This Quarter’s Focus: Respect
Our first focus for the school year is Respect. This fall, our students are exploring what respect looks like in action. Through classroom lessons, small group activities, morning meetings, and individual opportunities we’re learning about respect for self, respect for others, and respect for our shared spaces.
Lower School
In Lower School, students are focusing on respect through our new School Counselor’s Story Time video series on Respect, Resiliency, and Relationships. These themes are being reinforced in daily morning meetings, small group activities, and classroom routines to help foster a positive school-wide culture.
Middle School
Students have been focusing on respect during Advisory lessons. They’ve explored the difference between respect and compliance, connections to the Maclay Honor Code, showing respect to teachers and peers, and how respect can help prevent bullying behaviors.
Upper School
Students have been examining respect through counselor-led Community Time lessons. Upper School students created homeroom CommUnity Agreements, they have also reflected on what respect means, why it matters, and how it shows up in daily life.
Quarter Highlight
Each quarter we want to take some time to highlight a specific program from the school counseling team. This quarter we’re focusing on the Middle School House Cup System.
Maclay Middle School’s House Cup System builds community by giving every student a safe space to connect, practice teamwork, and develop resiliency. Through fun competitions and shared experiences, students strengthen relationships across grade levels, grow in confidence, and develop leadership skills, all while contributing to a positive school culture. This year’s events have included tower building with spaghetti and marshmallows, one-hole disc golf, digital escape rooms, and a ping pong ball relay.
At-Home Connections
As we partner with you, we want to give a few opportunities for your family to continue the conversation on respect at home.
- Table Talk Questions:
- What does it look like to respect yourself when you make a mistake?
- What might change in a friendship or classroom if respect was missing?
- Who is someone you admire for the way they show respect, and what can we learn from them?
- Family Activity: Create a “Respect Challenge.” Each family member names one way they’ll show respect this week, then reflect and share at the end of the week.
Student Voices
Maclay’s campus is alive with students who bring talent, creativity, and knowledge, and just as importantly, they show heart through kindness and service. We’re grateful for their voices and the many ways they help shape and strengthen our school. This year, Upper School students are sharing their voices in new ways through Community Councils, surveys, and student-led initiatives, helping shape future programming and events. In Middle School, new students recently reflected that while they had heard stereotypes about Maclay before arriving, their own experience has been the opposite, they’ve found their peers to be welcoming, kind, and supportive.
Looking Ahead
Next quarter, our focus will turn to Relationships. Students will explore what it means to be a good friend, practice working together as a team, and learn ways to navigate the ups and downs that come with friendships. We’ll encourage them to think about how they show up for others and how they want their friends to show up for them, helping them grow stronger, more supportive connections.
Parent Opportunities
We are excited to welcome Peyton Williams to campus as the next speaker in our Parent Education Series. Peyton is the founder of Bowbend Consulting and a former classroom educator and Director of Teaching and Learning at The Westminster Schools in Atlanta. With over 16 years of experience in education and a passion for character development, she partners with parents and schools to help children thrive. As a mother of three, Peyton brings both professional expertise and personal insight to her work.
Her workshop, When to Listen, When to Step In: A Parent’s Guide to Kids’ Friendships, will give parents concrete tools they can use that same night or the next day to respond well to their children’s friendship drama. From discerning how best to respond to their children who come home struggling with social dynamics, to learning what is typical in friendships at different ages, to distinguishing normal growing pains from moments to step in, parents will feel inspired and leave equipped and connected.
Peyton will host two sessions for parents: Monday, October 27 at 6:00pm and Tuesday, October 28 at 8:30am. We hope you’ll join us for one of these meaningful opportunities to learn together.
Resources
Last month, we welcomed Dr. Rosie Hunter, to speak to parents and students about anxiety specific to testing. She recommended: Breaking Free of Child Anxiety and OCD by Eli R. Lebowitz, Ph.D. For more resources related to test anxiety from Dr. Hunter you can visit her website: https://www.testwolf.com/
Last year, the school counseling team also partnered with Dr. Sameer Hinduja to speak with parents and students about internet safety. You can access more information or resources at his website: https://cyberbullying.org.
Stay In Touch
Please don’t hesitate to reach out if there’s ever a way we can support your child. Our counselors support students not only through individual conversations but also by teaching classroom lessons, running small groups, and working with teachers to strengthen classroom communities.
