Rethinking Community

BUILDING COMMUNITY IN COVID-19 TIMES

Our typical school year is rhythmed with social and cultural events. There are parties and holiday activities in Lower School, dances and proms for our secondary students, and graduations to mark a students’ passage from one level to another. Parents enjoy cocktail parties and a potluck dinner, as well as a fundraising Gala. The Section’s annual picnic reunites families, faculty and staff, while the Holiday Sale and Lycée-en-Fête bring together the entire Lycée community. Not only are these deeply embedded traditions essential to our transmission of American culture, they build community. What to do, then, when event after event is cancelled due to a worldwide pandemic? We simply put on our thinking caps, and come up with some creative, new, Covid-19-friendly ideas.

SECTION-WIDE SPIRIT WEEK

As we are spread across three separate campuses with hundreds of externé students, a Section-wide traditional American Spirit Week has never been possible. But with everyone stuck at home during the first rigid lockdown, transitioning to online classes and virtual communication, a virtual Spirit Week seemed the very thing to bring our entire community together. The Student Council chose the daily themes and coordinated in-class communication, and the entire student body, from Pre-K through Terminale, as well as parents, faculty, and staff joined in the fun. We celebrated Crazy Hair Day, Sports Day, Mismatched Clothes Day, Color by Grade Day, and finally Tropical Vacation Day (appropriately, on May 1). Members of our community uploaded hundreds of photos to the official Sprit Week album, creating a lasting memory of the occasion.

COMMEMORATING TRANSITIONS

With in-person gatherings off the table, our three graduation ceremonies (for Fifth Graders, Troisièmes and Terminales) also took place online. The administrative team and faculty worked hard to make each one memorable and unique. Students participated as well, recording musical performances, producing slideshows, and making individual slides featuring their special memories and photos. One of the upsides of these online ceremonies was that far-flung family and friends were able to “participate and attend.” HELPING OTHERS

Last year’s Gala, due to be held in late March 2020 was canceled, but we were able to hold the online auction when things reopened in June. Given the difficult economic climate, we decided to donate a portion of those proceeds to a local charity that was helping people affected by the pandemic. When the Student Council developed a project to give holiday cheer to the mothers who benefit from Saint-Germain-en-Laye’s Arbre à Pain food bank, we funded their initiative. Over 200 mothers received special beauty packs of skin creams and lotions, carefully packaged by Section students.

FESTIVE FALL CELEBRATIONS

While were all in school come fall, our traditional Halloween and Thanksgiving events were not allowed under the sanitary restrictions in place. Instead of the traditional school-wide Halloween festivities, costumed Lower School students enjoyed in-class parties, while Middle School children chose special holiday activities to do in class. The highlight of the day was the Halloween candy bags, brimming with such American delicacies as Tootsie Rolls and Nerds, distributed to American Section students of all ages by costumed witches.

Home-made Thanksgiving pies, traditionally baked by Section parents and offered to French and section colleagues on the three campuses was also off the table this year. Instead we made a “MERCI” card. Lower School students signed individual versions of the card and gave them to their French teachers, creating what will most likely become a new Thanksgiving tradition.

Rethinking Community

SANITARY SOCIAL EVENTS

Thanks to our parent volunteers, we have also held Covid-19-tailored social events. An online Pictionary Night reunited Section families of all ages, and many adults attended an online workshop about Digital Parenting, appreciating the fact that they didn’t have to go out on a cold and rainy winter night! Weekly Coffee Klatches were held online, as was the classic Holiday Sale, with Club International creating an online store featuring food delicacies and craft items. The Homeroom Parent network organized the Section’s first ever Teacher Appreciation Day, complete with cards and messages, delicious goodies and handmade masks and pouches for Faculty and Staff. Lower School Bingo Night also moved online; students and teachers from Kindergarten through Grade 5 spent a memorable Friday evening playing Bingo for books, with many students wishing it could be a weekly occurrence!

Faculty and Staff 2020-2021

The pandemic is not over, and we are still thinking creatively. A team of parent volunteers is now hard at work organizing the 2021 fundraising Gala, which will include gourmet meal baskets for dinners at home, virtual entertainment, and an online auction. Nothing can replace being together in person, and we are all looking forward to transitioning back to live events as soon as possible. But you have to admit, the pandemic has forced us off well-trodden paths, and forced us to rethink the way we do things, which is always a useful exercise. It has also allowed us all to grow closer in the face of adversity, and made us all the more aware of how precious our community is.

Margaret Jenkins