Parent Information Follow-up

A number of parents have responded to the message Dean of Students Paul Murphy and I sent earlier this week. I also had the opportunity to hear from parents at Tuesday night’s PSPA meeting. We thank you for the feedback. Please know that we continue to care for all who are feeling the impact of the discipline, whether they were involved directly or not.

Students also are talking with their parents about the events here on campus, asking questions and expressing a range of emotions. Some parents are unsure how to respond. Max Alovisetti, Director of Graham House Counseling Center, offers the following tips for talking about this and other difficult topics with your child:

There’s a far better chance that your teens will listen to you if they believe you are listening to them, so… Listen first. Take a stance of curiosity. Ask them what they think about this recent incident and teens using drugs and alcohol in general. Acknowledge their thoughts. This doesn’t mean you should agree with them but repeat/paraphrase enough of what they have said so they know that you’ve heard them. Acknowledge your children’s feelings. Say, “I can see/hear that you feel___” and acknowledge how difficult this past week may have been for them. Now, share your own thoughts and feelings about these topics.

More than ever, we believe that the upcoming Thanksgiving break will be an important time for students to be with their families. We wish them rest and restoration.

Andover/Exeter Weekend: GO BIG BLUE!

The following match-ups between Andover and Exeter teams will take place this Saturday, November 13th:

Girls’ Varsity Soccer	11:00 a.m.
Varsity Field Hockey	11:30 a.m.
Girls’ Varsity Volleyball	12:00 p.m.
Boys’ Varsity Soccer	1:00 p.m.
Football	2:30 p.m.

If you can’t be in Andover on Saturday, you can join us via a live webcast set to begin at approximately 2:00 p.m. EST. In addition to the live football game, in which the Andover and Exeter football teams face off for the 132nd time, the webcast will include a pre-game show featuring a message from Head of School Barbara Chase and video profiles of Andover’s eight fall varsity teams. Tune in here. An archived copy of the webcast will be made available on the Andover website at a later date for on-demand viewing.

Parking on Saturday

The parking lot near the athletic fields fills up early on Andover/Exeter weekends! If you plan to tailgate before or after any of the games, we advise arriving early to get a spot in the lot closest to the football stadium and athletic fields. Parking on the grass or access roads is not allowed. Additional parking is available on the street and in the lots near West Quad North and West Quad South.

Gap Year Programs Fair

Phillips Academy will host a Gap Year Program Fair on Sunday, November 14th from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. in Kemper Auditorium and the Underwood Room. The fair will feature 35 different programs and include a presentation by Becca Macrae ’09, who pursued a gap year program before enrolling in college. View the entire list of programs. The fair is free and open to the public.

Uganda Martyrs Choir

On Sunday, November 14, the Uganda Martyrs Choir, a major force in unifying and mobilizing the Boston’s Ugandan community, will perform at 5 p.m. in a Community Concert in Kemper Auditorium. The choir’s PA performance is funded by an Abbot Academy Association grant and made possible through the “Celebrating the Cultural Legacies of Catholicism” project.