Dear Wesley families,
I am thrilled to welcome you to the 2023-2024 school year. This is my fifth year as the principal of Wesley School and my 17th year in District 4. Our staff and I are excited to have our students back in our classrooms and hallways again soon. We look forward to working closely with you to support our students emotionally and academically this year.
Strong family engagement has always been a critical part of student success at Wesley School. Parents are a child’s first teachers and important role models. Every parent can help their child to be prepared and responsible in school, regardless of their educational background and the language they speak. Opportunities to connect include email, Facebook, Twitter, Seesaw, and Remind, along with attending school events as much as possible. Please be sure to read the weekly S’more newsletter that I send on Friday mornings. You can click to translate this into nearly any language. This will always contain the most up-to-date information about upcoming events and important reminders. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me or your child’s teacher at any time with questions, concerns, and suggestions. It is also important to stay informed about what your child is learning. Your child’s teacher will keep you updated, but you can reach out to share if you notice your child struggling with the content or to discuss strategies for practicing at home. Another important way in which you can support your children is through encouraging good attendance. Students should be at school on time every day and avoid missing school as much as possible. We encourage vacations to be taken during breaks from school. Our family liaison and I will continue contacting families, as needed, to help support them with improving their students’ attendance.
This year, we will resume our weekly social emotional lessons, but will have a special school-wide focus on respect this year. This consists of respecting other students and staff, but also includes self-respect. Students will be encouraged to recognize their own self-worth and assert themselves if they are being disrespected by others.
We will also continue a strong focus on academics and student engagement with our School Improvement Plans and staff development. We continue to focus on having high expectations for all students, including presenting all students with challenging concepts at their grade level in reading and math. We will also continue to be intentional in our use of higher level thinking questions and inquiry based activities to help our students develop deeper understanding of content.
I am excited to see the academic, social, and intrapersonal progress our students make during the 23-24 school year. Thank you for your very important part in Wesley’s learning community. I’m looking forward to another wonderful school year!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Katie Ahart
Principal
(630) 628-4095
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