Dear Whittier Community,

This school year marks the 18th year of the Whitter/MacPhail partnership. We are looking forward to a new year and are happy to announce a few exciting changes to the program.

Throughout the course of last year, we took a step back and evaluated many aspects of the partnership. It’s important that we continue to reflect on the successes and challenges of our program so that we continue to best serve all Whittier students and satisfy the requirements of the generous donors who susidize the program.

The ongoing success of the program is clear when you see and hear a student give a great performance. We saw a lot of that at MacPhail at our school partnerships recital last March. I imagine you saw plenty of it at Whittierduring various student performances throughout the yearand at year-end recitals.

We’ve had some ongoing challenges with student retention, so we identified that as an area of concern. To ensure students and families are making an informed decision about the commitment involved, we want to make sure all students are getting substantial exploratory experience on both piano and violin. Communication is essential to a healthy program, so we’ve evaluated and re-vamped our procedures to make them as clear and consistent as possible. The funding landscape continues to shift rapidly and we must satisfy our funders’ requirements. With all this in mind, here’s how the program will look for this coming year.

PROGRAM COMPONENTS

KINDERGARTEN & FIRST GRADE

  • All students participate in a six week Musical World residency.
  • Instruction happens in the classroom- no sign up neccesary

SECOND AND THIRD GRADE

  • All students participate in an eight-week, hands-on piano and violin sampler class
  • Instruction happens in the classroom- no sign up necessary

FOURTH GRADE

  • Students may elect to apply to the piano/violin program
  • Participating families must sign a commitment contract and attend an info session
  • Weekly lessons are conducted in group format over the lunch period, 45-minute sessions
  • MacPhail provides instrument for practice and materials

FIFTH GRADE

  • Students that successfully complete the fourth grade program are invited to continue in fifth grade with a weekly, half hour partner lesson
  • Partner lesson scheduling may involve some classroom pullout for some students
  • Continuing students must demonstrate success, commitment and good academic standing
  • Families can opt to bring students to MacPhail downtown outside of school hours for these lessons instead of school pull out (restrictions may apply)

COMMUNICATION

  • MacPhail teachers will make consistent use of lesson notebooks to communicate ongoing assignments
  • MacPhail will create a monthly newsletter to communicate to families participating in the 4/5th grade program
  • Questions about curriculum, program goals, or anything else can always be directed to:

Katie Condon, 612.767.5404,

NOTES

  • Families opting out of the 4/5th grade program may enroll in piano or violin private lessons at MacPhail at a 25% discount.
  • We anticipate being able to offer a section for beginning 4th/5th graders who were not selected in last year’s lottery. Capacity for this will be determined after returning students are placed. We’ve offered a section for new 4th/5th graders for the last 8 years and this remains a high prioirty. This year will be a bit of a unique year as we make the transition from beginning the instrumental program in 3rd grade to beginning in 4th grade.

TIMELINE

September 9: communication of program changes to Whittier faculty

September 10: communication of program changes to Whittier community at Open House and in Thursday folders; registration/interest forms go home in folders and are available at Open House.

September 14: MacPhail presents at PTA meeting.

September 17: Registration forms due, placement begins.

September 28: Instruction starts.

Note: Musical World and Piano/Violin Sampler will be scheduled for winter/spring of 2016.