February 8, 2024
Dear LREI Community –
LREI’s school day begins at around 5:30am as members of our maintenance crew arrive to make sure everything is in working order. The kitchen staff follows and not long after there are pots and pans filling both buildings with a delightful aroma. Eileen Dougherty, our Sixth Avenue receptionist, is next and by the time I emerge from the subway, on the early side of 7am., the day is well underway.
Wait, who is that ahead of me on the wintery streets of the West Village? Is that a middle school student? Where could she be going so early in the morning? She must be headed to basketball practice. Our active community does not waste a minute. While you know or can assume what happens between the start of your child’s school day and its end, do you know what happens before school and after the school day ends? We go full steam from 7a.m. until at least 6:00p.m. Let’s see what’s happening inside LREI outside of what many consider to be “school hours”.
Middle school sports teams often practice before school. For some students’ families it is easier to get to school early than it is to navigate after school schedules. These practices happen all year round – soccer and volleyball in the fall, basketball in the winter, and a variety of sports in the spring.
At 40 Charlton, students must arrive by 8:45. That said, by 8:15 the place is hopping with teachers and students working together on knotty problems, with the Student Government getting ready for morning meetings, or simply with groups of students gathering in the cafeteria over a cup of coffee and one of Chef Joey’s homemade scones. Delish!
Back at Sixth Ave, by 8:00a.m. lower school students whose families need to drop them off early are enjoying a variety of “Early Bird” activities. Early Bird is the best!
Soon after, the school day begins in earnest for all 670 LREI students. While the day is devoted to the students’ ongoing classes, activities, and studies, the middle school has a number of lunchtime clubs. These include the Star Wars Club, the Games Club, and sometimes a group of students designing sets for the play. In addition, the middle school week ends with Friday afternoon Activity Period. Choices include: Crafting Corner, Newspaper, the D+D Appreciation Society, Classic Films, Sports Palooza, and Robotics Team Practice.
After the school day proper the buildings explode with activity. In the lower school these activities stem from our Afterschool program. Want to learn more about Afterschool? Click here. In middle school there are opportunities to get homework help or just to hang in the library and do homework with friends (for the 7th and 8th graders) before heading out. Maybe you have middle school robotics team practice which is in high gear now as the team is headed to the championship tournament. Or, you can head to the Thompson Street Athletic Center for practice or a game or to watch a high school game. Wait, is it Friday? If it is – Woohoo – Intramural Basketball. Yes! The Yellow Team is going to dominate.
At 40 Charlton, each day ends with X-Block, our club/affinity group/ensemble practice time. So much happens during X-Block that I can’t describe it all here but suffice it to say that if you are looking for a club or a peer group gathering, it is going on. Newspaper? Check. Black Student Union? Check. Chorus or Jazz Band? Check and Check. Young Investors Club? Yearbook? Check. Check. Chess club? Check (You get what I mean.) Not seeing the club you are looking for? Create it.
Sports? We got ‘em. Volleyball, soccer, cross country, basketball, fencing, swimming, indoor track, tennis, softball, baseball, spring track and field.
You know what? Sometimes staying at school to work on a project or to do homework or to finish a jigsaw puzzle with friends in the high school library is the best way to end the day.
For those of you who have children looking ahead to the older grades, there is a lot to be excited about. The range of opportunities, the chance to learn something new, the deepening of friendships with schoolmates and relationships with teachers and coaches, and the exhilaration found in following a passion, all live in our co-curricular program.
We also value the connections between the classroom experience and the co-curricular experience. Co-curricular offerings provide opportunities for leadership development, for practicing organizational skills, for processing what you learned in class and using this understanding of the world in your activities or vice versa. While there may be differences in tone and expectation, the division between “curricular / academic” and “activities / avocations” is less than one might assume. All of the many experiences that happen from the beginning of the day until its end are part of the greater whole, our progressive program.
By 6:30pm the last member of the cast of the play or musical is heading out after a long day, or maybe the last person to leave is a member of the Afterschool staff or someone from the high school Learning Center, which is open to students until 6:00p.m. And, of course, the maintenance staff is here until the wee hours, making sure that the buildings are ready for us to start all over again as in just a few hours another day will begin – another exhausting and exhilarating day, both at the same time. Just the way we like it.
See you sometime,
