This was the year of “Yes, we can.”

• Can we handle the intense scrutiny of the PYP authorization team?
• Can we establish interdisciplinary, collaborative units with students and teachers on other continents?
• Can our seniors ace their IB exams and gain acceptance to top-notch schools?
• Can students successfully create, compose, and guide the production of a musical?
• Can we pack up not one, but two divisions of the school, move them both into new classrooms, and then unpack everything, all within a three-week period?
• Can we find new venues for our outdoor education program to better link our indoor classroom curricula to our outdoor classroom curricula?
• Can our students, from preschool through high school, find meaningful ways to offer their time and service to others?
• Can we continue to encourage our students to develop their own love for learning, respect for one another, and self-confidence to know that they can be proactive and solve any issue that comes their way?

The answer was always, “Yes, we can.”

There were many moments during the 2009-2010 school year when our staff members, families, and students were asked to rise to new challenges, to offer solutions, to give more than 100 percent, and to take risks. It was demanding. But true to form, the entire community stepped up. Thanks to all of you, your commitment and your dedication, Riverstone continues to set the standard for the best educational experience available for our children.

Please look through the following list of accomplishments from this past year. You may be surprised. And hopefully, pleased.

However, feedback from families through our R-Factor survey, as well as conversations with staff members and students, have reminded us that we still have improvements to make. Starting this summer, we will be working to improve communications with the community. We need information that is clear, concise, timely, and readily available. We will limit embarking upon new programs or initiatives in 2010-2011, and instead, focus on integrating feedback from this year’s initiatives, improve our planning, and to use a common phrase, “Return to basics.”  Whether formal or casual, we look forward to hearing how well we are meeting those goals.

Our administrative staff will be working throughout the summer on a shortened daytime schedule, with exception of a two-week period in early July.  Summer school programs will be taking place at the Warm Springs Campus as well. If you have a question, need help, or just want to wave as you are cycling by on the Greenbelt, we will be around. Of course, if you know someone who is interested in learning more about Riverstone, please encourage them to contact Rachel Pusch.

Look for registration information in the USPS mail in mid-July and newsletters via email throughout the summer.

Best wishes for a safe and healthy summer,

Here is an abbreviated list of our accomplishments:

Academic Excellence

Our 21 graduating seniors received in excess of $2,950,000 in non-loan scholarships and grants and were accepted at top universities and colleges around the nation.

Our Elementary students hosted their first “Elementary School Spring Arts Festival” and our Grade 12 students held their Senior Art Show downtown on a First Thursday.

Eleven students from Riverstone qualified for the National History Day State regional competition and four for the national competition. Riverstone was honored by Mayor Dave Bieter for having the largest number of winners of all Boise schools.

Our Middle School students became experts in using the “the design cycle.” Students revamped our Middle and High School yearbooks, created sundials, designed water jug crafts, and more.

Thanks to their commitment to excellence in teaching, our Elementary School faculty received Primary Years Programme authorization by the International Baccalaureate Organization. Riverstone is now only one of nine schools in the United States that offers the PYP, MYP and DP.

We offered two new transdisciplinary units of study in Middle School. Grade 8,  “How can we share what we have?” (English, Humanities, Science, and Information Technology) and Grades 9 and 10, “How do communities define and transcend borders?” (Art, Humanities, English, Spanish/French).

Our youngest members of the Riverstone community, our preschoolers, paved the way for future bilingual preschool students.

Our IB test scores were the best in Riverstone history, and extremely competitive at an international level.

Bringing history to life, our Grade 10 students held a mock trial of Ghenghis Khan. The juries found him guilty in the civil case and acquitted him in the criminal case.

The Elementary School teachers introduced student-led conferences in the spring, encouraging our students to reflect on their progress.

Our new Middle School weekly homeroom letters kept parents informed of what was happening in the classroom.

One of our Grade 11 students wrote, just for fun, a 4000-word essay on obscure math topic. So obscure, Bob was not sure what he was talking about.

Kindergarten students kicked off their music careers by receiving weekly instruction in violin.

The Middle School implemented an entirely new Math program, from the linear approach in concepts (pre-algebra to algebra to geometry to algebra II, etc) to an Integrated Math scheme that incorporates all five branches of Math at each grade level. Yes, Grade 8 students graders were learning calculus and Grade 6 students were learning geometry.

