Laying Foundations
The first week of the 2025-26 school year at Live Oak has engaged our students with a range of foundational awareness, skills, and connections. Kindergartners and new students oriented themselves in their new building by taking walking tours of the spaces around campus, meeting many of the new faces who will teach them, support them, and serve as trusted resources for years to come. In Lower School, faculty are cultivating their classroom communities by getting to know one another, often through morning meetings and thoughtful activities in both homeroom and specialist classes throughout the day.
Sixth graders are learning what it takes to be successful in Middle School, establishing their work habits and routines, while starting to recognize and respond to their growing sense of self that will guide them through their successes, as well as the challenges they will inevitably encounter. Seventh and eighth graders are busy deepening their bonds with classmates and refining their learning processes as they are adapting to the increased expectations laid in front of them, all the while starting to eye new ways to engage beyond Live Oak and apply their talents through their upcoming performances, competitions, and service opportunities.
Similarly, Live Oak’s new faculty are laying their own foundations for a successful year: getting familiar with the systems and procedures that outline the day, reimagining their curriculum to capture new learners, and gathering insight on what makes Live Oak a special place to teach and to learn.
These seemingly simple activities actually serve a very valuable purpose: helping ground our students in their new communities. The groundwork that is laid through these personal connections and relationship building will yield inspiring results in the weeks and months ahead as our students embark on collaborative intellectual challenges and dive deeper into perspective-building academic work. They will be ready; ready to engage fully because they feel safe expressing their curiosities; ready to challenge themselves because they know they can rise to it; ready to make mistakes because they know they will learn from them.
Each morning meeting, creative identity-sharing activity, and group problem-solving task that has taken place over the last week is laying the foundation for our students’ growth and development that will take place this year. Being new to Live Oak, we are both inspired by the energy we have seen when we step into classrooms and excited to see the endless potential these learners possess to do great things. We are looking forward to building our own connections and learning our own skills that will serve as our foundation. We can’t wait to see what the year holds and we look forward to building something great together!
In partnership,
Regina Hardatt, Lower School Division Director
Asha Weber, Middle School Division Director
Live Oak学校欢迎并接纳任何种族、肤色、民族和族裔、公民身份、性别认同、性别表达、性取向和信仰的学生参与Live Oak学校的所有权利、特权、项目和活动。在管理其教育政策和计划、招生政策、调整后的学费计划以及体育和其他学校管理的计划方面，Live Oak学校不存在基于种族、肤色、民族和族裔出身、公民身份、性别认同、性别表达、性取向和信仰的歧视。