It has been garlands, glitter and gratitude since we have returned from the school Thanksgiving holiday last week! As I said in my welcome back letter, 7 East 96th Street has ‘good bones’ and wears the holiday season exceptionally well every year. Ogden Codman Jr would be quite proud of how his 1913 Beaux Arts mansion is looking today. Thank you once again to our avid team of decorators and the building and classroom doors look wonderful.
However, I would like to take the time to stop and acknowledge another true showpiece for 2021 and the prized launch of the Wetherby-Pembridge Cookery Book at our PA Holiday Bazaar yesterday! Thanks to Hayley Springer (Mum to Ellie in Grade 1) and Sarah Baum (mum to Frances in Pre-K), ‘Step Up to the Plate’ literally flew off the shelves and sold like proverbial hot cakes, alongside our WPNY branded aprons. All the proceeds go to the ‘Red Door Place’ which is a charity and cause very close to our hearts, thanks to Chef Nancy and I will be delighted to announce the grand total raised in our final family assembly next week on Thursday 16th December. It was good to see such a gratuitous range of WPNY branded goodies on offer for purchase and I fully expect to see you all brandishing items on key days of the holidays going forward! Whether it rains, you feel like journaling, you are thirsty, you wish to wear a baseball cap on a walk or to a sports match or you just want to cosy up by the fire under one of our blankets – there is quite literally a WPNY gift for every holiday occasion… thank you to our PA Chairs, Alicia Horwitz and Jane Davies who helped co-ordinate such a worthy and fun event yesterday.
We hope you can all join us on Zoom at 6pm on Wednesday 15th December for ‘A Wetherby-Pembridge Holiday’, our festive end of term celebration and production. It has been great fun hearing the children rehearsing and the filming took place yesterday throughout the building, which was no mean feat with the Bazaar in the Carriageway but great fun, nonetheless! Then we will gather for our virtual holiday send off at 9.30am on Zoom on Thursday 16th December for our grand finale.
One final word from me on two aspects of school life I have noticed and appreciated in the last week or so. Last Friday was our school ‘Odd Socks Day’ in support of the anti-bullying week held annually in the UK. We all attended an assembly led by Mr Kinsey and do feel the message and theme for 2021 should serve us all well as we break for the holidays. The theme of ‘One Kind Word’ is something that resonated with your children, and combined with the school’s ‘Start with Heart’ message from September, brings our community full circle ahead of the holidays. As I stood on the door on Monday morning, I was also heartened to see the celebration of home learning work flooding in through the front gates. There were solar systems and galaxies, space buggies and other models, all of which have been lovingly made and part of the new WPNY Homework initiative this year. Who said learning wasn’t fun and who said homework is tedious?! Thank you for supporting your children with this new school drive and I do feel we shall continue to appreciate the benefits of this approach for many years to come.
I look forward to seeing you as we count down to all the festive events next week. Don’t forget it’s holiday sweater day on Thursday… ho ho ho!
