PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE We believe in challenging ourselves, reaching our fullest potentials in academics, the arts, sports, and in the daily challenges we face. We believe in effort, willpower, perseverance and grit. FAMILY HANDBOOK CITIZENSHIP We believe in pursuing the common good and being active, ethical participants in our local and global communities. Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 5 SEVEN ARROWS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL VISION 6 Mission 6 Our Seven Core Values 6 OUR ACADEMIC PROGRAM 7 Service Learning & EtHical leadersHip 8 Environmental Outdoor EducaMon 9 SCHOOL TRADITIONS, RITUALS & COMMUNITY AFFAIRS 11 Kuyam 11 Parent Band 11 All-ScHool Picnic 11 Walk-A-THon 11 Dine Around NigHt 12 EartH Day 12 MotHer’s Day 12 Field Day 12 Literary FesMval 12 SixtH Grade TriatHlon 13 TeacHer AppreciaMon LuncHes 13 Dancing Arrows Ensemble 13 SeaHawks AtHleMcs Day 13 Stepping Up Ceremony 13 SixtH Grade GraduaMon 13 GLOBAL FESTIVALS 15 El Día de Los Muertos 15 Black History MontH 16 Holi FesMval 16 Masquerade FesMval 16 A LOOK AT THE RESEARCH 17 Universal Design in EducaMon 17 Howard Gardner, MulMple Intelligences 18 Howard Gardner, Five Minds 18 Daniel Goleman, Social Intelligence 18 Daniel Goleman, EmoMonal Intelligence 19 Mel Levine, Different Minds 20 Susan Kaiser Greenland, THe Mindful CHild 21 Recommended Reading List 23 Parent Handbook 2017-2018 • Seven Arrows Elementary School ?2 STUDENT BEHAVIOR AND EXPECTATIONS 25 Doing Our Part as TeacHers and Staff 26 ConMnuum of Consequences 29 GENERAL GUIDELINES, POLICIES AND PROCEDURES 30 Being Ready for ScHool 30 Homework 30 Aaendance 31 Aer ScHool Care 31 Aer ScHool EnricHment Program 32 BirtHdays 32 Field Trips 32 Grades 34 Lost & Found 34 LuncH & Snack 34 Nut RestricMon Policy 35 Sugar Free Policy 36 Uniforms 38 Cell PHones and iPods 39 VisiMng 39 Volunteers 40 ACCEPTABLE USE OF COMPUTERS AND TABLETS 40 COMMUNICATION 41 CommunicaMng WitH Your CHild’s TeacHer and Our Staff 41 CommunicaMng WitH Our Parents 43 PUBLICATIONS 46 FUNDRAISING 47 Gib Giving for tHe Annual Giving, GrowtH, and EnHancement Campaigns 47 SEVEN ARROWS ELEMENTARY GREEN EFFORTS 50 Recycling Program 50 Frequently Asked Recycling QuesMons 50 Edible Garden 51 ComposMng 52 Woolly Pockets 52 Environmental CHarter 52 CARPOOL & CHILD TRANSPORT GUIDELINES 53 Overview 53 Morning Drop Off 53 Aernoon Pick-up 54 Aernoon Pick-up at tHe Park 55 Walk-In Parents 56 Rainy Day Dismissal 56 Car Seats 56 SCHOOL EMERGENCY PLANS & SAFETY PROTOCOL 57 Special Dietary Needs and Allergies 57 Parent Handbook 2017-2018 • Seven Arrows Elementary School ?3 Injuries 60 Safety Rules 60 Emergency Illness or Accident 61 Field Trip Emergency 62 MedicaMon Dispensing Procedure 62 Head Lice 63 Tape -, ring -, pinworm 64 IMMUNIZATIONS 64 SEVEN ARROWS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ANTHEM 66 SEVEN ARROWS BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEMBERS 67 FACULTY AND STAFF DIRECTORY 68 AdministraMon 68 Lead TeacHers 68 Associate TeacHers 69 Specialty TeacHers 69 AdministraMon CHeat SHeet 70 Faculty/Staff Bios 71 Parent Handbook 2017-2018 • Seven Arrows Elementary School ?4 INTRODUCTION Dear Seven Arrows Families, Welcome to the 2017-2018 school year! We are so looking forward to another great year in your company, eagerly anLcipaLng all the magic in store for our community as we partner with you in our passion and life’s work — the growth and flourishing of each of our children! In order to work our collecLve magic, the Seven Arrows Way of EducaLon is built on open communicaLon and transparency, as we feel they are the keys in culLvaLng strong, fruiQul relaLonships between families and the school. In upholding our commitment to keeping you informed, several communicaLon tools have been put in place. This Parent/Student Handbook is one such method and will serve as your reference and guide to the school’s philosophy, policies, procedures, curricula and other perLnent informaLon. Please take the Lme to read through it, and feel free to ask any quesLon that may arise. AVached to this handbook and sent home along with the first issue of our weekly all-school newsleVer, Arrow Dynamics, you will find a Community DeclaraLon form. We ask that you and your child read the handbook and the Community DeclaraLon form carefully. Once they are fully reviewed, please sign the Community DeclaraLon form and return it to our office manager, Erin Lewis at the front desk, so the form may be included in your child’s file. The deadline to sign and return the form is noted on the school calendar. We wish to thank you for believing in and enhancing our vision of educaLon. We have no doubt that this school year will be truly excepLonal. Best wishes, Margarita Pagliai Founder & Head of School Parent Handbook 2017-2018 • Seven Arrows Elementary School ?5 SEVEN ARROWS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL VISION MISSION The mission at the core of the Seven Arrows academic program is to teach and promote a passion for learning, academic excellence, and a commitment to local and global communiLes. Seven Arrows and its staff will support and encourage the development of competent, disciplined, criLcal, creaLve, respecQul, and