By Adam Swift
The popular International Night is returning to the Arthur T. Cummings School early next year for the first time since before the Covid-19 pandemic.
The event will take place at the ATC from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Jan. 26, Superintendent of Schools Lisa Howard told the School Committee on Monday night.
As in past years, there will be food and activities representing the wide span of international students and families who are part of the Winthrop school community.
“They had done the 10th Annual International Night back in 2019, so we’re super excited to get that back up and running for all of our families,” said Howard. “And it’s for all of our families to come in to get to understand and look at and share with the different countries that we love to show off during the event.”
In addition to International Night, the Family Game Night is scheduled for Thursday night, Nov. 30 at the Gorman Fort Banks School from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Howard said.
In other business, representatives from the Northeast Regional Vocational School recently visited with and spoke to Winthrop seventh graders.
“The students learned about all the vocational shops that are offered, as well as the academics, the sports, and the extracurricular activities that the Voke has to offer,” said Howard. “It was interesting and helpful for our students, because we got to talk to them about what they need to be doing in seventh and eighth grade to get to the Voke and make themselves a viable candidate for the vocational school for grade 9.”
Howard also informed the School Committee about a doctoral project a former Winthrop student is working on in conjunction with the schools that will provide some teacher resilience support for Winthrop teachers.
“It’s called the Achiever Resilience Curriculum,” said Howard. “It’s a comprehensive, flexible, and time-efficient teacher training that involves four weekly asynchronous online modules to coach and support teachers in integrating wellbeing practices into their everyday lives.”
The program was offered to ATC staff and was met with good feedback, Howard said.
“One of the things that it offers is different ways to take care of your own wellbeing and stress relief,” said Howard. “It also comes with access to a whole bunch of activities that teachers who participate can use (and) that they can also share with the rest of our teaching staff.”
Howard said the school system will continue to look at additional wellbeing supports and programs it can offer teachers and staff.