September Letter from Lower School Director Kathryn Bauman-Hill

Dear Bush Lower School Families,

Entering my first year at both The Bush School and Seattle has been a remarkably smooth transition thanks to two themes elevated at the Lower School this year. The first, resilience, was exemplified in various speeches at Convocation. It is a significant theme given my recent move across the country, as resilience, persistence, and adaptability are all attributes to summon when relocating. Additionally, anyone who works with children, parents and guardians included, knows that the best plans may need to be modified. Finding ways to adjust to a situation is a skill educators use daily. Similarly, being flexible and reframing one’s ideas are strategies introduced to students at a young age at Bush.

 

Within the first few days of the school year, Kindergarten students are exposed to resilience and flexibility as they mix between different social configurations, student groupings, and teacher introductions as a method of building community across the full cohort. Now established in homeroom classes, Kindergarten students are beginning to understand how mistakes sprout growth, and everyone can learn from them. 

Reframing a challenge as an opportunity continues into First Grade. Students are introduced to a problem-solving wheel of options, helping them to adapt to challenges and address dilemmas independently. Over the course of the year, they advocate for themselves by compromising, talking it out, telling someone to stop, taking a break, or taking ownership of the situation. 

Moving into Second Grade, students are reflecting on classroom experiences through journal writing, exploring moments of growth and resilience while practicing the class ideal of progress over perfection. 

Third Grade students are leaders in showing resilience with schedule changes. On the first day of school, they expertly navigated from Convocation into their Specials’ classes. Additionally, they are flexibly exploring alternative opportunities on the playground as the new play structures take shape. Soccer and four-square are popular options, yet children are using imaginative play to create games with parachutes, balance boards, aspects of nature, and a giant chess board. 

In Fourth Grade, the idea of productive struggle is introduced, a concrete example of resilience, where students are given a challenge with minimal clues. As they use trial and error to solve it, they practice perseverance, resourcefulness, and flexibility. Once in Fifth Grade, students are very articulate about resilience. They record personal examples of their growth and relate them to the classroom value that everyone learns from mistakes.  

 

A second theme for the year within the Lower School is mattering, a concept that goes one step beyond belonging. Mattering incorporates being included with having a voice in the process. Showing students that they matter starts the moment they arrive at school, as they are welcomed into the building by adults and children who are genuinely interested in them. In their classrooms, focusing on who they are, how they learn, and what they need to do their best work shows them they are known and noticed. Each of these pieces helps children feel they are significant at Bush, particularly during the first weeks of school when their voice is part of sharing both interests and personalities. Teachers and students put intention into building a strong community. Students are learning to work towards a shared purpose–how to be more engaged to improve the world around them and speak up for what they believe–final ingredients of mattering. Through friendships, service learning, civic engagement, academic connection, and experiential learning, students develop a sense of “accomplishment and contribution to their communities,” an essential part of Bush's mission. Combining resilience and mattering creates an ideal space for growth both academically and emotionally, as students gain comfort leaning into risk-taking and mistake-making.  

 

Bush  is quickly becoming a place where I feel as if I matter. I’ve been received by parents and guardians, colleagues, and children with joy and enthusiasm–evidence that I belong at Bush  and my purpose in supporting the children and educators matters.

 

Below are upcoming opportunities to learn more about how resilience, mattering, and academics are reflected within the Lower School classrooms: 

 

Back-to-School Night

Wednesday, September 23–6:00-7:15 p.m.

 

Ages and Stages Series from 8:30-9:15 a.m.

Opportunities to learn about developmental milestones at various grade levels

 

 In partnership,

Kathryn Bauman-Hill

Lower School Division Director