Happy New Year!

Happy new year to all of the Henley Hornets! I’m hoping that everyone in the Henley family enjoyed their Winter Break as much as I did with some opportunities to relax and spend time with family. I feel incredibly refreshed and ready to meet the challenges of the second half of the year!

So many wonderful events took place before we left for the holidays that reaffirmed all of my positive thoughts about our school. Not the least among them was our winter concert. The talent that is present in all of our performing groups is truly tremendous! Thanks to all of you who helped to fill the auditorium at Western Albemarle. I know that it meant a great deal to our students to be able to play to such a packed house.

Thanks, also, to all of you who took the time to remember teachers and staff members at Henley with holiday wishes. A few words of thanks go a long way at this time of year, and the appreciation that many of you expressed for our teacher’s hard work is always well received.

The new year brings with it a time for all of us to set goals and resolutions for how we are going to improve in 2008. I hope that all of our students at Henley are able to take some time to reflect on their year so far and to set some goals for the future. Many students may choose to focus on an academic goal, others may want to expand their circle of friends by sitting with some new people at lunch, some might resolve to become more involved in some of the school or county’s extra curricular activities. Having a goal for the year will help to provide a focus and motivation that will help them stay on track for the rest of the year.

We will be entering an incredibly busy time at Henley over the next few weeks. The semester will be ending next Friday and report cards will follow about a week after that. Many students will be taking mid-year assessments in their core classes to help us gauge our progress toward our goal of making our AYP benchmarks. Our scheduling process for the 2008-2009 school year is beginning and school counselors will be visiting classes to speak with students about course selection for next year. I will be visiting our feeder elementary schools at the end of the month to talk with them about coming to Henley next year. Anyone who would like to provide input on next year’s schedule is invited to attend our PATSO meeting on Monday, January 7 at 7:00 in the Henley library.

We are hitting the ground running in 2008! I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to see the success that our new year will bring! Happy new year and Go Hornets!