Open House
I think a good place to start is with a big, ‘thank you’ to the children from Grade 5 for their fabulous support with our first open house of the Autumn Term.
It was the first time that children at WPYN were responsible for meeting and greeting our visitors and for leading the tours around the school. Virtually every visitor remarked on how much they enjoyed being shown around by the children and they sensed a real pride and love for the school. The benefits work both ways – the ability to interact with adults you don’t know, lead a tour and generally engage with grown-ups are real life skills and Grade 5 can be rightly proud of their achievements. I would also like to thank the parent advocates who gave up their time to support us and helped to make the morning so successful.
WWW
Continuing with the same theme of pride in achievements, it was a delight to welcome Eleanor Harvie from Grade 2 to my office last week. Eleanor came to show me a piece she had written in her English book. As you can see below, Eleanor’s story is truly fabulous. Based on the tales of Narnia, the task was to use the five senses supported by similes to evoke feeling and emotion to enhance the stories. I am sure you will agree this piece more than met the criteria and deserves to be displayed on the WWW (Wonderful Wetherby Work) board outside my office. When the story was read aloud in assembly the children burst into spontaneous and genuine applause!
Assemblies
I would also like to thank Miss Purton for leading a lovely assembly on the theme of positive thinking. Miss Purton used a rich variety of video clips, stories, question and answers and images to bring home the message of the importance of perseverance. She was keen for the children to understand that you cannot get everything right the first time and that many things need hard work and effort to be achieved. Her message was based around the key word: yet. For example, my handwriting may not be great yet, but I will keep trying to improve it; or I have not managed to achieve my grade 2 violin yet, but I know with further practice and determination I will get there. An important and relevant message for the children to think about.
Building bridges to the wider community
I have been fortunate enough to visit three schools in the local area over the last two weeks and to welcome several Heads to WPYN. I also met with Joanna Cawley from the Carnegie Hill Neighbours group (CHN). It is so important for the school to continue to be a proactive part of the community and for other schools to know about our amazing school. We look forward to collaborating with CHN in the many exciting projects currently up and running, including daffodil planting, which some of our children will be involved with later this month.
Miss Alba and myself also visited The Guggenheim with the idea of establishing an ongoing partnership to promote active use of the museum by our pupils and to explore opportunities of visiting artists, musicians and drama based activities. We will keep you posted of developments with all the above.
Staff
We said farewell to Jean Monaco this week and it was lovely to welcome so many parents to a farewell coffee morning. We wish Jean all the very best and we know she will stay in touch with the WPNY community.
Charity Committee
The WPNY Charity Committee is delighted to announce that + POOL will be hosting a ‘Riversweep‘ on Saturday, October 15th to help keep the waterways of NYC clean.
Friends of + POOL hosts regular river sweeps from May-October to help keep the waterways of New York City beautiful for the citizens of the city. Part of being a good steward of public space includes keeping the rivers free from debris that can harm water quality, change the ecology of the river, and hurt marine wildlife. River sweeps are volunteer events that gather citizens for a day of service to build community and raise awareness of the issues impacting our waterways.
Please join us by signing up to take part in this important initiative! The event is free, with a suggested donation of $25-50 per family towards our WPNY fundraiser for + POOL.
When Where
Sat, October 15, 2022 Pier 35
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM EDT FDR Drive
New York, NY 10002
You can register to attend the Riversweep online
Best of luck to all those taking part in the litter collecting next Saturday.
