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With 2022 coming to a close, I wanted to take some time to communicate with families about our new and exciting Auxiliary adventures. This blurb is jam packed with information, so I promise to be as succinct as possible! Thank you for taking the time to read through these details, especially during this busy time of year.
Assistant Director of Auxiliary Programs
We are so excited to announce that we have hired an Assistant Director of Auxiliary Program, Sophie Rothman, who will join our team immediately following winter break.
Sophie has held various positions in education and out-of-school-time programming; from teaching Early Childhood Education, to being an summer program counselor, to being an After School instructor, Sophie has experience with children of all ages and abilities. Having attended and worked at Belmont Day School, she is extremely familiar with independent school settings. She’s demonstrated solid leadership skills and has led and mentored others in her roles as President of the Big Brothers, Big Sisters club and as a Head Ambassador in the admissions’ office of Skidmore College (which is where she earned her BA in Education).Having Sophie in this role will ensure that both current and future Auxiliary Programs get the time, attention, and support they deserve, and we are thrilled to have her joining the team!
With this transition in Auxiliary leadership, we ask that you use Sophie as your “point person” for our regular After School Program. While I will still be actively involved, and will still see and interact with many of you on a daily basis, our goal is to have me step back from certain parts of the day-to-day of After School to free up some time for me to look ahead (towards summer, perhaps?!) You’ll be able to reach Sophie directly via email (srothman@brookwood.edu), but you’re also encouraged to email our new shared email address (afterschool@brookwood.edu), which will ensure that we are both notified. You can reach out directly to me regarding Enrichment classes and other Auxiliary programs, and Ms. Wilson and/or your child’s individual music instructor still remain the best contacts for individual music lessons.
Sophie is excited to join the community and is looking forward to supporting your child(ren) as they play, learn, and grow each afternoon.
Enrichment
Both Soccer and Cooking Around the World have concluded.
All other fall Enrichment classes will end next week. One more week remains to register for our winter Enrichment session. You can peruse the offerings and sign up here. Winter classes will begin January 4th.
Lost and Found
After School is a huge contributor to our ever-growing Lost & Found. We are continually reflecting and adapting our protocols to make sure all items stay with their owners. I’d like to ask for partnership in this effort; if you can label your student(s)’ items, we’d greatly appreciate it. At the end of each night, we return labeled missing items directly to cubbies or classrooms, so the more items that have names on them, the more reunions we can facilitate.
Parents’ Night Out
Our first Parents’ Night Out was nothing short of a blast! EC/K students played with shaving cream and made beaded snowflakes, 1st - 3rd grade students made glow-in-the-dark slime and played glow-in-the-dark games, 4th and 5th graders worked together to complete a scavenger
hunt and word unscramble, and we all came together to make individual pizzas, decorate cookies, and dance to several rounds of “Party in the U.S.A.,” with glow sticks, glow glasses, glow headbands!
Please peruse Vidigami to see all the photos from the evening.
Looking Ahead as 2022 Comes to a Close
When I joined the Brookwood community over the summer, I never envisioned how quickly I’d fall in love with the school and community. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for welcoming me and for sharing your children with both me and the After School team. It has been an honor for us all to work with your children this fall, and I can’t wait to see all that lies ahead for us all. With a growing department, we are ready to hit the ground running in 2023 to build upon and expand our offerings!
With that said, we wanted to start a conversation about summer. At this point, we are looking to gauge interest and determine what our families need and want. We hope to have some offerings for summer 2023, though we aren’t entirely sure what that will look like, given our timeline and the enormous work that goes into building quality summer programming. Please take a moment to complete our summer survey so we can use this data to drive our decision making for this year and beyond. After we have a clearer picture of interest and are able to determine what our capacity is for bringing programming to life, we will communicate it to all of you folks.
I am wishing you all a joyful and fulfilling holiday season and a peaceful and relaxing break.
Warmly,
Kyla