If 12th Grade Dean Terry Kelly had one word to describe this year’s Holy Innocents’ senior class, it would be this: “Energy!”
Wearing senior t-shirts and Hawaiian garb, the Class of 2014 made its presence known Tuesday morning, Aug. 13, with air horns, blowers, confetti, silly stickers and a lot of enthusiasm. The traditional welcome to underclassmen in the Upper School carpool line was by some accounts the noisiest ever, as seniors celebrated the start to a new year in which they are tops on campus.
A mural in the Senior Commons, painted over the summer by Madison Miller ’14, also depicts palm trees framing this year’s class motto: “Life is Good, When You’re a Senior.”
All across HIES Tuesday morning, parents snapped pictures of children wearing new backpacks before waving them off to class, administrators greeted families (some with family dogs) in the carpool lines, and teachers officially welcomed students back to campus. Early Learners begin Monday, Aug 19.
New to Holy Innocents’ this year are French classes in the Lower School, Spanish for Early Learners, and SMART Document Cameras in the Upper School math classes, which students and teachers can use to easily share their work. The Upper School also has an expanding robotics program, and teen students from HIES’ newest sister school, Groote Schuur High School, in Cape Town, South Africa, plan to visit Holy Innocents’ in April.
Lower School students will be involved in ChangeMakers, a new program giving students in first—fifth grades a voice in selecting community service projects, and at the Primary School, kindergarten students will participate in new “design thinking” classes, to help develop problem-solving skills.
In the Middle School, another Think Tank project—which last year culminated in the heralded, two-day Colonial Games—is already in the planning stages, and MS Gary Klingman and Daniel Forrester will featured on WXIA-11Alive soon as Class Act Teachers.
Varsity sports also get under way this week with softball and volleyball games, and a football scrimmage Friday night, away, in Decatur.
GO BEARS!
Contact:
Peggy Shaw
(404)303-2150
peggy.shaw@hies.org
