Spring 2019 Independent

The Independent

SPRING 2019

New Mission, School Keys & Community Code

Alumni Spotlight

IN MARCH OF THIS SCHOOL YEAR, ST. PETER’S SCHOOL ADOPTED A NEW MISSION STATEMENT after many months of conversations and questions about our identity, exploration of the history and traditions of our past, and lively and engaging discussions about where we are headed as a community.

QUINTEN STATON ’10, BEST KNOWN AROUND ST. PETER’S SCHOOL AS “MR. QUINTEN” OR “MR. STATON,” has been an integral part of the St. Peter’s School family since he arrived here in 2006 as a student in the Fifth Grade. His sister, India, also attended St. Peter’s School and started that same year as a Second Grade student. Today, Quinten spends his days supervising our students in our Afterschool Program. He is a natural magnet for children, who light up when he takes a moment to toss a football or patiently answer their endless questions.

The process included not only a review of the existing Mission Statement, but also an understanding of who we have been, who we are now, and who we hope to become. Our community is so much more than just a statement and our approach includes several foundational components which we have named our School Keys.

These are meant to be at the core of what we do and what we expect our students and families to experience while at SPS. This process also brought forth a new Community Code, which is meant to be a statement for everyone in our community to read, understand, and use as a guide for the interactions we have with one another. It is in these interactions that help shape our experiences and this code will be a simple way for us all to have a check on how we are doing and what we may be able to improve, personally and collectively, or when we find ourselves in challenging circumstances.

We are thankful to the SPS Faculty and Administration for their dedication and compassion throughout this process. Their hard work has helped to generate connections to our past, ideas about our present, and thoughtful wonderings about our future.

Mission To honor the richness of childhood, foster mastery of academic principles, and educate students to be generous and committed citizens of their communities and the world.

School Keys

Character Development

Cultural Awareness

Arts Appreciation

Academic Pursuit

Self Knowledge

Community Code Be kind, compassionate, and inclusive. Be respectful of and honest with yourself, your work, and others. Be your best self.

QUINTEN STANTON ’10

Perhaps it is his own personal experiences with the St. Peter’s School that makes him such an enthusiastic and popular staff member. When asked what he remembers most about his time here, he cites the teachers and their dedication to his success.

He mentioned Mr. Weymouth, Ms. Kreider, Mrs. Reistle and Mrs. Levy as being influential in his academic success throughout high school and college. In Quinten’s words, “All of the teachers, especially the ones that I named, really cared about preparing me for the next level and beyond. I also loved how all of the teachers got to know and understand me as a person and as a student. They understood how I thought and how I learned, and they catered their teaching in a way where I could excel as a great student. Without them, I would not be the person that I am today.”

Quinten will graduate from Temple University this spring with his Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice and has already been accepted to the Philadelphia Police and Pennsylvania State Police Forces. He also recently co-founded a real estate investment firm with his dad called “Lions Share REI” which focuses on home renovation/rehabilitation and wholesale home sales. They recently completed their first home rehab together and placed the home on the market. Quinten has long-term goals of a secondary career in real estate and plans to obtain his real estate license this fall in addition to beginning police work.

While our students, faculty, and staff will miss seeing him around campus as he begins the next phase of his life after graduation, there is no doubt in our minds that his educational and life experiences here at St. Peter’s School have prepared him well for success in his career ambitions. Thank you for your service, Quinten, and please come back to visit us to share all that you accomplish!

Student Spotlight THE BUI SISTERS: CINDY ’19, JENNY’19 & CARLY ’29 BEING ABLE TO SHARE THEIR LAST AND FIRST YEARS AT SPS TOGETHER will forever make this school year uniquely special and memorable for the Bui Sisters.

Next month, Cindy (who started SPS in Kindergarten) and Jenny (who started in Prekindergarten) will both graduate and go on to the Science Leadership Academy, while their younger sister Carly continues her journey at SPS. We hear from the soon-to-be grads as they reflect on their time at school, what it’s been like sharing their final year with their little sister, and how they will approach life after SPS.

my official garnet shirt. I felt so proud to be a part of a team. One of the School’s traditions on Color Day is that if you have a younger sibling, you get to hand your sibling their shirt. I was filled with excitement and pride when it was my turn to give my sister, Jenny, her garnet shirt.

