Good afternoon IA families, 

It’s hard to believe we are almost halfway through first semester, but here we are. I wanted to mention a couple important things today. 

First, last month I shared a post about the new magnet requirements at IA, and this coming week, we’ll be sending letters home to students who are in danger of not meeting these requirements. Please take some time to review the magnet requirements with your student to make sure they understand the importance of remaining in good standing. 

I also want to ask you all to check in with your students about their classes and how they are doing. Oftentimes, we have students who are failing but just need some independent support to help them get back on track. Yet many of our students, and this is common with high-performing kids, will hesitate to actually go in for help. Even when parents drop them off to get tutoring, it is not unusual for the students to never make it to tutoring. When I talk to these students, they will express serious difficulty in letting their teachers know they don’t understand something. Often, they feel like the teacher will get mad if the student admits to not knowing something. If you can help your students understand this is not the case, it goes a long way. Many times, just helping your student craft an email to the teacher asking for help will be enough to get them over the fear. 

There is clear evidence that when students get individual support from their teachers, their grades go up, so please ensure your students are taking advantage of all the tutoring opportunities they have. 

As always, thank you for your support, 

Scott Kent

Principal