Dear UA families,
Happy Earth Day everyone. Wasn’t it thoughtful of Mother Nature to water all of the plants for us this morning? Thank you to all the students and staff (wearing a sea of green) who participated in the community clean-up this afternoon. Every little bit makes a difference.
It was so great to see so many of our Junior and Middle School parents in the building this week for Student-Led Conferences. The students were so proud and excited to be able to guide parents through the learning they have done to date. Parents had the opportunity to observe, listen and participate in a variety of ways. On Monday, April 24 our Senior School will be participating in 3-way conferences with students, parents and teachers all meeting to discuss student progress as we head into the final months of the school year.
I am very excited to announce that we have had a very successful ‘staffing season’ this spring. The new faculty members coming in will be great additions to the UA team in the 2023-2024 school year. We will introduce you to those staff members before the end of the school year once we have solidified placements for our newest teachers. I can tell you that a few of our current teachers will have new roles next year as they take on newly created positions. Mr. McCulley-Hayden will be leaving the ADST classroom to take on a new administrative position for UA as the IT & Infrastructure Manager, Ms. Scali will be departing her Grade 1 classroom and taking on a new position in the Junior and Middle school as a Health & Wellness Teacher, and Mr. Gow will be leaving his teaching role in the Senior school Social Studies area to commit more time to University Counseling as well as overseeing all of our Career Life programming at the Senior school level. We have also recently hired Ms. Erin Davies as an Educational Assistant. Ms. Davies has been part of the team since our return from spring break.
We were excited to see a group of 16 senior school students (Gr 9-12) and 2 teachers leave for the Goodwill Shakespeare Festival in Vernon yesterday. These Drama 9, 10, 11, and 12 students will be performing The Tempest in between taking part in a number of workshops through the weekend along with students from 8 other schools. It is a great opportunity for students to broaden their learning beyond UA. With that in mind, we are getting closer to announcing the location for our Senior School Trip for next year. This year’s Costa Rica trip was a big success and we are looking forward to making this an annual trip opportunity for students.
It is hard to believe we are heading into the final week of April. That means the Annual UA Gala is only two weeks away. I am really looking forward to another fantastic event where we get to celebrate UA while enjoying some social time with one other. I am on the hunt for just the right floral shirt for the event to make sure that I am keeping with the ‘secret garden’ theme. I really hope to see many of you there!
Yours in education,
Mr. Slinger