JENNY: Having Carly at school has been one of the best things. Walking Carly to the red doors of the school and hoping that today would be the day when she finally shakes hands with Mr. Evans! This is one of those little things in life that I enjoy and cherish because it brings me back to when I was her age her doing the same thing. I am so grateful I had the opportunity to spend this year with Carly!

JENNY: I have had many memorable

moments at St. Peter’s School that I will Cindy, Carly & Jenny smile on Wiggins Field cherish and they are all about St. Peter’s CINDY: Having my sister at St. Peter’s has been a fantastic experience. welcoming and inclusive sense of community, such as hanging It has been awesome to see Carly start her journey as we finish ours out with the ECDers and Lower Schoolers on the turf field after and recognize that she is now part of a warm and caring community. school; walking my younger sister Carly, along with my parents, to her first ever day of school; my first assembly in First Grade when Mr. Costello said, “One day the First Graders will be in the far back where the Eighth Graders are sitting” and now actually sitting in that last row as an Eighth Grader in the chairs and seeing my younger sister, Carly, way up in the front.

CINDY: My first memorable experience at St. Peter’s School

was the day I received my color on Color Day in First Grade. I remember how nervous I was waiting to hear whether I would be a Grey or Garnet. That nervousness was quickly replaced with pride and excitement when a Garnet Eighth Grade student handed me

JENNY: St. Peter’s School is more than just a school. St. Peter’s has not only taught me slope intercept form, how to write an essay successfully, what mercantilism is, and how to conjugate verbs in French. It has also taught me the values of things in life such as friendship, family, community, service, integrity, and ethical principles. These are the things that I will continue to carry with me as I grow older. The experience at St. Peter’s School has been a fulfilling journey with many traditions that I will cherish and miss, with teachers who care, not just about the letter grade on your paper, but about you, and an eminent preparation for a successful future.”

Class of 2019 Secondary School Decisions CINDY BUI

Science Leadership Academy

JENNY BUI

Science Leadership Academy

AIDAN CUSACK

Germantown Friends School

SILAS GRASSE

St. Andrew’s

MAX HOFMAN

Westtown School

SEPP KOHLER

CAPA

OLIVIA LAVINO

Friends’ Central

BRANDON LE

Church Farm School

SAMUEL MILLER

Germantown Friends School

HARRY MURPHY

St. Andrew’s

LILY MURPHY

St. Andrew’s

RAFA ROSA

Friends’ Central

JIASHENG SHI

Germantown Friends School

Faculty Spotlight KATE CHILDS, LPC THIS FALL ST. PETER’S SCHOOL WELCOMED KATE CHILDS AS OUR FULL-TIME SCHOOL COUNSELOR, a position that was newly created for the 2018-2019 school year. She is also our Community Life Coordinator.

Kate is originally from Connecticut, graduated from Philadelphia University (now Jefferson University), earned her MA in Counseling Psychology from Rosemont College in 2014, and became a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in 2018. This summer Kate will be an Academic Counselor for Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth where she will be supporting students with their emotional needs during the summer enrichment program. She resides in Manayunk and her son Blake will be joining her at SPS in September when he begins Prekindergarten.

Prior to SPS, Kate worked at the Center for Autism for nine years providing early intervention services, beginning as a mental health specialist and working her way to Clinical Lead for a team of therapists. She also served as a Residence Coordinator at Philadelphia University.

As the SPS School Counselor, Kate helps students as a group manage anxiety, stress, and conflict resolution during her SEL lessons in the classrooms and advisory lunches, and individually if a student makes such a request. She employs methods including “Baby Doll Circle Time” and “Puppy Play” to teach impulse control and calming strategies to students in Preschool – Fourth Grade. The advisory lunch discussions for Fifth – Eighth Grades are more student-guided and topics change as needed. Kate also provides guidance and support for parents and faculty.

City Curriculum: The City as a Classroom THE GOAL BEHIND THE CITY CURRICULUM IS FOR OUR STUDENTS TO CONNECT TO THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA AND ITS RICH HISTORY. The question was asked, “are we doing a good job connecting our students to the cultural and historical experiences going on in the city?” It is commonly known that students retain information at a higher level when they actually experience what they are studying, not just reading about it. The City Curriculum was created so each student not only gets the opportunity to learn but also to build a stronger bond to their community.

