This past May, the School Council worked with Father Lewis and Mr. Landry to craft a survey designed to gather input from parents. Overall, parents appeared to be optimistic about the education and spiritual formation their children were receiving, as well as the quality of Atonement’s teachers. Several opportunities for growth were also identified.
Among these, one opportunity in particular came up again and again—communication. Parents indicated often being “in the dark” about their children’s school lives. Some even expressed not feeling welcome at Atonement, or that their voice had no way of being heard. We took this critique seriously, and hopefully you have noticed some of our efforts—
• Teachers are more visible in carline, and happy to chat
• Weekly letter from head of school
• Monthly “Coffee with Mr. Watson”
• Digital communications have been unified under the “Atonement Communications”
• Calendar items are crosschecked by multiple departments prior to posting on the
website
• The Class Sponsors Organization will be kicking off next Wednesday evening
• We have converted our weekly newsletter to a mobile-friendly format
We will be on the lookout for additional channels of communication as the year progresses. And speaking of “Coffee with Mr. Watson”—at this Friday’s Coffee, we will get deeper into the details of school communication and discuss our use of the “Love & Logic” philosophy of character education.