Defending Democracy

Head of School Raynard Kington issued a public statement and reached out to students in the wake of this week’s tragic events in Washington, D.C.

“Navigating School During Uncertain Times”

How can you best support the personal and academic needs of your children while also attending to your own professional and familial needs? Explore this question and more during a virtual conversation titled “Navigating School During Uncertain Times,” led by Dr. Denise Pope, Stanford Graduate School of Education senior lecturer, on Tuesday, January 12, at 7 p.m. EST.

The zoom link to participate in this session is available here.

Pope will share ways parents and caregivers can establish a healthier home environment for their school-aged child, reduce academic stress without sacrificing achievement, and increase their child’s resilience, creativity, and well-being. Co-founder of Challenge Success, Pope is the author of “Doing School”: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students and co-author of Overloaded and Underprepared: Strategies for Stronger Schools and Healthy, Successful Kids. This event is co-sponsored by the Dean of Studies and Dean of Students offices and the Tang Institute at Andover.

Ongoing Support for Students

Phillips Academy offers students several ways to stay on top of their studies.

Students have three scheduled conference periods per week and, depending on their time zone, are usually able to attend one or two. Conference periods are a great time to ask questions and get help from classroom teachers. Please check in with your student to be sure they are utilizing this important time.

New this term: Your student has also been invited to join their peers and members of the Academic Skills Center team up to four times a week for a Structured Study Hall—aka a virtual accountability session (similar to a YouTube “study with me” session).

This week, the ASC team is focusing on helping students get themselves organized and back into good routines, and can provide scheduling/calendar templates. Students are invited to drop in for any amount of time to get work done, look through each Canvas page and create a to-do list, and just prep for the term. See this Structured Study Hall poster for times and Zoom links.

Parent Focus Group Invitation

Would you like to offer input about spring term? How can we help our students now, while they are learning remotely? What are some of the challenges your children are facing?

PA senior administration is partnering with the PSPA (Parents of Students of Phillips Academy) to facilitate focus groups with interested parents during winter term. If you would like to be part of the conversation and effort to generate suggestions and processes to engage and support our students, please email the PSPA by Monday, January 11. We will follow up with more detailed information for participants. Thank you!

Important Pot Pourri Request

The 2021 Pot Pourri yearbook staff is hard at work documenting the lives of PA students, and we need help from you—their parents and guardians. Please take a few clear photos of your PA student and share them with us as soon as possible. We’d love to see anything that represents life right now: your student engaged in any sort of extracurricular, your student rocking their mask, your student talking in their online classes—all photos are welcome and appreciated!

Photos can be submitted through this Google form. We’ve given specific categories/questions within the form, but we are open to any photos that represent your child’s life during the 2020–2021 school year. Please follow the form’s instructions to submit photos. Photos can also be emailed. Students love to see themselves in the Pot Pourri. Thank you so much! For updates, follow @papotpourri. —The Pot Pourri staff

Upcoming Religious Services & Events

Jewish Shabbat Service and Jewish Student Union (JSU) Meeting—Fridays 5:30–6:30 p.m. EST: Led by Rabbi Michael Swarttz. This Friday, January 8, we will celebrate Shabbat with a few Shabbat rituals, “kvell and kvetsch,” and conversation. All are welcome! Zoom link.

Ecumenical Protestant Worship—Sundays at 6 p.m. EST: Join Rev. Gina Finocchiaro for a time of scripture, prayer, spoken reflection and music with Michael Belcher. All are welcome! Zoom link. Passcode: 2021

Roman Catholic Worship— Sundays, 6:45–7:30 p.m. EST: Worship with the Catholic community at Andover, followed by fellowship and discussion led by Dr. Mary Kantor and Catholic Student Fellowship (CSF) leaders. All are welcome! Zoom link.

Brace Student Fellow Presentation

The Brace Center for Gender Studies invites families to a presentation by Karsten Rynearson ’22 titled “No Fats, No Femmes, No Asians: The Impacts of Hegemonic Masculinity on Body Image, Gender Presentation, and Gendered Racism in Gay Male Communities” on Friday, January 15, at 7 p.m. EST. Lou Bernieri, instructor in English, is the faculty advisor. Zoom link. Passcode: Karsten

News from the PSPA

Happy New Year from all of us at the PSPA! We wish you a healthy, prosperous, and joyous 2021.

PSPA Book Club—Sunday, January 10, 8–9 p.m. EST: In our first PSPA Book Club meeting we will be reading A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. Grab a drink and drop in for a quick hello and meet other parents over an engaging discussion (take a sneak peek at these discussion questions). Please email us to learn more or to get on our mailing list!

Trivia Night and Virtual Mixer—Friday, January 15, at 7:30 p.m. EST: Join us for a fun Friday evening and meet some friendly Andover families. Parents and students welcome! We’ll start with a casual trivia game as an icebreaker and then go into breakout rooms so you can meet or meet again with fellow parents. Zoom link will be shared in next week’s Parent Bulletin.

Volunteers Needed!

Share your fundraising ideas: The Summer Opportunities Fair, the PSPA’s biggest fundraiser, will not take place this year. We would love to get your creative input about new fundraising ideas. Please email us!
Volunteer for a Virtual Mixer: Our November Trivia Night and Virtual Mixer was a great success. We are now seeking parents to share their knowledge/skill and volunteer as a parent speaker on a Virtual Mixer. Don’t be shy! Please email us if you are interested.
Help us build a robust FAQ resource: The PSPA is creating a Frequently Asked Questions section for our website, which will serve as a resource for new and existing Andover families. Please send us your questions.

You Are Invited!

January 8: 2021 Finis Origine Pendet Social Gathering
January 12: Meet 16th Head of School Raynard S. Kington, MD, PhD, P’24, hosted by the Hong Kong Regional Leadership Team
January 12: Tang Institute’s “Navigating School During Uncertain Times” with Dr. Denise Pope
January 15: “No Fats, No Femmes, No Asians: The Impacts of Hegemonic Masculinity on Body Image, Gender Presentation, and Gendered Racism in Gay Male Communities,” a Brace Center Student Fellow Presentation by Karsten Rynearson ’22
January 18: “Sticky Belonging: Hegemonic Gazes and the Taming of Queer Asian American Identities,” a CAMD Scholar Presentation by Mary Muromcew ’22
January 19: A Conversation with Dr. Ryan Wheeler, Director of the Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology
January 27: Diggin’ In Peabody Digital Lecture Series—“Privy to the Past,” with Joseph Bagley
Throughout February: Note Writing Non Sibi Project for Women’s Lunch Place, with Christine Cloonan ’98
February 4: Meet Our 16th Head of School, hosted by the Denver, Portland, and Seattle Regional Leadership Teams
February 5: “Mind the Gap: Traversing the Imagination Gap, Emancipating Children’s Literature,” a CAMD Scholar Presentation by Nana Afia Boadi-Acheampong ’21

All events are virtual unless otherwise noted. Please join us!

Parent Bulletin Archive »

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