To Wesley, With Love... I am often asked to write something about the school, usually admissions or matriculation focused, for a variety of internal publications, and it’s usually not a big deal. This time, however, I find myself struggling with how to address the past two years without having my words be heavily influenced by the pandemic. And yet, how can they not be? And how can there not be the underlying grief so many of us still feel over the loss of our beloved Ernie? I guess it is just that - what we live through becomes a very powerful part of what shapes how we feel and how we experience that time period. I find myself with a mix of emotions - sadness, loss, and exhaustion are constantly counterbalanced by optimism, joy, and the strength I receive almost daily from our community. It is no surprise that our community and its ability to pull together, to 36
be there for one another, and to share in the ups and downs, is what continues to be talked about by long time families and by those who have just recently joined us. For the families who are newer to Wesley, I heard over and over again how disappointed they were in the way things were being handled at other schools. They had heard about how quickly we pivoted to get remote learning up and running and how hard we worked to be able to have children back on campus. They heard about the commitment from the school to help families be able to keep their children at Wesley through the establishment of the Community Support Fund. And they heard about all the ways in which our Parents’ Association worked tirelessly to keep our community connected even when we couldn’t be together in person. This was a place they wanted to become a part of.
As a result, we had the most successful admissions season ever, welcoming 75 new students to The Wesley School. It won’t be too long before these new students and their families share with their friends about their experiences at Wesley and encourage them to come check us out. This is how the admissions cycle works - almost 100% of our inquiries come to us through word of mouth, and we love that this is the case. It tells us we must be doing something right. We are already well entrenched in the next admissions cycle and look forward to learning from our inquiries about how they heard about The Wesley School. Verena Denove associate head of school director of admissions & financial aid
