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Dear AFS Families,
We are eager to welcome Middle and Upper School students as they join our Early Childhood and Lower School children back on campus this upcoming Monday, September 21. After a successful start to classes online, which allowed for students to become oriented to their new classes and teachers as one community, and with two weeks of overall stable community data in both Montgomery and Philadelphia counties, we are so ready to greet our older students who are coming to campus on Monday morning. With excitement, we are ready to continue the well-established connections that have been formed with our students here and in China who will continue to learn online for the semester. We will continue to monitor our community data and are prepared to return to online learning should there be any significant changes in the days and weeks ahead.
Families and students who come to campus on Monday morning will be greeted by teachers and leadership outdoors in each division as they arrive and are directed to gathering places for Middle School advisories and to specific entrances for Upper School students on their way to classrooms. All will be checked in for daily Ruvna health screenings before entering the building. Parents and guardians, please be sure to fill out the survey each morning before your child leaves for school so that check-in can happen smoothly for everyone. If you have not received text alerts from Ruvna with daily health screenings for your child, please contact techsupport@abingtonfriends.net.
The campus has been beautifully prepared by faculty and staff and our facilities team. There are over thirty outdoor spaces mapped out on our campus for all divisions of the school along with several large tents for a variety of outdoor gatherings. Indoors, all classrooms have been transformed for distancing and hallways and public areas are all clearly marked for traffic flow. We are ready to introduce students to the new routines that will make for a safe, warm and welcoming daily community for all.
Our Early Childhood and Lower School students on campus these past two and a half weeks have been bringing joy to all of us. They have adapted so beautifully to new ways of doing school and have been so respectful of the call to care as we share these spaces on campus with each other. The Early Childhood and Lower School faculty and staff have been so thoughtful in creating the opening weeks of school for our youngest students and have quickly established a foundation for the whole school in living with our new protocols.
Most notable over the past three weeks of having Early Childhood and Lower School children on campus has been a striking blend of joyful, creative energy and a pervasive spirit of calm and serenity. There is a shared and heartfelt appreciation for the simple gifts of connection, play and learning together, an ethos that extends to the connection with our online students as well. We all look forward to seeing that lovely and generative atmosphere for learning and renewed relationships growing across the campus with the return of Middle and Upper school students joining their teachers next week.
In the meantime, please, please continue to focus on health and safety for your family in the weeks ahead, for the good of your loved ones and to honor the trust of all AFS families, faculty and staff as we join together as a school community this year. Shanah Tova to those celebrating Rosh Hashanah this week!
With hope, appreciation and care,
Rich Nourie
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