Valley Central has identified Community, Coherence and Consistency as areas of focus.  At East Coldenham, community is being developed by returning to our pre-COVID days of gathering as a building.  Each month, the entire building will be gathering and showing our school spirit by wearing blue shirts and taking part in some great presentations and activities.

 

These assemblies allow us the opportunity to get to know each other a little better by taking part in team building activities, which are led by our staff and our students.  Coach Regan kicked off the year by leading us through a number of activities in September.  The Fifth Grade took the reins in October.  By the end of the year, each grade will have the opportunity to lead the school assembly; either by leading an activity, showing off their talents, or sharing something interesting, they have learned as a grade.

 

These assemblies join some great programs already in place at EC.  The Bus of the Month and Citizen of the Month programs are still in effect.  Both programs remind students to act in an upright and fair manner toward their fellow classmates and are designed to celebrate students who do just that.  Mrs. Riker continues to visit classrooms to discuss Character Education on a regular basis.  These lessons strengthen the notion of being an active and productive member in the community.  

 

Other new programs, such as the EC Mailbox where students will be able to send and receive messages to each other throughout the building, are currently in development.  The 23-24 school year also sees the return of our Bus Helper program, which was also derailed during the COVID years.  This program pairs Fifth graders with Kindergarten students during dismissal making it easier to ensure that our youngest community members make it to their buses safely.  This program will be expanded upon through the EC Buddy program where each student will be paired with another student from a different grade.  These buddies will be able to meet throughout the year to take part in reading time, games, and general discussions to get to know each other better.

 

Another program returning for the third year at EC is One School, One Book.  This program delivers a book to every student so that we read as a community each night at home and discuss it at school.  This year’s program is scheduled to begin in January.  Past titles included Wonder (2021-2022) and The Adventures of Humphrey (2022-2023).  Stay tuned for this year’s book to be announced.  Lots of fun is in store with this great program. 

 

We look forward to sharing our experiences and creating new memories as an entire community.  The connections made between students at the school will, hopefully, continue throughout the community.  COVID may have separated us physically, but we cannot allow it to keep us apart any longer.  We are one community.  We are all ConnECted.