Dear EARJ Community,
On this same day one year ago, we were in full Distance Learning, talking about ending a hectic school year and preparing to start fresh in August. We were hoping that 2020-21 would be more “normal”, and believing that we had learned everything we had to learn about the pandemic.
Little did we know the challenges that awaited us. Challenges that we have overcome together as a community and that have brought us where we are today: finishing another frenetic school year, still in the grip of the pandemic, and ready once again to start fresh in August. Because this is what we do at EARJ. We don’t give up.
At this time last year, we thought we would see the students and teachers back to school in August 2020. It didn’t happen. We were not able to reopen the campuses until October, when they returned and we were thrilled to see them on campus. We thought they would come back all together but it had to be on a rotation basis – but they were here! Schools were closed a few times, schools were open, but learning at EARJ never ever stopped.
We thought we would all have been vaccinated by now, children and adults. Not yet, but all education professionals will be vaccinated against Covid-19 next week. Children are starting to be vaccinated in other parts of the world, and we hope that soon they will be vaccinated here. We hoped that there would not be many interruptions to academic life due to Covid-19 cases in our community, but the cases came. Sometimes just a few, sometimes more. We worked hard to balance medical prudence with the desire to minimize disruption, and we tried so hard to get the students impacted back to school in a matter of days, ready to resume their activities. Sadly, we feared there would be tragic losses among our families and loved ones. Despite our fervent hopes and prayers, the past months saw this come true.
Nonetheless, we close the year with heads held high and spirits undimmed. We will be ready to start another school year as we always are. We will work over the break like never before to prepare the school for a brighter future. As writer Arhundati Roy said, “The pandemic is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. And it has left us with a choice: We can choose to walk through the portal, …. dragging our old ideas and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”
At EARJ, we believe that we need to be forward-thinking, embrace the things that we love, change the things that we don’t, and accept the fact that our culture as we know it has changed forever. And we are ready. Are you?
#staysafe and enjoy your vacations!
Emilia Ferreira
Business Manager
As we approach the end of the 2020-21 school year, the collective focus of the school and the school community is quite appropriately where it should be: on celebrating what has been a highly successful school year. And is there ever a lot to celebrate! EARJ’s “can-do” approach to learning and student life that has been on full display throughout the entire school year and reaches its growth in the final weeks of the semester.
We look forward to your participation in a number of events (many of which are this week) that showcase student learning over the course of the year including Upper School arts exhibitions, Lower School arts exhibitions (including a drive-thru exhibition at the Barra campus), virtual talent shows and year-end concerts, and G11 Theory of Knowledge exhibitions. Rites of passage promotion celebrations are coming up shortly for our Grade 5 and Grade 8 students as they enter Middle School and High School respectively and we have designed ceremonies for these events that will allow for the participation of students from home and school and the participation of parents from home.
On the academic front, MAP Growth testing continues in both the Lower Schools and Upper Schools this week as a way of measuring student achievement and academic growth. High School exams are being held from June 7th-11th and will provide an opportunity for High School students to demonstrate their learning and mastery of each subject studied. The results of MAP and year-end student achievement for all students will be shared with the community during the final week of school and will provide an opportunity to celebrate where your children are, what they’ve accomplished academically and any next steps to be taken.
On curriculum-related matters, we are in the process of completing our trial implementation of the IB Primary Years Programme(PYP) on both campuses and our first year of instruction of the IB Diploma Programme(DP) on the Barra Campus. To top it all off, we recently had our application to become an IB Middle Years Programme(MYP) candidate school accepted and we will begin the trial implementation of the MYP next school year. It truly has been a remarkable year and we couldn’t be prouder of what we have achieved together!
Our ability to accomplish so much this school year highlights our determination, innovation, creativity, and ability to see the upside of adversity. In her book, “The Upside of Stress” by Dr. Kelly McGonigal, Dr. Kelly suggests that taking this approach helps to change the way we cope. According to McGonigal, the net benefit of employing a positive mindset and finding opportunities where others only see obstacles is that it leads us to find a greater purpose in life and hope for the future. Our celebration of the 2020-21 school year is proof-positive of this approach and of the optimism and high hopes that we have for our children and for their future.
“Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford
Scott Little
Barra Upper School Principal
The resiliency of our student athletes and coaches in our ATAC program in the past months has been amazing. As we continued to attempt to offer athletic experiences this year, these individuals were making the most of tough times and demonstrating great resolve to change. Turning a problem into an opportunity, gave all our players and coaches the chance to demonstrate the never-give-up spirit of athletic activities.
These were not the times to run away from our passions but an opportunity to run toward them and to find what it is that motivated us to reconnect. That is how we launched a virtual athletics program that included most of our school sports. It took us a while to get into the mood of our online practices but these began being more entertaining as we started organizing combined practices with other schools from Brazil, Chile and Argentina.
Coaches demonstrated resilience again, finding new ways to conduct competition to keep our students engaged. That is how our student athletes competed in the Trewhela’s Cup in basketball, soccer, volleyball and cheerleading, dominated in the Battle of Brazil Virtual Challenge where we won in almost every single sport to then finished strong in a very successful virtual cross country competition organized by the Graded School of São Paulo.
As the school year moved forward and the chances of returning to in-person practices became slim, our coaches were invited to come during the school day to fill our lunch breaks with joy through drills and games of our students’ favorite sports. It’s been great to see everyone so happy with this opportunity of experiencing a little glimpse of athletics in their school year. It has been so successful that we have been able to offer these activities to our 4th and 5th graders in lower school.
There is no doubt, high school juniors and seniors involved in high school sports would have preferred a less turbulent end to their high school days, but many have been willing to go to great lengths to have an opportunity to participate.
Our hats are off to our Seniors 2021, who have shown maturity and resolve as their culminating year has been impacted due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. It has been a blessing and an honor to work with them in their last years of their school career and we thank them for their amazing efforts and their tremendous contributions in all these years at EARJ.
Their kind words, their uplifting messages to their teams and to the program will never be forgotten. We will miss them, but thank them for the enormous legacy they leave in their teams. This group of graduating student athletes taught us what our Athletics motto really means when we say: Panthers never quit! They showed us that the challenges we were all facing were just great opportunities to embrace them and follow our passion for sports, keeping our heads up and going forward despite the obstacles we all faced along the way.
It is difficult to say good-bye to them not having given them the opportunity to participate to the fullest in their last high school sports season but we all know that EARJ is a better place because they left life lessons in teamwork, leadership and overcoming adversity.
To our forever Panthers from the Class of 2021 that will never be forgotten!
Claudia Araya
Director of Athletics and Activities
