Letter From The Principal:
Hello EMS families and caregivers!
We have had an amazing start to the school year. This week we took our all school photo from the third-floor window with the student body arranged into a giant E M S on the Main St lawn. It was an awesome sight to behold. We are Edmunds!!
Speaking of pictures, a reminder that Monday is Picture Day! If you would like your student to participate in Picture Day, please register by following the link in the materials in the Welcome Packet sent home at the start of the school year.
Lastly, staying with the theme, I’d like to give you a snapshot of a day in the life of your kids at Edmunds. Perhaps you already have all this information. However, if your kids are like mine, when you ask them, “How was school today? What did you do?”, more often than not the answer is “Fine” or “Nothing” or the ever-inspiring, “Stuff.”
When students enter the building at 7:55 every morning, some more awake than others, they are greeted by a whole bevy of adults wishing them “Good Morning!” Nora, our wonderful Food Services Chef, is stationed right in the lobby with a kart full of breakfast options for the students to grab and take with them to their locker or first class. The bell rings and lockers close and students make their way to classes.
Every student has all four of their Core Subjects every day: Language Arts, Math, Science, and Humanities. Along with these core academics, in a single day they might have Band practice, and Chorus, AND Design & Tech Ed, or Health or PE or Art. Their teachers are prepared and professional and engaging. I am so proud to work with and for them.
In the hallways, I am seeing students connecting with one another, asking each other for help reading new schedules, moving to class in twos and threes, laughing and smiling. I’m seeing some hijinks, but overwhelmingly the kind you expect (and want) to see from a vibrant group of middle schoolers. At lunch, the tables are full of students looking at each other (instead of looking down at screens) and talking to each other! As I walk through or participate in classes, I see students working in small groups and more and more of them starting to find their voices to speak up in front of the whole class. Today I saw a 6th grader - a one week veteran of the school - volunteer to guide a new student here around for his first day, showing him where (and how) to be.
Your kids are amazing. It is such a privilege to be with them as they try and succeed and try and fail and try again and grow. This is the only time they will ever be this age. It’s so important that we celebrate their successes and attend to their struggles. Before we know it, they’ll be graduating. I can already picture it.
John
