From the Desk of the Head of School- July 31, 2020

Dear Harding Academy Community,

This last week brought cautiously good news as it relates to the COVID-19 cases in Nashville. As Dr. Jahangir and Mayor Cooper said on Tuesday, we are starting to see some of the numbers stabilize - basically we are stable but serious. The decision to continue the mask mandate and modified Phase Two restrictions will hopefully help to continue the downward trend. But like everything in this world, we could see the opposite happen and the Metro Health Department decide to move all schools into a remote learning model. If you have not begun to develop a contingency plan for your family if we were to be forced into remote learning, now is the time. Finally, please do let us know if you are deciding to start the school year off in distance learning so we can plan accordingly. You can sign up for distance learning HERE. 

This week we will focus on the Wellness considerations we are putting in place. I realize that reading through Chapter 3: Health & Safety, can be overwhelming and while the changes outlined therein are necessary, they can still cause a sense of sadness and even loss. So, in this chapter we will discuss ways we will be supporting students and adults in their social emotional journeys at school. 

The most important factors in our children’s wellness is how we demonstrate for them an upbeat, empathetic and positive approach to the school year. Kids take their cues from us. Masks, for example, offer a great opportunity to model for our children how to manage something we never could have imagined having to teach our kids. 

Rebecca Igleheart returns this year as our school counselor focused on grades PK through 3rd Grade. We have a new 4th through 8th Grade counselor in Aubrey Jordan, who joins us from her most recent posting in Quito, Ecuador. She has served as a school counselor in public and independent schools, as well as in clinic and private practice. We are excited to welcome her to Harding Academy. 

You can expect a letter from them, as we did in the spring, which will be rich in resources of support. Here is a brief excerpt from their letter on how they will operate to support our community. 

Check-ins: With a return to school, Rebecca and Aubrey will be available to meet with students on campus, following the most up-to-date safety and health guidelines. These check-ins can provide reassurance and guidance but are not therapy. For children at home, they too can reach our counselors (Middle School through email and Google Meet and Lower School children with their parent’s assistance).  While these will not mirror the in-person check in’s, our counselors will remain available.  Please reach out to one of our counselors to let them know if you would like for your child to check in with them.  

Consultations: Due to COVID restrictions, our counselors will be happy to arrange a time to meet with parents for consultations via Zoom/Google Meet. Please contact them through phone or email to set up a time to meet or to arrange a meeting with your child.

Resources: Rebecca and Aubrey will continue to offer and update the Counseling Resources page with helpful tips and ideas in order to help reduce worry and foster calm and growth as our community enters our new school year.  Many of these resources will provide interactive ways to practice coping skills and further social/emotional growth. You can access our Resource page HERE. Or, you can go through CompassNet where we will share these public resources as well resources that are only available to our Harding Community. To access these resources, go to CompassNet > Resources > Remote Social Emotional Resources. For example, they recommend (and I second that recommendation) THIS article from Psychology Today (thank you to Grace Wilkinson for the find!) about the top five things parents can do to help their children with masks.

Insight Series: Our Counselors are planning to continue our Insight Series parent education programming, albeit in a virtual mode, and will be pushing out a series of webinars featuring experts speakers who can address the hot topics of these pandemic days. 

We have been apart for a long time. When we return, not only will there be a lot of pent up socialization needs for our children that we will want to facilitate safely, but also new things related to the safety steps we’ve taken in response to COVID-19 they will need to be orientated to. As such, the first two to three weeks will be an easing-in process focused on routines, modeling and the setting of expectations for the classroom community. 

Our twin focus on social emotional learning (SEL) and inclusivity will underpin this work. Morning meetings and advisory time will be critical opportunities for our SEL work. In the Middle School, for example, we are contemplating ways we can leverage our Second Step pilot from last year to further our SEL work in that division. As we engage in this new and unknown school year we are continuing our work with Remington Holt, our Diversity and Inclusivity consultant, on deepening our work towards equity and inclusivity. 

Opening school in modified Phase Two means we are quite limited in our ability to gather. We have upgraded our live-streaming service and will be developing our approach to assemblies on this new platform. We are also exploring how we can preserve our Buddy Program and House System in our current Phase. Finally, the Harding Parents Association continues to support our families through the Harding Family Connection, as well as contemplating creative ways to engage the parent community. 

Dress Code: Because we won’t be able to change out for PE or athletics and we are hoping to have more classes outside, we will start the school year with options for dress. Students may choose to wear regular dress code. Students may also choose to wear Harding Spirit clothes, including Harding t-shirts and Harding shorts. 

As always, should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. A fundamental step to making sure our learning community remains intact is taking every step we can to ensure we are together. So, if you find your financial situation has been adversely impacted by COVID-19 and you want to inquire about the school’s temporary emergency financial aid program, please reach out to tefa@hardingacademy.org. We want to help.