Last week I was fortunate to accompany the 8th grade class and their other fearless chaperones on a three-night Wyvern Retreat to YMCA Camp Piomingo in Otter Creek Park, just southwest of Louisville. In other years, the 8th graders travel to Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area in Oneida, Tennessee for a week of backpacking. The pandemic presented health and safety challenges for us in planning the same type of Wyvern Retreat; however, the creativity and problem-solving skills of our team kicked into gear! Parents eagerly transported their students to and from the camp experience, and students enjoyed three nights of solo-tent camping in a beautiful, natural setting with the added fun that comes along with being at a summer camp facility. The core mission of the St. Francis School Wyvern Retreat Program is to conduct a safe and structured educational experience designed to inspire self-esteem, self-reliance, concern for others, and care for the environment. The program is intentionally designed to allow students the opportunity to meet challenges and move beyond self-imposed limitations through responsible risk-taking and hands-on involvement. Similar to the Big South Fork trip, students took ownership of cooking for themselves, menu planning in advance, and learning how to cook on small, portable camp stoves. They worked together to set up and tear down camp, weathering cold temperatures the first night and taking down camp in steady rain the final morning of the trip. It wasn’t all hardship -- there was a great deal of laughter and fun, too. The pipeline slide in the pitch-black [...]

In her New York Times #1 Bestseller, Dare to Lead, Brené Brown writes, “Daring leaders work to make sure people can be themselves and feel a sense of belonging.” At St. Francis, we aim to empower young people to become these very kinds of leaders, to know that they all belong in this School community and to have a sense that their ideas and opinions matter. Student leadership is evident in so many spaces in our School -- in Morning Meetings, Student Council, and Red and Blue Teams, just to name a few. How did a powerful example of student leadership show up most recently in our Lower School? Students requesting to reintroduce playground balls at recess. At Lower School Morning Meeting this week, Lower School Director Jennifer Griffith read a letter that a group of Lower School students worked together to write to her regarding an important request: being allowed to use playground balls to play with at recess. Prior to COVID-19, basketballs, soccer balls, footballs, and kickballs would be regularly played with items at every recess. Enter the cleaning and distancing protocols needed to keep everyone safe this school year, balls were a “no-go” outside of more structured (and refereed) games at P.E. or during team sports.  Fast forward to this spring with beautiful weather and with the students’ increased desire to demonstrate the “Wise Freedom” that we ask them to practice, a group of Lower School students worked together to use the power of the pencil to respectfully request that balls be reintroduced at recess. Jen [...]

Inching towards normalcy -- that’s the theme of this week’s installment from the Lower and Middle Schools! So many of the recent conversations and meetings we’ve had amongst the adults on campus revolve around exciting things like prepping for the 8th grade camping trip in April, planning for an upcoming Buddy Day, rethinking how we might host both a Kindergarten AND a 1st Grade Derby in May to make up for last year’s lost Derby event, and planning for end-of-year 8th grade celebrations! Seemingly normal springtime events that we felt such uncertainty and loss around this time last year are slowly creeping back onto the horizon, and I am so grateful. We now understand how we might safely recreate more “regular” events for our School community in ways that honor long-standing traditions while we also reenvision and improve these experiences for students and the School community. Other signs of inching towards normalcy: yesterday we hosted guest speakers and members of the Louisville Metro Council Jessica Green and Jecorey Arthur (see more about that under Goshen Happenings in the newsletter), the High School Drama Project performed their spring production, Almost, Maine, on the Goshen Campus stage last weekend to rave reviews, and the Middle School drama students started after school, in-person rehearsals for their spring show this week. Our 2020-21 NaNoWriMo authors also received their published books (Congratulations, young authors, and thank you, Julie Mushkin!). Keyonda Turner’s students in Enrichment are enjoying some incredibly fun new Razor scooters, zooming around the playshelter after school! "Camp Curious" Summer Camp plans are [...]

Earlier this week, I had the privilege to hear Dr. Joy Lawson Davis, author of Bright, Talented and Black: A Guide for Families of African American Gifted Learners and Gifted Children of Color Around the World: Diverse Needs, Exemplary Practices and Directions for the Future, speak at the annual conference of the Kentucky Association of Gifted Education. Dr. Davis spoke about how culturally responsive education serves all students. She explained how representation of multiple perspectives in the curriculum matters, and that the imagery students see at school should be representative of all populations. She underscored the need to use authentic historical and contemporary sources in the classrooms and that reading materials should be representative of varied ethnic and gender groups. She also spoke to the need for students to hear both stories of historical struggle and to see and hear contemporary examples of black excellence. At St. Francis, we strive for continuous learning and improvement. As Maya Angelou said, “I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.” We know that there is always more work to do and that we are always learning. We continue to audit our curriculum and collections to make sure that our teaching materials reflect both windows into other worlds and mirrors of students’ experiences, so that they all feel visible and a sense of connection and belonging. In January and February, there are some particular highlights to share regarding the powerful work being done with students in classrooms and the School community. In January, every [...]