Please join us for our last Admission Program of the season, "Faculty Spotlight," on Saturday, January 12, beginning at 9:15 am.

Admission Programs, our largest admission events, are offered outside of school hours. At each event, you will hear from teachers, administrators, and parents about the St. Patrick's program and what makes it special. In addition, you will have a tour of our facilities.   

Admission Programs occur on both of our campuses. We encourage applicants for Grades 5 to 8 to join their parents on our MacArthur Campus (4590 MacArthur Boulevard, NW). We will provide childcare for our younger applicants while their parents explore our Whitehaven Campus (4700 Whitehaven Parkway, NW). Each event runs about two hours.

Students have been enthusiastically preparing for their Christmas Pageants on Thursday, December 20, two highlight events of the year. The pageants involve the entire St. Patrick's community, giving the students the chance to share their gifts of music and storytelling with family and friends.
 
The Nursery School and Kindergarten Pageant with Grade 8 readers is at 9:30 am, and the Grades 1-7 Pageant is at 11:00 am.  As has been the tradition for many years, three Grade 2 students play the parts of the Kings and sing solos in the Grades 1-7 Pageant. Upon our return from the Christmas holiday, three additional Grade 2 students will sing solos as Kings in our Kindergarten-Grade 8 Epiphany Chapel on Tuesday, January 8, at 8:30 am.

We are looking forward to these wonderful events!

Ten members of the Day School faculty and staff attended the National Association of Independent Schools’ People of Color Conference last month. Participating were 4C teacher Davina Chu, Grade 8 humanities teacher Marlena Elmore, Academic Technology Coordinator Jonathan Fichter, K3 teacher Samantha Fletcher, PK1 teacher Cindy Gunja, N2 teacher Anita Hockenberry, Business Office associate Mittie Johnson, Facilities Director Mike Matthews, Spanish teacher Eby Okonkwo, and Assistant Head of School for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Erica Thompson. They travelled to Nashville, Tennessee, where they gathered with more than 6,000 educators from across the country. The four-day conference featured workshops, seminars, and speakers focused on improving the climate at independent schools with respect to diversity and inclusion. 

Last weekend, five St. Patrick's faculty members attended, and two co-facilitated at, a fascinating conference called the Big Ideas Fest (BIF), held this year at American University. The three-day conference, which asks participants to collaborate using a design-thinking process called Action Collab, draws together teachers, policy makers, researchers, and students from a variety of life experiences to become change-makers in education and social justice. The BIF format includes rapid-fire talks from leading innovators and Action Collab design-thinking labs that engage groups to brainstorm, prototype, and ultimately create scalable solutions to cumbersome issues in education. Facilitators and speakers cultivate an environment that encourages risk-taking and imagining the impossible.