The first step in launching the City Curriculum was to determine our current involvement in the city. Our Eighth Grade visits the Philosophical Society each year to learn about primary sources and research skills, another class sees a traveling math exhibit at the Franklin Institute, another brings in a librarian from the Free Library to speak, and yet another visits the Betsy Ross House for a lesson in real American history. Bringing in “experts,” experiencing traveling exhibitions, visiting museums/aquariums, and taking advantage of our proximity to historic Philadelphia are other experiences that connect the students to the city.

The students’ experiences should be engaging and relevant to what they are learning. Teachers research the topics that are currently being covered in classes to determine which types of resources are pertinent. Teachers investigate Philadelphia’s “hidden gems” that can be included in the City Curriculum such as The Edgar Allan Poe House, the Magic Garden, and Shofuso Japanese House and Garden.

SPS is a city school and connecting to both the community around us and the city at large is a great way for our students to experience the City of Brotherly Love!

As Community Life Coordinator, Kate focuses on professional development sessions for the faculty on topics such as belonging and inclusion. She facilitates affinity group lunches and was instrumental in planning the School’s MLK Week of Service.

Kate is motivated and inspired by the entire SPS community.

She looks forward to using what she has learned this year to continue to support and strengthen students’ social and emotional needs. Kate feels “so lucky to be able to do what I love as part of the SPS family.” And the SPS community is lucky to have her!

Eighth Graders placed educational markers on our local stormdrains as part of their urban watershed unit, tied into the City Curriculum!

Did You Know?

UPPER SCHOOL EDITION

Did you know that every year...

Our 5th and 6th Grade students go on a two night

LEADERSHIP AND TEAM BUILDING TRIP to Echo Hill Outdoor Center in Maryland in September

Our 7th Grade students participate in the George Washington Carver

SCIENCE FAIR

Our 8th Grade students participate in

NATIONAL HISTORY DAY

Our 6th Grade students build two

ROW BOATS Our 5th through 8th Grade students have a year-long

INDEPENDENT STUDY PROJECT (ISP), where they choose their own topic, dive in to learn all they can, and then present what they have found to the community

We have a STUDENT

GOVERNMENT

Our 6th through 8th Graders compete in

INTERSCHOLASTIC SPORTS

fall, winter and spring

Our 8th Graders design and build a RUBE

GOLDBERG

machine

Our 5th through 8th Graders compete in their own

BATTLE OF THE BANDS

lead by a student president and vice president

Girls on the Run Girls on the Run (GOTR) is a national not-for-profit after-school program for girls in Third through Fifth Grades which combines training for a 5K long-distance run with an interactive curriculum to develop selfrespect and healthy lifestyles. Its mission is to inspire girls to be joyful, healthy and confident using a fun, experience-based curriculum which creatively integrates running. Emphasis is not placed on speed, but instead on the development of self esteem and strength of character, ways to create positive connections with peers and adults, and how to make meaningful contributions to your community.

GOTR meets twice weekly after the school day ends.

At the beginning of each session, the girls set collective and individual expectations and goals, such as be encouraging, be respectful, be responsible, be kind, be committed. Trained coaches and parent volunteers help them with goal setting and then lead the group through the mission-aligned curriculum and the running exercises. After a cool-down and stretch, the group reflects about what they learned and how they can carry it through their day-to-day experience. The 10-week program will culminate with a 5K race in June that the girls will run, skip, hop, or walk to complete!

CORE VALUES OF GIRLS ON THE RUN • Recognize our power and responsibility to be intentional in our decision making • Embrace our differences and find strength in our connectedness • Express joy, optimism and gratitude through our words, thoughts and actions • Nurture our physical, emotional and spiritual health • Lead with an open heart and assume positive intent • Stand up for ourselves and others

National History Day

NATIONAL HISTORY DAY IS A YEAR-LONG PROJECT-BASED CONTEST focused on historical research, interpretation and creative expression for Sixth to Twelfth Grade students.

By participating in NHD, students become writers, filmmakers, web designers, playwrights, and artists as they shed light on untold stories and create unique contemporary expressions of history.

The NHD contest has an annual theme: this year’s theme was Triumph and Tragedy in History.

Using the historical detective toolkit skills they have learned to utilize since the Fifth Grade, NHD provides our students with the opportunity to put these tools into action independently.

In their search to answer a research question on a topic that interests them and connects to the year’s theme, students are driven to uncover and engage with information, research tools, professionals, museums, and even individuals who have experienced the events they are researching first hand!

After months of research and discovery, the students choose to enter their culminating projects in one of five categories: website, documentary, paper, exhibit, or theatrical performance.

