the opportunity of a Keystone Education for our students?
What memories (warm or cool) do we have about our education at our child(ren)’s age(s)?
Please use the links below to sign up for one of these opportunities if you are interested and able. We have limited space for each tour to ensure meaningful conversations. These are not opportunities to have private conversations about your individual child—you are welcome to schedule those conversations at any point through the division offices—but rather a chance for us to reflect broadly about what we do here and why. I think this will be very enjoyable and insightful. This is just the start of our school’s re-awakening; it is going to be a great semester and there will be plenty of opportunities to engage and participate in campus life! And since not everyone can join such an adventure constricted to school hours, I will do my best to share some of the learning that comes from these walks here in this space another week.
Until then, very warmly,
Emily McCarren
