As students returned to St. Clement’s this week, the community spirit and energy was palpable in the building. We were thrilled to welcome the girls back to School, and to welcome many parents at our Parents’ Association coffee on the first day of school.
With a new year underway, new community members, and a new timetable, it has been a week of acclimation and adjustment for all. Our supportive, connected community is again a benefit as it allows us to move through the changes together.
According to the Oxford online dictionary, connected is defined as either “brought together or in to contact so that a real or notional link is established” or “associated or related in some respect.”
Most of us associate connection with virtual access to information and resources. This kind of connection has become a norm for so many and affords tremendous opportunities for leveraging learning, efficiencies and experience.
At St. Clement’s we value technology as a tool for students’ learning; our girls and faculty from Grades 1-12 have access to state of the art computer labs, computers and tablets. Our superb Information Technology staff work hard to support both a strong and safe network and students and faculty alike as they work and learn.
We also value well-being and a quality learning environment and, as such, let our community know this week that we would be eliminating the presence and use of cell phones in the classroom. This, for the School, has much to do with the distraction that cell phones- and particularly access to texts and social media- can have on our girls’ learning. While the girls may be connected to friends, family and social media with phones at hand, we believe that our girls’ connectedness to their learning is compromised.
As we start our new year, we look forward to working alongside our girls in a learning environment that is exemplary- and that fosters their connection to learning.
