Dear Bernice Childs Elementary Families,
Welcome to another exciting school year at Bernice Childs Elementary!
I hope you and your family had a wonderful summer filled with opportunities to relax, recharge, and have some fun! As we prepare to welcome our scholars back, the staff and I are filled with excitement and anticipation for another incredible year of learning, growth, and success.
Before we look ahead, I want to take a moment to celebrate what we accomplished together last year. Because of the unwavering dedication of our teachers, interventionists, instructional coaches, support staff, and most importantly, our families, Bernice Childs earned the highest academic scores in the district. This achievement is a true testament to what can happen when a school and its families work together toward one common goal.
While we are incredibly proud of this accomplishment, we don't want to be a one-hit wonder. Instead, we want to build upon that success and continue our journey toward becoming one of the top-performing elementary schools in Illinois. We can do it, but there is still important work to do, and we need your partnership every step of the way.
This year, we will continue to focus on three schoolwide priorities.
Reading Stamina remains one of the strongest predictors of academic success. Our goal is for every scholar to read every single day, both at school and at home. The foundation of becoming a successful reader begins with recognizing sight words automatically and understanding the sounds letters make to form words. Even 20 minutes of reading each day can make a tremendous difference in vocabulary, comprehension, confidence, and overall academic achievement. Building strong Math Fact Fluency is our second priority because when scholars can quickly recall basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts, they spend less time figuring out simple calculations and more time solving challenging mathematical problems. Practicing at home can be fun! Flash cards, card games, dice games, or even practicing facts during a car ride are wonderful ways to make learning enjoyable.
Our final priority, and perhaps our most important is Attendance! Simply put, if scholars are not at school, they miss valuable learning experiences that cannot be replaced. Every lesson builds upon the next, making consistent attendance essential. Every day truly counts, and together we can ensure that our scholars are present, engaged, and ready to learn.
Finally, at Bernice Childs, our belief remains unchanged: Every Child Deserves a Champion and with your continued partnership, our dedicated staff, and our amazing scholars, there is no limit to what we can accomplish together and go all the way on a journey toward becoming an Exemplary School!
