I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone in the Prem community for such a warm welcome. It truly has been a pleasure getting to know so many of you in such a short time. If we have yet to meet, I look forward to having the chance to get to know you better as we enter into the 2019/20 academic calendar year. 

I am looking forward to a fantastic year ahead, with the overarching goal being continuous and sustainable improvement. In alignment with a central theme expressed by A. Rachel during Wednesday’s whole school assembly, I am wholeheartedly committed to the idea of fostering academic excellence. Some of my key beliefs in this regard include the notion that learning needs to be significant and challenging. I believe every child has the right to find their learning program to be engaging and inspiring. Students should find opportunities in the school day to exercise their agency, and when possible, I will ask our teachers to differentiate instruction so that learning is personalized to cater to varying abilities and interests. I believe that our pedagogy should be responsive and purposeful. To this end, I am an advocate for using assessment data to improve our instruction to help all of our students meet their full potential. Moreover, I believe it is imperative that our educators are working ‘backwards by design,’ considering carefully the knowledge, skills and dispositions that our children will need in order to prepare them to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving world. 

For powerful learning to take place, our children must be comfortable. Student well-being is of primary importance to me. We must continually cultivate a culture of respect at Prem. Because our children learn best when the message from home matches the message coming from school, I would ask for your help to discuss with your children a goal that I shared at the whole school assembly. My goal for the Junior School is that every student cares about themselves, their peers, their environment and their learning. I thank you in advance for your support in helping me to make this goal a reality. 

Yours appreciatively,

Justin Jarman

Junior School Principal