Virginia Avenue Charlotte DeHart
March Principal's News
Student-Led Parent Conferences Coming Up
VACDES Community:
Winchester's elementary schools have a long history of holding conferences with all parents/guardians at the end of the 1st and 3rd nine weeks. I am proud of that tradition. The tradition will continue with the distribution of the 3rd nine weeks report cards--with a new twist. When conferences are held on March 27, 3-7 p.m., and March 28, 3-5 p.m., they will be student-led.
What are student-led conferences? In student-led conferences, your child participates throughout the conference. Your child's role is to choose work beforehand to share with you, share his or her successes during the nine weeks, and determine goals for the future. The teacher's role is assist the student in selecting work to share with parents, act as a guide on the side, as needed, during the conference, and assist the child and parent with choosing goals. The parent's role is to listen, provide encouragement, ask questions, and help the child set goals for continuous growth. The teacher is available to answer questions during the conference. If the parent feels a need to follow up with the teacher, that can be arranged.
Student-led conferences benefit the child, the parent, and the teacher. Students take ownership of their learning. Parents have the opportunity for increased communication with their child about school. Teachers establish a parent-child-teacher connection that enhances their working relationship with the family. Most of all, by increasing the child's responsibility in understanding and communicating learning successes and challenges, the child's ownership of learning increases dramatically. I have seen student-led conferences in action. I see a lot of smiles as parents take pride in their child's ability to communicate about his or her school experiences and students feel pride in taking on that responsibility.
Student-led conferences are the next generation of a long history of strong parent involvement at report card time in Winchester. Please let me know if you have any questions about the conferences that will be led by our Kindergarten through 4th grade students on March 27 and 28
All the best,
Dr. Bryant, VACDES Principal
Some important dates to know for March:
- Mondays and Wednesdays--Girls on the Run
- Tuesdays and Thursdays, except March 14 and 28--after-school program
- March 2--Regional Chorus concert for selected students--11 a.m. at Fauquier H.S.
- March 14-15--No school
- March 18--regular school day (snow make-up day)
- March 19--Statewide Tornado Drill
- March 22--PTO Color Run
- March 25--Parent Information Night at DMIS for rising 5th grade students
- March 25-28--VACDES Book Fair
- March 26--K Kids, 2:30-4:00
- March 27--Parent Conferences (3-7 p.m.)
- March 28--Parent Conferences (3-5 p.m.)
- March 29--No school for students (teacher professional day)
For your future planning:
- April 5--Author Andrea Davis Pinkney visit and assembly
- April 18--Early dismissal
- April 19 and 22--School holiday
Please contact the school if you have questions about any of these events.
Dual Language Interest Sign-up Begins along with Kindergarten Registration
Are you interested in your kindergarten child participating in Dual Language instruction? If so, at the time you register your child for next year's kindergarten class, please complete a Dual Language Instruction interest form.
Dual language instruction will begin at VACDES in kindergarten in August, 2019. Students enrolled in the Dual Language program will receive 50% of their instruction in Spanish and 50% in English. One goal of the program is that students who remain in the program through fourth grade will enter intermediate school able to read and write fluently in both Spanish and English.
The benefits include improved reading comprehension, critical thinking, and cultural understanding.
If more parents are interested in enrolling their child in dual language than spots are available, a lottery may be held to select the students. We anticipate two classes of 24 students to be enrolled in dual language at VACDES next year.