This Year’s Element of Focus

Help each student know themselves and to be known well by their community

Each year we focus on a different element of our five-pronged mission. This year we are highlighting the various ways we help each student know themselves and to be known well by their community. At the center of this mission element is identity work. A sense of self-awareness is very important to both academic achievement and success in life overall. We encourage our youngest students to reflect on the things in their lives that are most important to them, and help them learn how those things help define their unique identity. 

Being known by their community starts in their classrooms – students build positive relationships with their peers and learn to respect what makes them unique. And we encourage every school employee to be accessible as a trusted adult and develop connections with students. 

The community building events planned and executed by our PTCA are a very important piece of this effort. And the partnerships we form with organizations like Trees Atlanta, Zoo Atlanta, and the Alliance Theatre become additional opportunities for our students to make connections and be known well by an even broader community.

As they progress from elementary to middle grades with a firmer understanding of who they are, they are encouraged to find ways to make an impact on their community. And by the time they finish 8th grade, they have completed a self-driven project that has measurable impact. This helps prepare them to take an active role as an informed citizen in a global society – another element of our mission. 

To help draw attention to this year’s element of focus, a new t-shirt is now available in the PTCA school store. The message on the shirt focuses on how we as a school work to prepare our students to have large-scale impact. “If you wanna reach the nation,” as the quote on the shirt states, “start from your corner”. Above the quote is a depiction of the “corners” our students start from: Grant and Pavillion (elementary campus) and Essie and Emerson (middle campus). Proceeds from the sale of the shirt will directly support the work we do to build an empowered and inclusive community of students, parents, and educators.