Boarding and Day Students

Rebecca smiled, it was refreshing to find a parent like this. To often parents who approached the school were solely focus on the academic side of things. It was not terribly surprising because their children tended to be the academic cream of the crop. From the looks of the initial tests Harry wasn't an exception, however a guardian like this might mean he was more balanced than many new students they got.

"Let me show you around and explain how we do things here."

They left her office and she started showing him the campus.

"We believe that life doesn't happen in a vacuum. So history,literature, philosophy, art and music history are taught as a single course called humanities. We tend to have two of those classes to choose from a trimester one more ancient covering say five hundred years or so and one more modern usually covering a fifty to a hundred years. All students register for one of the humanities classes."

"We teach a social sciences class that teaches geography, political science, sociology, economics, civics and some psychology with an emphasis on current events. This is also a required course. From there all students take some form of physical education either by taking an actual class or by participating in a sport. Students take at least one foreign language and one composition course a trimester."

"They take a mathematics course, a science course, an arts course of some kind either art or performing arts. New students fifth grade and up are required to take a critical thinking course, it teaches inductive and deductive reasoning, logic and analysis of patterns, reasoning, looking for fallacies that kind of thing. Then most but not all students take what we call cotillion. It's a class that focuses on the social development etiquette both domestic and foreign, dancing, giving back to the community so on."

"We have an active student council, a students tutoring students program, and numerous clubs and sports teams. We also have organized groups like Boy and Girls Scout troops, and 4H on campus. We are an elite school but we don't have an elitist attitude; a tenth of the school are students here on scholarships and being this close to the capitol about a quarter of our student body is from other countries, mostly diplomats children. Once they enter fifth grade, in a given trimester each of our students is required to "give back" to the community four hours. Many of them do three to four times that."

"Policies, our trimester is thirteen weeks long then we take four or five weeks off. Trimester begins next week. Tuition and fees are due a week before term starts and include everything except books and uniforms. We require uniforms gray or khaki pants for boys, navy jacket, white or light blue oxford, school tie, and optional navy sweater or sweater vest. We don't allow weapons. This policy includes pocket knives if such a knife is needed say for boy scouts or girl scouts the knives can be checked into the office and removed for the specific use during the meeting."

"Problems are addressed by a conflict resolution model that can be instigated by students or staff or even parents. Everyone on staff has had extensive training and as such we are experienced at teaching it to the children most of them after a year here know the steps after two they tend to be able to do it with little help from adults. Hazing by students is grounds for expulsion and prosecution. Fighting is met with mandatory parental involvement and counseling on first offense, suspension on second offense, and expulsion on the third. We have an on campus nurse/paramedic. We have a zero tolerance policy on drugs with two exceptions epi-pens and inhalers for asthma which are taken on a case by case basis, we changed that policy after a student that carried an epi-pen for a peanut allergy saved the life of her friend when she got stung by a bee the first time. We do random drug testing, we don't try to lie and say it can't happen here."

"We have five counselors on staff. One for the forth grade and under Carson who works mostly with the fifth through seventh grades, and three others that work with the eighth grade and up. We tend to see a fair amount of stress related problems in the upper grades and try to be proactive about it. The policies are to keep the school as safe as possible for all students. Questions so far?"

Sirius thought about everything he'd been told and what he'd read in the brochure. "Day students versus boarding?"

"Stuart-Cavanaugh is a combined school. Seventy-five percent of our students fifth grade and up are boarding students. It makes it easier for them to meet the demands of the schedule by cutting out commute time. Fourth and below tend to be day students mostly because their parents want to keep tabs on them. About two thirds of our boarders go home weekends or at least part of them."

"I noticed the stables and riding arena during the tour is that only for some students?"

"The school has six horses the remaining twenty or so belong privately to students and are boarded here. One of our juniors is eligible for the Junior Olympics in Equitation. He boards his horse as do many other students. All sports are open to all students. The school has accommodations for students that don't otherwise have the means to participate. What sports does Harry like?"

"Harry likes lots of sports, he studies Martial arts, he won't like giving up his sais or his sticks. He's very good as a forward in football but not bad as a halfback. He swims like a fish, surfs, can kayak circles around me."

"He sounds like an athlete. What else does he do?"

"He takes pictures, he plays guitar and cello. Plays pranks."

"Your fiance mentioned to Heather he was multilingual what languages?"

Sirius smirked. "Balinese, Indonesian, English, French, and he's working on Latin and Japanese."

"He's fluent in four and learning two more? And he's eight?"

Sirius nodded. "As fluent or more than most eight and a half year olds."

"Whoa." Rebecca checked her watch. "Carson should be about done. Shall we head back in?"

"Sure."

When they walked into her office a few minutes later, Rebecca and Sirius were surprised to be greeted by a glare from the counselor. Carson Beckett's look changed to one of confusion when Harry bounced excitedly over and greeted Sirius with an exuberant hug that was easily returned. "Do I fais le connaisance sekolah?"

....

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