Students complete their project, not for the win, but to become an expert on their topic. This group of Eighth Graders gathered and researched primary and secondary sources, interviewed professionals, searched archives, wrote many notecards, built strong thesis statements, crafted well-structured outlines and storyboards, cited, annotated, and they created amazing projects as a result.

Given how many awards our students received from the National Constitution Center, it’s clear the judges were impressed with SPS students.

Washington Carver Science Fair ON MARCH 5, OUR SEVENTH GRADERS PRESENTED THEIR SCIENCE PROJECTS AT THE 2019 CARVER SCIENCE FAIR at Temple University’s Aramark STAR Center.

This was the culmination of over two months of research and preparation, which began with each student identifying three topics that they thought would most interest them, through brainstorming and the use of a science experiment idea website called “Science Buddies.” The students then pitched their favorite ideas to Ms. Bader, in order to craft these ideas into true, testable science projects, i.e., identifying variables, a hypothesis, and preliminary research. Congratulations to the following Seventh Graders who received city-wide honors! (continued on next page)

1ST PLACE HONORS • Harry Murphy for Individual Paper • Samuel Miller for Individual Performance • Silas Grasse for Individual Documentary • Jiasheng Shi for Individual Website • Aidan Cusack and Cindy Bui for Group Documentary

3RD PLACE HONORS • Rafa Rosa for Individual Documentary • Max Hoffman for Individual Website

EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR • Ms. Gibfried also took home an honor! She was named NHD Educator of the Year.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!

Washington Carver Science Fair (continued)

MLK Week of Service & Engagement

Clyde Clouser, 1st in Mathematics “What is the Square Cube of Rubik?”

Clyde gave his experimentees a Math IQ test first, then asked the person to solve one face of the Rubik’s Cube (the white side) to determine if mathematical ability corresponded for physically solving a math algorithm-based puzzle (the Cube).

Salah Cicero, 3rd in Computer Science “What Saves Phone Power?”

Salah tested various aspects of the iPhone (turning it on airplane mode, using headphones, low power mode, and background app refresh) to understand how to better conserve battery power on the iPhone.

Sam Oliver, 3rd in Physics “Volume of Sound in Different Temperatures” Sam studied how quickly sound moves through different temperatures. He convinced his parents to change the temperatures of a room in his house and then measured how loud the sound was dependent upon the temperature of the room.

Thomas Cordaro, Honorable Mention in Behavioral/Social Science, and winner of the PhACT Critical Thinking Award “What Kind of Music Helps you Focus?”

Thomas timed people as they constructed a Jenga tower while his experimentees listened to various types of music, hoping to understand which type of music helps people focus the best and complete tasks.

Sarah Taylor, Honorable Mention in Biochemistry “Taste vs. Sell” Sarah tested people to understand if what they tasted or what they smelled helped them to more accurately guess food. She gave the experimentees stimuli to smell while they physically tasted something different.

Janiyah Johnson, Honorable Mention in Chemistry “The McGurk Effect: Do people always hear the sound related to the visual stimulus? Or can a sound that is different than the visual stimulus be perceived?”

Janiyah studied which word is perceived -- what you hear or what you see?

ST. PETER’S SCHOOL STUDENTS ENGAGED IN COMMUNITY SERVICE ACTIVITIES BASED ON DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR’S TEACHINGS DURING THE WEEK LEADING UP TO MLK DAY. The entire school participated in advocacy and demonstration by walking to Head House Square for a children’s Peace March. They decorated pillow cases and wrote cards for other children to brighten their days. Students participated in mindful movement and meditation to reflect on their ability to make a difference whether big or small, for those in their community. The talked about what peace means to them and made peace doves in Dr. King’s honor. At Old Pine Community Center, students put care packages together, made lunch bags for the homeless community, and sorted donated clothing that would later be provided for anyone in need. They went to Cradles to Crayons to sort toys ensuring that the donations were quality and that children who received them would be able to use them as if they were new. Students collaborated to complete the mural art project that was on display in the school and wrote out their dream for themselves, the community, and the world.

All of these activities and many more that occurred throughout the week had a great impact. Students learned to advocate for themselves and others in a safe and peaceful manner, to give back to those less fortunate in order to bring a greater sense of equity, and finally to be inclusive of one another and work together for a greater purpose through the service projects. They continue to think about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s message and spread love and kindness in everything that they do.

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