• Curriculum Overview
• After School
• Events and Celebrations
• Service Learning and Partnerships
• Special Assemblies
• Mini Courses

By Lauren de Moll, Director of Program Administration

So much to do in so little time! SRV teachers and administrators have been growing increasingly frustrated in recent years, trying to find ways to fit all of the great learning experiences we would like to provide for your children into the time we have with them. We have tried to balance the many pulls for more of everything – more subjects, more special events, more time to master essential skills, more time for special projects, time to go deeper, time to do nothing. We have found that trying to squeeze more and more into a day has been affecting all of us, and some of the costs have been ones we no longer feel prepared to pay.

So last spring the staff took on the work of looking at how we could address this growing concern. We spent many staff meetings and our Staff Development Days revisiting our core values. What do we feel is most important in educating children in this day and age? We looked at what we think we should be teaching, beyond meeting outside standards, and we examined what we feel the essential outcomes should be for each subject at each age level. Then we took on perhaps the hardest challenge: defining what our priorities are. What is most important to do, and what do we need to invest in order to do it well?

This work of re-examining our educational beliefs and practices is not complete, but in one area at least, we have already come to a conclusion that has led us to make an institutional change now, for this school year. The staff made the decision last June to change the way we structure and use time for the elementary students. In an attempt to take off some of the pressure, reduce the stress, increase the quality of the time spent with children and the depth and richness of their experience, we have designed a schedule in which teachers and the older children are going to be doing less in a given calendar period.

This is how it works. We have divided the year into four calendar cycles (two of Cycle I and two of Cycle II) timed to align with the rhythm of the school year and children's development. Two of the cycles will be long – 14 weeks from the beginning of the year until Winter Break, and 13 weeks from Winter Break until Spring Break. Then there will be two short cycles – Spring Break to May Fair, and May Fair to the end of the year.

For the elementary students (first through sixth graders), six of the seven special subjects that they have will be cycled. During each Cycle (I and II), they will have either Science or Shop, Technology or Art, and Library or Music. Sports will be year-round. The students will still have all of the specials they had before, and plenty of time in each; they just won't have all of them at the same time. (Preschool and Kindergarten students, whose developmental needs are for frequent and brief learning experiences and predictable routines, will have their specials year-round as before.)

Beyond their scheduled time with specific groups, some specials teachers will also be spending additional time in group classrooms, supporting or working collaboratively with group teachers. Wednesday afternoons will continue to be for All-School Choice or Mini Courses all year round, giving students the opportunity to work in specials that they don't have in a given cycle. Chorus will be on Monday afternoons all year round, and Sing and Assembly will continue to be weekly for all students, providing enriching music experiences for all students.

The benefits that cycling will provide are substantial.

• The students will have fewer special subjects to go off to at a time, so they will have fewer transitions, less confusing schedules, and fewer demands for time and attention. The time periods they have, both in specials and in the classrooms, will be longer, more flexible, and with fewer external constraints. The quality of their learning experiences should be deeper, richer, and more relaxed. Their teachers will have more time and flexibility to respond to their interests, questions and needs.
• The group teachers will have the children in their classrooms for more time, so they can do more academic and social skills work in longer, more flexible chunks of time. They will be able to teach more deeply, and give the children more time to respond and reflect. They will also be freed up to integrate more fully and to collaborate more effectively with the smaller number of specials teachers with whom they are working at a given time.
• The specials teachers will be teaching fewer students at a time, so they can give more attention to those whom they are teaching, and have more time and energy for integrating curriculum and collaborating with their colleagues. They will also have the students for more time during their cycles, so they can do more and better quality work.

Less is more!

Because of cycling, there are a few other calendar details that will be different this year. These include slight changes to the reporting calendar, and the re-organization of some special events. You will hear more details about these during your Back-To-School Nights and in future FREEPS.

We recognize that change can be hard. We encourage you to look at this from a long view. Our children's lives are already packed full and hurried far beyond what any culture or generation has ever attempted. And while this has undoubtedly created opportunities, it has also created stress, physical and intellectual exhaustion, and burn-out. Just because we can fit more into a day doesn't mean we should.

Children need the luxury of time and space in which to work, reflect, back-track, come to their "Ah-ha's," and to be. We want to make sure that our students' pathway is unique, and their destination is profound. Time, in a large measure, will help us do that.