Responsibility, Belonging, Acceptance

Primrose students learn from an early age that they belong in the Somers community. They start each day in their classrooms with a morning meeting, which encourages cooperation, kindness, and respect. In addition, high school students frequently visit classrooms to read to and play with the younger Tuskers and serve as role models.

No Place For Hate

All four buildings have received No Place For Hate distinctions, emphasizing a culture of inclusion, respect, and equity. A few of the many age-appropriate activities are represented below.

Find a Buddy Who

Celebrating each other’s differences, Primrose students played “Find a Buddy Who”, a scavenger hunt that leads them to new information about the people in their classroom.

Unity Day

Students wear orange on Unity Day to tell others that they believe in kindness, acceptance and inclusion and want to prevent bullying. At the middle school, students write positive messages on slips of paper and create a chain that decorates the school entrance.

Other No Place for Hate Activities

Mix It Up Lunch

At SIS the counseling team organized a Mix-It Up Lunch to build a sense of community and help students make new friends. Each student picked a candy and sat at a table designated for that flavor. The counseling team facilitated conversation starters and table games.

Human Rights Projects

Each year, high school sophomores research and create a memorial that honors those lost in a human rights violation. The top projects are exhibited in the school library where all students see the display.

Character Chains, What’s Your Gift to the Community, Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center Collaborations, Classroom Charters, Upstanders, Be a Friend Letters, Unique Sweater Day.

International Baccalaureate Schools

SCSD has committed to the challenging framework of the International Baccalaureate Programmes (IB). In 2023, Somers Middle School became an accredited International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (MYP). The MYP framework encourages students to make practical connections between their studies and the real world, preparing them for success in further study and in life.

Eighth graders piloted the MYP Community Project. Students identified a community issue to explore in depth. Some of the projects this year included Strings For Joy: Play it Forward, Raise Your Hand, Local Environmental Cleanup, and Safe Crossing in Somers.

Somers High School offers the rigorous and internationally recognized IB Diploma Programme as well as dozens of IB classes. The high school is in the process of implementing MYP in ninth and tenth grades and an authorization visit is scheduled for the fall of 2024.

The district is in the beginning stages of exploring the Primary Years Programme for kindergarten through fifth grade.