ethical human beings in an environment that celebrates each child’s innate abiliLes and challenges her or his personal potenLal. OUR SEVEN CORE VALUES Our campus keeps the following values in mind throughout the year, helping to create the strong and supporLve community that is ideal for nurturing a child’s educaLon. CITIZENSHIP We believe in pursuing the common good and being acLve, ethical parLcipants in our local and global communiLes. EMPATHY We believe in love, caring about others, having compassion, being kind and accepLng of differences, and considerate of the feelings of others. We believe in the power of forgiveness. GRATITUDE We believe in acLvely pracLcing appreciaLon and thankfulness for all the good in our lives and in the world. We believe in being generous with our thanks and with our hearts. INTEGRITY We believe in being honest, loyal, ethical, and staying true to our word. PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE We believe in challenging ourselves, reaching our fullest potenLals in academics, the arts, sports, and in the daily challenges we face. We believe in effort, willpower, perseverance and grit. RESPECT We believe in respecLng one’s self and others, property, and the environment. We believe in being fair and just. RESPONSIBILITY We believe in being responsible and trustworthy, preparing for school, and being aVenLve, organized, and accountable. We believe in having self-control. Parent Handbook 2017-2018 • Seven Arrows Elementary School ?6 OUR ACADEMIC PROGRAM At Seven Arrows Elementary, our goal is to teach students to idenLfy, develop, and communicate their academic, creaLve and social/emoLonal strengths and challenges. We have excepLonally strong mathemaLcs, reading, and wriLng programs, but what makes these programs even more effecLve is the fact that we take each subject further by instrucLng students to apply their newfound knowledge to the world around them. This makes the informaLon relevant and important to their life experiences. Our classes are structured so that each child can find a recepLve and encouraging learning community where individual social, emoLonal, and academic needs are all met. The teaching faculty is one of the strongest and most important facets of Seven Arrows Elementary School. Our lead teachers have mulLple years of teaching experience and the associates are all credenLaled teachers. Furthermore, all Seven Arrows teachers receive extensive training, both on and off-site through professional educaLon seminars and workshops and other development opportuniLes. Some of these programs have included the Lucy Calkins Writers Workshop at Columbia Teachers College in New York, the ISTE conference for technology integraLon, and extensive training in the Singapore Math Curriculum. It is important to us that we examine the needs and objecLves of each grade in both individual and holisLc terms. We feel such an approach is necessary in order for us to achieve our goals and our mission: to help children realize their potenLal both as individuals and as effecLve and respecQul members of the class and larger school community. By basing our pHilosopHy on tHis structure, Seven Arrows Elementary: • Balances the needs of individual learners with those of the larger group. • Promotes a model of educaLon that fosters strong, well-rounded individuals with various talents and interests. • Creates an integrated and individualized learning environment that accommodates and promotes diversity in student learning styles, academic and arLsLc strengths, lifestyles and backgrounds. This diversity within our community culLvates a spirit of compassion, understanding, and wholehearted acceptance of differences, virtues that are essenLal to embody in an increasingly globalized world. • Carefully assesses children so that they may be challenged at their current levels while achieving successful outcomes within their age group. Our philosophy is supported by a variety of sources and studies, including (but not limited to) the work of Dr. Howard Gardner (Theory of Mul5ple Intelligences) and Dr. Mel Levine (author of A Mind at a Time), Dr. Willis (How Your Child Learns Best), and Dr. Siegel (The Whole Brain Child) among others. These respected scienLsts work on the leading edge of neurological research into how brains funcLon and develop opLmally. We apply these neuro-developmental concepts to our program and to our varied methods of instrucLon to best accommodate the strengths and needs of all individuals within a classroom. In this way, we are not only able to recognize the diversity of learning styles and intellects within each classroom, but we are also able to best legiLmate, help further develop, and celebrate the various intelligences that reside within every child. Parent Handbook 2017-2018 • Seven Arrows Elementary School ?7 Our core curriculum consists of mathemaLcs, STEAM, global cultural history and geography, and an integrated language arts program that includes reading, wriLng, grammar, public speaking, and acLve listening. In addiLon, all students receive regular instrucLon in art, drama, music, dance, Spanish, karate and physical educaLon, taught by professionally trained and highly experienced specialists.