Re-enrollment for 2021-2022 is wrapping up and admissions season is in full swing. Interest in our school is at an all-time high and we have already started wait lists in some grades. We will host an Open House event on Sunday, April 18. This is a great opportunity for your friends and neighbors to learn about our school community and the outstanding programs we offer.

You are our best source for marketing to new families and we have a few opportunities for you!

• Send us the contact info of anyone you know who would be a great addition to the GWA community, we’ll reach out and invite them to the Open House.
• Share our Open House posts on social media with details about why you love GWA.
• Join us on Sunday, April 18 to welcome the prospective families who are registered to attend the event.

Space for Open House is limited and sessions are offered throughout the day. Interested families should email Lamonique Pierre at lpierre@gwa.com to register for a session.

Thanks for all of your support; it’s a GREAT time to be a Bulldog! Best, CARI

This has been a very unique and challenging year for our community and our students. We continue to be impressed by their determination and resilience and are proud of all that they have accomplished. With this in mind, we are moving our awards ceremonies closer to the end of the year so that we can celebrate a more accurate representation of our students’ academic achievements. The Middle School Awards Night will be held on Wednesday, May 19, followed by the Upper School Awards Night on Thursday, May 20. Adjusting these dates allows us to include an additional six weeks of coursework in the calculations for awards and provides those students who have been working hard toward a particular academic award more time to achieve their goal. We encourage students to persevere to the end, working diligently and finishing the year strong.

Mrs. Stapp’s Programming class had an introduction Zoom meeting with Primakov School students. Primakov School is a prestigious K3-12 institution located in Moscow, Russia. The instruction there is given in two languages – Russian and English.

The students talked and shared a little bit about each of their schools, including pictures and slide presentations. Next, the students collectively brainstormed using word clouds to answer some questions including, “What are three things you associate with computer technology?” They played a game of Kahoot! about information and communication technology and brainstormed the ideas for their future collaborative project.

The two groups plan to meet again on Zoom in the coming weeks for some friendly app development competition. This cross-curricular endeavor is made possible through the partnership of Mrs. Stapp, Mark Gasaway and Natasha Garren - bringing together young people from two different continents, a wealth of ideas and the spirit of collaboration.

As part of a class project, eighth-grade Honors Georgia History and English classes read the novel, The Year the Lights Came On, by Terry Kay. The story illuminates a time in history that followed World War II when electricity came to rural Georgia. Terry Kay, the author, did not specifically name the chapters, but did give clues throughout the story on what the title of each could be named. Students were tasked with naming ten chapters of the novel, by using quotations to support each decision for the chapter names, provide an artifact that supported each chapter title, and use explanations on how it all works together.

Additionally, Mrs. Byrd and Mr. Griffin asked their students to create projects that would be easily displayed within a gallery walk that featured all of the projects. As the eighth-grade students walked through the Commons with clipboards in-hand, they observed the projects by considering unique chapter titles, most prominent artifacts, and best presentation. This collaboration gave students the opportunity to evaluate not only their own work, but others’ as well. By looking critically at the projects and at specific components, they were able to access new ideas that may be applied to their future projects.

We are proud to announce the names of the three George Walton Academy students who have been named as finalists in this year’s Governor’s Honors Program!

GWA’s 2021 GHP finalists are:

Breena McGraw – Visual Arts

Anna Swope – Visual Arts

Timothy Pham – Science (Biology)

This prestigious and competitive summer program gives participants the opportunity to spend four weeks at Berry College with other gifted and talented Georgia high school students – working on instructional and cultural enrichment activities.

Congratulations, Breena, Anna and Timothy!

*Pictured left to right in order mentioned

Congratulations to our Law of Life Essay winners! A Law of Life is a concise, brief saying or quotation that directs to a person’s core personal value or ideals. Usually, a Law of Life is able to present itself as a meaningful and important direction on a person’s self-journey. The contest celebrates students perspectives, and presents a cash award to the winning students and teachers.

School Winner:

· Suhani Rama (12)

Grade Winners:

· Anslee Parrish (11)

· Timothy Pham (10)

· Michael Mealor (9)

Honorable Mention:

· Claire McNulty (12)

· Claire Volk (12)

· Mia Berry (11)

· Kennedy Johnson (10)

· Ansley Holland (10)

· Blake Woodring (9)

· Jordan Smothers (9)

Congrats to our varsity tennis team on another Region win this week! The boys defeated ACS 4-1 and the girls won with a final of 5-0! On Tuesday, the girls beat Athens Academy 4-1 with Reagan Peppers giving GWA a quick victory at number one singles while Camille Malcom clinched the meet at number two singles! Congrats, Bulldogs!

Mark your calendar for youth football registration for rising K5 through fifth grade students. K5-second grade play flag football and third-fifth will play tackle. Please see email from Grace Martin for complete details and information regarding physicals, required forms, registration fees and jerseys.

April 14 - 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. (Nicholson Center Concession Area)

April 21 - 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. (Nicholson Center Concession Area)

Registration is open to students who attend GWA and also students who do not attend GWA. If you know someone who is interested in playing youth football at GWA and would be a good fit for our program then please have them contact Grace Martin at gmartin@gwa.com.

If you are in downtown Monroe in the next few weeks, stop by the Monroe Walton Center for the Arts to see our upper school art students’ works on display. The show will be up and running through April 15 (the closing reception is April 15). You don’t want to miss this impressive exhibit from our very talented young artists!

Monroe-Walton Center for the Arts
​205 South Broad Street
Monroe, Georgia 30655

Tuesday - Thursday from 11 – 4

Friday & Saturday 10 - 5

Do you have a role model? I have many - Mr. Rogers, Albus Dumbledore, and you guessed it... Yoda. Fictional or not, role models can inspire us to be better versions of ourselves. One of my favorite Yoda-isms comes from Episode VIII: The Last Jedi when he says to Luke: “The greatest teacher, failure is.” Yoda is right, of course. I have learned some of the best lessons from mistakes or setbacks. As much as I dislike failing, I can accept it as a necessary part of learning. Where have you failed lately? And what did you learn as a result? For more Yoda-isms, read this.

May the force be with you,

Lindsey Bailey

Please click HERE for camp descriptions and the registration links.

We have some adult sized Dawgs Unleashed t-shirts available! Contact emcdonel@gwa.com or stop by the Dawgs 360 house to buy one - $8 each!

GWA Teacher Appreciation Week is May 3-7. Please see the grid above for details and use the links provided below to sign up for events on Monday and Friday.

Monday -

• Need several parents to provide 12 to 24 count snacks (prepacked items) to be dropped off to Elizabeth McDonel’s office in the Dawg House between 7:30 to 8 a.m. that morning. Sign up at https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0949A8A82DAA8-teach

Friday – VIP lunch (catered lunch courtesy of student council).

• Sign up with the link below to make a dessert for our faculty/staff luncheon.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0949A8A82DAA8-desserts