January 28, 2014

After attending Community School from age 3 through 6th grade, Tory and Liam Halsey moved to another state this past summer and are now enrolled in the 7th grade in a public middle school. Tory sent the letter below last week. Liam recently participated in a robotics competition and was interviewed for a local news broadcast. You can see video of Liam’s interview and learn about the competition at http://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/local/washington-county-students-maneuver-in-robot-competition-at-volvo-group/article_ae0b9f7a-63a7-11e3-856e-0019bb30f31a.html .

Dear Linda,

I wanted to tell you about my transition from Community School to public school and how much Community School has helped me.  I admit, I was really nervous about the new school’s education, expectations, and the new activities they would have me do. However, the funny truth is I already know everything they’re teaching because I learned it from Community School the year before. I have very high grades and same thing with my brother. The good news is, I think it’s fun learning the same thing twice because I get to see it taught in different ways.

Both of us are among the top writers in our school. Writing about different ways to look at a story and how to analyze a character are new to other students, but come easily to us. Thanks to Community School. We are also both excelling in math.

Despite having great friends at Community School, I ended up making lots of friends on just the first day of school and we both continue to build strong friendships. Moving from addressing our teachers to their first names to addressing them by their last names was easy to get used to, but kind of odd and unnatural. All of our teachers comment on how mature we are and have asked that Community School send more just like us. Thank you so much for a wonderful nine years and helping prepare us for a new adventure.

Love,

Tory