March 2025

As you receive this March newsletter we are winding down in preparation for Spring Break. We are excited for our students to take a break and reconnect with their families, friends, and homes. While life on campus is truly amazing, a true home away from home with exhilarating academic challenges and engaging co-curricular and recreational activities - it is so very important for students to recenter themselves in who they are and where they come from, to reconnect with their origins and reflect on their learning and growth. For day students and boarding students alike, Spring Break is a chance to reflect, rest, and set goals towards a successful finish of the school year!

We strongly encourage parents to engage in meaningful conversations with your students about 4th quarter goals. This encouragement and connection between school and home will help our students find even greater success and happiness as they finish the school year. Ask questions broadly about academic goals, leadership goals, engagement goals with clubs, sports, and activities, friendship and relationship goals, and more! The more holistically you support your student’s reflections and goal-setting, the more they will embrace and understand that a well-rounded high school experience is important. Enjoy these meaningful chats, which will be great precursors to the upcoming Family/Advisor conferences on April 1!

In this newsletter, we are excited to introduce you to a new format. You can now look forward to a three-part monthly newsletter in the months ahead that includes:

1. An introduction from me,

2. A letter from a featured author, and

3. A (new!) “Happenings on Campus” section that highlights key events from the previous month and links back to our social media spaces where you can keep up with events in real time.

To conclude my introduction I am pleased to share next year’s academic calendar for your planning purposes and to introduce our featured author.

Next year we have made some subtle adjustments to the calendar around our arrival and departure days in order to add 5 instructional days to the school year. We are pleased to be able to increase students’ deep engagement with their subjects and their preparation time for any AP exams that they elect to take. The Academic Calendar for 2025-2026 is linked here and dates of note for travel, arrival, and orientation purposes include:

• August 20 is Arrival Day for all Boarding Students

• August 21 will be Parent Orientation Day for all parents, of both boarding and day students. Parent Orientation Day is designed not just for new parents, but as a launch to the year for ALL parents. NOTE: Boarding students will participate in boarding-related orientation activities on this day.

• August 22 will be Student Orientation for all students, boarding and day. Student Orientation Day is designed not just for new students, but as a mandatory launch to the year for ALL students.

• August 23-24 will include mandatory grade level events for ALL students.

• August 25 is the first day of class.

• December 12 is the last day of class before winter break.

• December 12 & 13 are departure/travel days for boarding students.

• January 7 is Arrival Day for all Boarding Students.

• January 8 is the first day of class.

• March 6 is the last day of class before spring break.

• March 6 & 7 are departure/travel days for boarding students.

• March 24 is Arrival Day for all Boarding Students.

• March 25 is the first day of class.

• May 16 is Graduation day and departure day for Grade 12 students

• May 22 is the final day of the school year for Grades 9-11

• May 22 & 23 are departure/travel days for Grade 9-11 boarding students.

We respectfully request that you align to the arrival and departure dates in bold above, as supporting arrivals and departures outside of those dates presents challenges for both the students and for campus operations.

I want to close by introducing Jeff Robinette, our Summer School Administrator and featured author this month. Please read below to learn about the exciting offerings available for our second summer of EF Academy Online Summer School. Jeff did a brilliant job leading the launch of the program last year, and the 36 participating students have raved about their experiences! We hope you will give thoughtful consideration to the benefits of joining summer school in Summer 2025!

That is all from me this month! Have a wonderful month reconnecting with your children. We will miss them and look forward to welcoming boarders back on March 25 and resuming classes on March 26!

With appreciation,