CAPTAIN'S CORNER

Dear St. Margaret's friends and families,

Can you feel the energy of our Fall Family Weekend in this issue’s photos? We plan this weekend to include events and activities that will bring together our immediate and extended communities: students, faculty and staff, parents, Board of Governors, alumnae, and neighbors. Our goal is to provide opportunities for each group to know the others better, for together they hold all elements of our school’s past, present, and future.

This year, the force of our shared mission and commitments combined to give us a truly magical time together. We often refer to educator and author JoAnn Deak in our work with our students and parents. In How Girls Thrive, she shows how the 3 C’s combine to help them reach their goals: first competence acquired through genuine hard work, then confidence gained through seeing the strength of learning, finally connectedness as new knowledge and skills introduce them to others who can help them realize and extend their vision and goals.

This weekend was like that for us. Separately, each group had been setting goals and making plans. This was their opportunity to see how they would all come together, and they succeeded by connecting their specific competencies in unexpected ways.

• Senior Peer Leaders turned the tables and awed the Board of Governors when they presented themselves, their responsibilities, and their goals.

• Parent Council members set the tone for uninhibited fun with their hat competition and made time to join the Board for dinner, hear a proposal from a student leader, and plan ways to increase school spirit, support, and involvement.

• Alumnae staffed the Crafts Festival that gave us all a start on Christmas shopping. Then they brought us together for the River Run, adding a new prize category, first parent and daughter across the line. Congratulations to Ken and Taylor Miller!

• Parents took their daughters’ seats in the classrooms and realized the passion and knowledge of our teachers as they saw how skillfully familiar content is conveyed using a contemporary understanding of how girls learn best.

• A piper led us to the site of McCuan House, where students and faculty outlined the walls of the building and each person holding a shovel to break ground for our new dormitory also held a central role in making this dream a reality.

We shared oysters, ice cream, and laughter. More significantly, we shared St. Margaret’s mission and each realized our importance in helping it thrive.

Sincerely,
Margaret R. Broad,
Head of School

COMPASS POINTS

25-29 - Spirit Week

28 - Presidential debates

30 - Sophomore Halloween

2-5 - Volleyball & hockey tournaments

5 - Health Day, Minimester registration

11 - Athletic Dinner

12-14 - Closed weekend, St. Margaret’s Day

16-20 - First trimester exams

20-29 - Thanksgiving break

Explore Great Britain With St. Margaret’s International Music Tour March 22 - April 1, 2005
	Be part of the excitement as St. Margaret’s singers join their voices with 180 other girls from 9 members of the Queen Margaret of Scotland Girls’ School Association for concerts at London’s St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Edinburgh’s Dunfermline Abbey and York Minster. On this exclusive tour for alumnae and parents, you’ll attend all three concerts while visiting Scottish sites associated with St. Margaret and enjoying such additional highlights as Abbotsford House and Castle Howard. Elegant dinners at historic locales and first-class hotel accommodations also are included, all for $3100/person, double occupancy (land only). Group air from Richmond is available for $595/person until November 10. Tour reservation and deposit are due December 1. For more information, contact Ellen Metzger LeCompte ’71 of Sterling Travel at (877) 893-7979 or hpettus@comcast.net.