News
News
At Springmont, we’re proud of our school and like to share the accomplishments of our students, alumni, faculty, and staff. Here you’ll find information about Springmont, including recent school news, articles about our curriculum, and other interesting items. For additional press or media information, please contact Julie Strickland jstrickland@springmont.com or 404.252.3910.
Archives - April 2017
ITBS Results and Middle School Outplacement
April 24, 2017
Each year at this time, we look forward to reporting our ITBS scores. This year, in addition to our national percentile ranking, Springmont students’ ITBS scores were ranked with private schools. These scores are meaningful programmatically as well as to individual students. Springmont’s cumulative National Percentile Rank continues to be 98 - 99%, and our Private School Percentile Rank ranges from 74 - 85% - excellent scores which reflect a Grade Equivalency of two years ahead of the age group, minimum. Congratulations to our students and faculty for their work in this area of assessment. This, in addition to Teacher observation and student reflection, creates a complete picture of student progress for each individual student.
Springmont will continue to raise the bar as we incorporate the new iteration of the ITBS in 2017-18. Form E, already implemented in some schools, will bring more challenge in critical thinking skills. Our faculty is preparing now, selecting the most appropriate pre-tests and student preparation for the new form. As a reminder, students who are 8 by September 1 take the math and reading sections each year, and all Upper Elementary students take the full exam. Middle School students prepare for the SSAT as it is needed for high school placement in independent schools.
Student progress is evident in Springmont students’ on-going record of outplacement to Atlanta’s most prestigious high schools. Congratulations to Springmont’s 8th year students who will matriculate to their first and second choice high schools for the coming year. Springmont students will attend Atlanta International School, Blessed Trinity, Galloway, Holy Innocents’, Mount Vernon and several IB programs. We look forward to hearing of their successes and distinctions in high school and beyond. Graduation is May 26 – don’t miss it!
Ask a Division Head: Is My Primary Child Learning Math?
April 17, 2017
February’s newsletter included an article about Springmont’s Lower Elementary math curriculum, inspiring some parents to ask when math work begins in our Primary classrooms. Although children are typically ready for math materials at about age 4, there are many ways your children use their mathematical minds even earlier.
• Primary Teachers sing songs and recite finger-plays that involve numbers. Students particularly enjoy rhymes that count down from 10 or 5 to zero. Older Primary students sometimes use the Movable Alphabet to spell out parts of the rhyme or to write down numbers spelled out as words.
• Primary students also have conversations involving math concepts. Recently two students were carrying their snack items to the dishwashing sink when one remarked, “You have two things to wash, and I have two things to wash.” Comparing more than, less than and equal are important observations.
• Math is everywhere in the Primary environment. In the Practical Life area, a child who arranges flowers must estimate how much water will fill a vase and how long to cut the stem of the flower so it will fit in the vase. When a child prepares muffins, he estimates how much batter will fit into each of the muffin cups. When she bakes her birthday cake and measures out the oats and sugar, she is getting an early experience with fractions.
• Sensorial materials give children hands-on opportunities to explore concepts in algebra and geometry. Primary children experience shapes such as the parallelogram and trapezoid through the Geometry Cabinet, and the Trinomial Cube is a concrete representation of an algebraic formula.
Springmont’s approach to math is unique and powerful. The classroom environment and materials along with your children’s natural curiosity inspire their learning and eventual mastery. You can enhance your child’s math learning during daily activities - sing silly math rhymes at bath time, count blue cars on the drive to and from school, measure ingredients and cook together, or play board games that involve counting spaces or pieces.
Ask a Division Head: How Does Springmont Help My Child Make the Transition to High School?
April 03, 2017
From the start, the Middle School program is intentional about assisting students in making the transition from Springmont to the high school of their choice. Middle School Prep, a program developed and designed by our Middle School Teachers, is integrated into core classes over the first few weeks of school.
Students learn to:
Students learn to:
• create strong organizational habits by managing daily planners that integrate school and life and by maintaining interactive notebooks,
• develop metacognition – figuring out how to know what you know…and what you don’t know,
• attend and engage in class, taking notes and finding salient points,
• discover strategies for minimizing distractions at school and at home, and
• use feedback from assessments for learning and improvement.
These skills not only help Middle School students in their academic pursuits at Springmont, but also develop the habits that will serve them over the course of their educational and professional careers.
As 8th years, students are involved in a more detailed approach to preparing for their high school experience. Early each fall, the Middle School faculty and Admission Office host a meeting for 8th year students and their parents focusing on the middle school to high school outplacement process. Helpful tips and expectations of the high school application process are presented, and students are encouraged to begin learning more about the schools they have heard of as well as others with which they may be less familiar. Later in the fall semester, 8th year students are invited to a luncheon with area admission directors that helps to address more specific questions the students may have about high school visits and the interview process. After selecting a high school to attend, many students seek the advice of their Middle School Teachers in selecting the high school courses that will make their first year of high school a success.
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