The following letter was sent to the Fay community on February 16, 2023 from the Head of School.
Dear Fay Family,
With incredible pride, I want to share two pieces of news that speak directly to how The Fay School is elevating to a national level. First, Melissa Sherman has been selected to present alongside Craig Randel at the upcoming NAIS Annual Conference on Trust Based Observations, which we implemented during the 2021-2022 school year. NAIS receives numerous presentation proposals for its annual conference, so it is a tremendous honor for Melissa and Fay to be selected. With representatives from nearly each of the more than 2,000 associations of schools in the United States and abroad, including more than 1,600 independent schools, and close to 3,000 attendees, The Fay School and Melissa will be front and center to highlight one of our innovative and future-focused approaches to teaching and learning. As a school decidedly dedicated to leadership development, this is another way that The Fay School is positioning itself as a leading school not just in Houston or Texas, but nationally.
Secondly, I have accepted an invitation by NAIS to serve as a faculty member for the 2023 NAIS Institute for New Heads! This institute takes place in Atlanta this July and will welcome close to 100 new heads of school. I will represent Fay and work alongside six other sitting heads of school as we work to prepare and coach the next generation of heads of school for their first year in areas like leadership development, teaching and learning, governance, finance, leading faculty and staff, strategic planning, leading through crisis, enrollment management, and more. Specifically, I’ll give a presentation to each of the seven homeroom cohorts throughout the institute titled “Entry Planning and your first 12 months – Perils and Possibilities.” Representing Fay in this capacity is something I could not have imagined when I arrived here four and a half years ago. I am humbled and proud, especially since these two honors are specific evidence that Fay is truly one of leadership development at all levels!
As shared in previous Fay Flyers, we as a school community have made it a priority to continually invest in professional development opportunities for our faculty and staff to ensure that your children are and will continue receiving all they need, academically and personally, to develop into future leaders of the world. To do this, we have allocated part of our Annual Fund to invest in our employees’ growth and continued learning.
Over the last twelve months, our faculty and staff have been able to attend conferences and other professional development opportunities across the country. In addition to investing in our school’s overall growth and development, we have been able to attract and retain phenomenal educators by encouraging their advancement as professionals and spreading the word about Fay nationally. Here are some of the ongoing opportunities we have been able to provide our teachers and staff with your contributions to past Annual Fund campaigns:
- World Leadership School Purpose Summit
- Leadership and Design’s Leadership Lab
- Rice Literacy Winter Summit
- International Play Association’s North American conference
- Texas Children in Nature Network
- Rice University School of Mathematics Project
- CASE NAIS
- TCEA Convention & Exposition
- John Cooper Reading and Writing Workshop
- Responsive Classroom
- Lucy Calkin’s Readers’ and Writers’ workshop
- Project Based Learning
- Rice University’s Summer Institute on Reading
- Writing and Cultural Connections
- ISEEN Summer Teacher Institute
- I.S.M. Advancement Academy
- Enrollment Management Association Annual Conference
- Leadership + Design’s Head’s Reset
- NAIS Annual Conference
While your child does not attend these professional development opportunities, they are the beneficiaries of us always striving to improve our craft as educators. Everything we do aims to live out our vision to deliberately build and educate the next generation of leaders for our world!
Always striving,
Morgan B. Scoville, M.Ed.