A Mission

We’re a bit more than half-way through the first month of January, and it’s a great time to think back to our resolutions and our progress along the way. We’re also nearly half-way through the year for Whiteman Primary. Our Upper Primary students are receiving their mid-trimester reports and thinking about what they’ve accomplished and what progress is still necessary to get them where they want to be at the end of the trimester. The school is finishing its 19^th year and heading into its second decade, and it’s a time for us to review our mission statement to see if it still provides proper guidance for the school’s direction.

We all live with goals, and to the extent that we can keep our “eye on the prize,” we find ourselves able to grow and become the people we want to be. Without goals, we struggle to find a reason to get up each morning. With goals, we find a way to make it through even the hardest day. This is why students start the year with identifying their hopes and dreams for the year, and why they ask themselves each week how they’ve done meeting their own and their teachers’ expectations. Faculty do the same, setting goals at the start of the year, examining their progress toward their goals midway through the year, and reflecting upon their work within the classroom on an ongoing basis.

A school’s goals are embodied in its mission, and Whiteman Primary has spent the first part of this year revisiting its identity to ensure that the goals that are central to the school are best represented in the mission statement. Our new mission statement describes both the love of learning we hope to develop in our students as well as the way we work toward that goal. As you read our new mission statement, you will understand what our school is all about:

“We inspire confidence and a passion for learning through a curriculum that stresses academics, personal accountability, experiential and outdoor education, and responsible local and global citizenship. We provide a creative environment that includes multi-age and socio-economically diverse classrooms, low student-teacher ratios, and active parent participation.”

Each of us should have a mission that gives us purpose, just as each school needs a mission to guide its direction. Our school’s mission guides the school as a whole, our faculty’s goals provide guidance for each classroom, and our students’ hopes and dreams give them motivation. As we move into 2012, what gives you direction and motivates you to follow it?