I believe that communication is key between parents and schools. To that end, I have set up this Headmaster's Corner to receive emails from parents, students or alumni  that I will read and answer. On some occasions, it may be as simple as to direct you to the proper department. On others, we may need to meet and discuss the issue in person. But here is where it can begin...the Headmaster's Corner.

Please submit thoughtful and pertinent questions or comments to headmasterscorner@stmsaints.com and I will have a response to you as soon as possible. I will be sitting down with these emails about once every two weeks. I look forward to hearing insightful ideas and learning more from you about what you want out of your family's experience here at St. Martin's or your memories or thoughts for  your Alma Mater!

Jeffrey Pratt Beedy

Click here to read the Headmaster's January Newsletter

Click here to read the Headmaster's February Newsletter

March News from the Headmaster: The Total Human Development Approach to Education

Dear St. Martin’s Friend:

St. Martin’s has long been known for educating the whole child. As we sharpen our vision and begin to design our strategic plan, we will expand this holistic approach to include developing the whole child within the whole community.  We will continue to explore how all aspects of community living including academics, athletics, arts and summer camp contribute to developing the whole child. The critical component to our educational model is intentionality and training. Toward these ends, we will develop new programs such as the Leadership Center and Project Adventure (www.pa.org) and engage our community in ongoing training on best practices. Our goal is to provide a superior educational environment where children are intrinsically motivated to learn and develop life skills. This is an exciting time for St. Martin’s.

Last week, St. Martin’s had the benefit of experiencing a nationally renowned expert in character education. I worked with Matt Davidson for over 10 years while developing my Sports PLUS manual and at New Hampton School, where we were awarded the National School of Character Award.  Matt spoke to an audience of over 200 parents, alumni and community members on the evening of March 4 at the Michael Edward Wanek Memorial Lecture about practical strategies for successful parenting. The following day, the Wanek Lecture Series continued as Matt led our faculty and staff in a day-long examination of St. Martin’s as a Professional Ethical Learning Center and how we can take things we are already doing and make them more intentional in order to connect character education to the particular situations we all face in the classroom and in our lives.  Matt did a masterful job of showing how the integration of performance character (do our best work) and moral character (do the right thing) is the source of tremendous power in a school community. At the end of the day, faculty, staff and administration came away with a renewed sense of who we are and what we stand for as our discussion of core values coalesced around central themes such as excellence, respect and integrity. Not only will we follow through with Matt’s work throughout next year, but that work product will also serve as a foundation for our work over the next several months with our strategic planning consultant Ian Symmonds.

The heart of our campus will soon evolve to reflect our strategic direction. This summer we will begin construction on The Coatney Leadership Center, which will house the headmaster’s office and the Research and Development center. The Coatney Leadership Center, unique in the Greater New Orleans area, will serve as the “brain” of our leadership development programs, including Project Adventure and Sports PLUS. Over the summer we will also begin the early phases of the Project Adventure challenge course. In order to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities presented by these leadership initiatives, as well as to be more visible and physically closer to everyone on campus, I have decided to move my office to the Coatney Leadership Center.

Following our strategy of intentionally integrating our values into every aspect of our programs, the revamped St. Martin’s Summer Experience will reflect the essence and strengths of our school just as our programs do during the school year. I am pleased to announce that Warren Lind has accepted a larger role as Director of Summer Programs and, under his guidance, the St. Martin’s Summer Experience will emerge as yet another in our wide range of community programs that dovetail with our philosophy of total human development.

Academics must always be a primary area of emphasis when we talk about our vision for St. Martin’s. We are committed to studying our programs and our pedagogy on an ongoing basis, achieving a steadily evolving curriculum.  This year, we have taken a number of steps that demonstrate our commitment to St. Martin’s as a superior academic institution. Toward that end, I would like to thank Tom Wheelock for his tremendous work in achieving an intentional and successful examination and improvement of our academic programs this year. Tom will be leaving St. Martin’s at the end of the school year, and we wish him well as he moves to Portland, Oregon. I would specifically like to thank Tom for achieving a number of curriculum improvements and launching several initiatives that leave St. Martin’s a stronger school:
            *Our academic programs will now be better connected, with smoother transition from Lower to Middle and Middle to Upper School. Teachers across division grade levels have come together to bring greater clarity to this process and to help teachers of the lower grades better prepare their students for the coming years. Being better connected also means that within disciplines, we have a smooth and complete sequence and we identify natural points of collaboration with other disciplines. The work begun this year will continue to produce even better transitions and connectedness next year.
            *The Lower School has been assertive in identifying and implementing strategies to strengthen our reading and math programs. We have seen the positive impact of Accelerated Reading, and more recently, we were awarded a grant allowing us to implement Everyday Mathematics to encourage higher order thinking skills and cooperating learning in conjunction with our math curriculum.
            *We are addressing how we stretch our strongest children at any given point. In the Middle and Upper School we are clarifying expectations for honors and Advanced Placement courses and identifying students who should accelerate; the Lower School is also in the process of identifying ways in which to challenge their most capable students.

An innovation of particular interest at St. Martin’s next year will be our Late Start Wednesdays and our Saints PLUS program. In an effort to add value and be intentional in our efforts to develop leadership skills, we will offer a unique Saints PLUS program during our Late Start Wednesdays. More details regarding the logistics of the program will be forthcoming to our faculty and parents in the next few months, but I want to emphasize the tremendous benefits to be gained.  We strive for opportunities to increase the time spent on programs that integrate character education into our curriculum and programs that are consistent with best practices in education. This time period will give our students the opportunity to participate in age-appropriate sport-based youth development programs such as Sports PLUS, Project Adventure, and honing of athletic skills.  Our students will benefit by the introduction of cutting-edge sport-based youth development programs and the timing of classroom academics to optimize learning, while our faculty will use the time to collaboratively research and discuss best practices in education.

I hope that you enjoy receiving periodic updates on the many ways in which St. Martin’s is working to be better than ever. Beginning in April, we will publish these monthly updates via an electronic newsletter, with hard copy letters mailed periodically to reflect news of particular importance. We will, of course, continue mailing The Bell  biannually  to our entire community. If you did not receive this letter electronically, and would like to do so, please contact our Communications Office to be placed on our email list (Anne.Honeywell@stmsaints.com). Many thanks for your support and input.

Sincerely,
Dr. Jeffrey Pratt Beedy
Headmaster