Despite the clouds, the future is bright for St. Luke’sIt’s been a difficult time for schools everywhere. The Coronavirus crisis turned the world upside down. Amid the chaos, educators—most with their own children at home—needed to pivot and provide online versions of classroom lessons. The results have been mixed, with all schools challenged but some more prepared than others.
For St. Luke’s School, a secular (non-religious) private school in New Canaan, it’s been a challenging but seamless transition to
St. Luke’s at Home, the school’s Distance Learning and community-building program.
Head of School Mark Davis credits “an exceptionally talented faculty and unparalleled academic technology team” for the school’s ability to hit the ground running. He believes “continuous improvement and future-thinking are in our DNA, because we design school for our students’ futures, not for the way we were educated or simply because that’s the way things have always been done.”
Davis sent St. Luke’s families, parents of children in grades 5-12, a video message stating he would neither “sugarcoat the reality in which we find ourselves nor limit the potential brightness of our future.” Below is the full message to the community.
94% of Parent Are Satisfied with St. Luke’s Response to the CrisisSt. Luke’s parents have been overwhelmingly pleased, giving the school a 94% overall satisfaction rating in a recent
St. Luke’s at Home survey.
Upper School parent Ann Marie Beurle, a Pound Ridge resident, was moved to write:
“I have been so impressed with the research, planning and thoughtfulness that St. Luke's has put into shifting to online classes. We are very grateful for the administration's forethought and the execution by the tech team. All should be commended.”Vanessa Landegger, a New Canaan resident with children in the Middle and Upper Schools, shared this on Facebook:
“Beyond impressed by the teachers and students engaged in distance learning. This morning, when I heard my child’s fifth-grade teacher speak to her homeroom in her extraordinarily resonant and comforting voice, my eyes filled for a moment."
(It was Jane Olsen’s resonant and comforting voice Vanessa heard).
Shaping the Future
Davis asserts that, despite the uncertain future, families can continue to expect St. Luke’s to deliver on its mission: An exceptional education that inspires a deep love of learning, a strong moral compass, the commitment to serve and the confidence to lead. “More than ever, we’re seeing the essence of the St. Luke’s difference,” Davis told families, “...where academic excellence and a commitment to emotional agility and resilience are two sides of the same coin...St. Luke’s will continue to build on its foundation, of a distinctive view of what’s best for children that will enable us to shape the future rather than be shaped by it.”