Sharing the Rhythms of the School Week with New Families

    > Sharing the Rhythms of the School Week with New Families

4/23/2021

By City and Country School

Each week, our Admissions Team sends out a missive to our newly admitted families. These may be updates from the school, communications from the Principal, or glimpses of the school offered by community members.

This week, Nick Smart, our Associate Director of Admissions, gave families insight into some of the small details and big moments that contributed to the rhythm of our school over the past few days.

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April 23, 2021

Hi New Families,

One of our goals for New Family Friday is that you, our newest community members, begin to experience the rhythms of City and Country School life even before your kids arrive in the fall. With that in mind we want to, mostly, pause from updates this week and share with you our reaction to two events that gave us reason to breathe deeply and reflect.

We are in that part of the calendar where the job of finishing this school year and our anticipation of next fall begin to mingle, especially in the Admissions Office. As if to remind us that the work is always ahead, a neighbor shared a glimpse of their preparations.

This nest in the window outside of the Admissions Office soon became an in-person and virtual attraction. When the weather grew inclement, we received many queries of concern. Not to fear, though, the progress of nature proceeded apace.

After one of our morning IIIs Groups saw the eggs, they too began to think about how one stage of a project leads to the next. So they sent us this:

This was a flurry of activity for the first two days of a new week. And, as you know, by Tuesday afternoon our collective attention was drawn to another subject. I was in Debate practice when the jury in Minnesota announced its verdict. My co-coach, Sarah Whittier, held her phone up to her screen. We postponed that day’s practice, and discussed instead the criminal justice system and the promise of America with a group of very well informed XIs (sixth-graders). Neither Sarah nor I will forget where we were and what we talked about on that day. 

Like Debate practice, other activities around school took a beat of response to the news. At Wednesday’s all-staff meeting over 100 participants created a word cloud of reaction to the verdict. Relieved and Sad held places of equal prominence in the center of our screens as we watched our collective feelings register, and asked each other how we would talk to children and families as the week drew on. In a letter to the community, Scott provided these resources:

American Academy of Pediatrics: “Talking to Children about Tragedies and Other News Events”

Child Mind Institute: “Racism and Violence: How to Help Kids Handle the News” 

So, now it’s Friday and inboxes are full of slide shows about the life cycle of the robin (from the XIIs), many sustainability ideas in keeping with Earth Day’s celebrations, and requests from the XIIIs for interviews with faculty and staff on the subject of racial equality in America.  

All told, the past few days at C&C have been a reminder that we learn and work in a spirited community whose members are always eager to join each other in contemplation of beauty and justice.  

For the last word on the third week of April, back to the nest: