Head of School's Message
Social grace, inner discipline and joy. These are the birthright of the human being who has been allowed to develop essential human qualities. ~Maria Montessori
Dear RMS Parents,
We’re just finishing the complicated but oh-so-important “phase-in” period of our school year, and entering the orientation and settling phase. Beginning with lessons in ‘grace and courtesy’, each new community and every child within it finds and settles into their rhythm, personal and communal. Stamina will grow, initial excitement will fade, but the child will begin to build the ‘social grace’ and ‘inner discipline’ that will be the foundation for the deeper ‘joy’ to follow.
It’s an important time for this hidden work, and it is greatly helped by ‘routine’… on time arrivals, a good night’s sleep the night before,…. all of these “little” things help the child develop their rhythm and connect it with the rhythm of the school day. Life is difficult and full of surprises, but everything we can do to help preserve and promote the ‘routine’ is worth the effort. And be sure to include the children in the preparation! They love to help make lunches, lay out clothes, etc.
After this “settling time”, we’ll be in full swing, and open wide the door to observations and visits!
Sean Garvey Head of School Renaissance Montessori School Phone: 703.368.4442
Parent Infant Session Special Offer
In October and November, Mrs. Brenda will be offering a special 8 week Parent Infant session, affectionately referred to as “Mommy & Me.” This session will be offered at no charge to our enrolled families and their friends. Stay tuned to your email for more details!
NEW Procedure for Absences
Our little school has grown into a big school and for the safety of all the children, we are updating our policy on the procedure to notify the school of absences.
- Going forward we will not be able to accept messages about the absence of a child from a sibling or as a spoken message from a parent at carpool. The sheer number of children entering each day makes it impossible for us to remember and relay these messages accurately. To communicate a child will be absent and why, please call or email the school before 9:00 AM.
- If a child is absent and we have not received official notification from a parent, we will be contacting you to confirm that the child is with you and the reason for the absence.
RMS Facebook
Have you visited the RMS Facebook page? This year we will be using Facebook to share the life of the school with our community, including pictures of the children and helpful articles for parents.
Don't miss out - follow us now! We are @RenaissanceMontessoriVA or visit and follow us HERE.
NB: If you've set your media release to "Limited Usage," we will not be able to share pictures of your children with you on Facebook. If you want to change your usage or are unsure of what your permissions are, contact Kristina.
New Blog
We've added a new blog for parents on the website! The blog will host a copy of the Weekly Update for easy reference as well as informational articles and tips for parents.
Check it out in the "Parents" tab or HERE.
Upcoming Events
- 9/14/17 - Normal schedule for Elementary and Primary
- 9/15/17 - Deadline for Confirmation Paperwork
- 9/18/17 - RMS Atrium Parent Orientation (Outside Atrium Only) - 6:30 PM
- 9/19/17 - RMS Atrium Student Visits
- 9/19/17 - Normal schedule begins for Toddler
Reminders
New Later Pick-Up Service
We are pleased to offer a new service to parents beginning this school year. A Later Pick-up option is now available for the 3;00 pick up. This service allows you to pick up your child(ren) as late as 4:30 PM for a fee of $5.00 per child per day. To sign up in advance, please simply email the office the days you plan for your child to attend.
At 3:15 PM, all children still present will be moved to the Later Pick Up Service. When picking up, please sign them out with the adult in charge.
Carpool Map
We have updated the carpool map in the Parent Page of the website. This gives families a way to locate other families that live near them if they wish to carpool. Check it out here.
Online Calendar
The 2017-2018 RMS Academic Calendar is now available in digital form as a Google Calendar. The calendar can be viewed online in the Documents and Info section and can also be accessed through the link in the head of these Update emails.
You can also add this calendar to your digital device. Simply copy and paste this address into any calendar product that supports the iCal format.
https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/rmsmail.org_a1dp6jua8ed94o0aq3tmfa18hg%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics
Family SCRIP Contribution
You may have noticed a new charge in your 2017-2018 contract named “Family SCRIP Contribution”. This charge is due June, 2018, but in actuality, it is a charge designed to never be paid! Here’s a brief explanation.
As you all probably know, SCRIP is a way for families to fund raise for the school via the money they already spend on other things (clothes, groceries, gas, movie tickets, whatever). For example, if you buy $50 of movie tickets using SCRIP, you get $50 of movie tickets AND the school gets $4! So it’s a great way to use the dollars you spend elsewhere to help the school raise money and keep tuition as low as we can.
In regard to the new “Family SCRIP Contribution” charge, every month you’ll get a report of exactly how much your SCRIP purchases have contributed to the school, and before the charge comes due, all those contributions will be credited on your agreement. A mere $25 a month in contributions eliminates the charge altogether!
In addition this year, credits can be earned by attending Parent Nights! Each Parent Night you attend gets you up to $20 in credit toward this charge!
To get started earning credits, contact our SCRIP coordinator, Rosanne Garvey, at rosanne505@verizon.net or call her at 703-447-9229.
Swim
Any student 7th grade or older at RMS is invited to join the RMS Swim team. They will be practicing and going to meets with the Seton Swim team. The fee is $150 per swimmer, $75 for siblings.
The swim season begins November 6th and ends near Feb 16th. Practices are Monday (6:19am), Tuesday (6:04) and Thursday (6:04) at Central Park Aquatic Center. The practices are an hour and a half long.
The fees do not cover all of the expenses Coach Koehr incurs, so extra donations are appreciated.
All swim team parents are expected to volunteer at swim meets. Timing is the easiest volunteer opportunity though others are available.
RMS team members are invited to all Seton Swim events beginning with the team bonfire on November 11th at Coach Koehr's house.
Please visit http://www.setonswimming.org for all information and to sign up.
Soccer
The Holy Family Academy soccer team has invited all RMS 6-8th Grade boys to join the Holy Family MS Boys soccer team. Here are some details from them about their season.
- The season runs from 8/21-late October.
- There will be two weeks of practices (at least) until games begin.
- Practices will be 2-3 times a week at HFA from 3:30-5:00. Once games begin, we will have 1-2 practices per week.
- We hope to play 10-12 games throughout the season. Most games start between 3:30-4:30, and all our games are on weekdays.
- The cost per player will be approximately $100
- Follow our game and practice schedule at hfaathletics.com
- To sign up, please reply to this message and I will add your family to our group email list.
- If you know of any homeschoolers that might be interested in joining our team, please urge them to contact me. Thanks!
- Feel free to ask any follow up question or sign up with Patrick Storey, AD Holy Family Academy at (703) 368-5679 (office)
Pizza Fridays
We are continuing Pizza Fridays this year! Since these first couple weeks are Phase-In, the first Pizza Friday will be September 15th. Below is the pizza form. We ask that you please hand these in with payment no later than the Wednesday before each Friday. If you have any questions, you may email Lianne Francis at lfrancis@rmsmail.org.