Grade 10 Music students composed and recorded the first Riverstone-theme album. Didn’t think that Five Pillars could be hip? You’d be surprised.

Our art teachers, visual and performing, continued to motivate and encourage their students that they were capable and inspiring artists and musicians. Our auction art was some of the finest in Riverstone history.

The Middle School students are developing very strong academic portfolios that reflect annually on each assessment criterion in each subject.  They are also learning how to develop depth in their personal/academic reflections and are using the portfolio to learn more about how they learn.

Elementary students, with help from teachers, created their first student portfolios that included a selection of their work throughout the academic year.

The Middle School faculty implemented a new assessment scheme in which grades are based entirely upon the MYP Assessment criteria for each subject.  MYP Assessment criteria rubrics are used for everything that is assessed which is a huge paradigm shift for most students, parents, and teachers.

Grade 5 students had the opportunity to study French prior to committing to either Spanish or French in Grade 6. Riverstone students continue to graduate with incredible second (and third) language skills, thanks to their language teachers from preschool through high school.

Science teachers throughout the school continued work on creating an engaging, hands-on science curriculum, including building solar ovens, studying hydroponic plants and molecular composition, and designing lab tests on water quality and more.

Community & Service

Our Grade 6 “Haiti Benefit Concert” raised over $1,500 for Project Haiti.  Elementary students collected $450+ towards Haiti Relief efforts as well.

Riverstone was honored as the Governor’s Brightest Star Award in the School Division

Thanks to our “It Takes a Village” crew of volunteers, and German precision, we moved two divisions into their new classrooms in record time.
The One Stone Foundation received the 2009 Make-A-Wish Infinite Wish Award for their production of “Star Waiters.” This community project continues to receive recognition.

Our One Stone program, throughout the school, continued our commitment to meaningful service to others. Projects included learning components, relationship building, and the gifts of time and service. An abbreviated list includes sharing books and improving literacy with others, raising funds for the Peregrine Center, assisting with Bald Eagle Days at Barber Park Education Center, Trunk or Treat with Special Education students at local school, visits to the Veteran’s Home, and more.

Elementary students celebrated 100 days of school by wearing 100 items of their choice. Paper clips, buttons, pins, ribbons, you name it, they wore it!

High school students remain actively involved in the community. Projects include, offering a six week music class for refugees, babysitting for refugee families, coaching soccer at the YMCA, working for two days in Wilder for BreakThrough, hosting a community radio show, and more.

A team of teachers, parents, and students Raked Up Boise!

Leadership by Example

The Strategic Plan Committee successfully guided the efforts to create the 2009-2014 Strategic Plan.

Five Riverstone students from grades 10 and 11 not only created an original Middle School musical production entitled “Of Nothing & Noble” that featured script, music, and lyrics, but, with guidance from teacher Alison Steven, brought their vision to life by working with the Middle School actors.

Our Parent Association aided us in the quest for a stronger, and better informed, community by hosting a Fall Carnival, our inaugural Quiz Bowl, a progressive Fabulous Feast, informational coffees, and lecture series.

Our Grade 10 students spent a day with preschoolers teaching them about microscopes.

Our parents donated $54,000 towards technology at the 2010 Annual Auction, “Fords, Flappers, and Fads.” The planning committee successfully created a special event that not only raised money, but also raised our community spirit.

Our High School clubs and student newspaper, The Riverstone Review, were initiated by and led by our high school students. The paper received the American Scholastic Press Association 2^nd place recognition for excellence in journalism.

Thanks to the diligence of our planning committee, over 100 students flawlessly participated in our Grand Opening Celebration.

Our parents continued the tradition of giving generously to our Annual Fund campaign, repeating our success of 100% participation of families and staff.

Caldwell Transportation, the caretaker of our children to and from school, as well as on many outdoor trips, received commendation for their Excellence in Safety.

International Understanding

Riverstone families hosted yearlong exchange students from Japan, China, Korea, and Germany, as well as grade 8 visitors from Colegio CIEDI in Bogotá, Colombia for three weeks and grade 11 visitors from Escola SESC in Rio de Janiero, Brazil for two weeks.

Middle school and elementary school teachers created our first interdisciplinary, collaborative units with schools in Colombia including video conferencing for virtual exchanges as well as traditional exchanges.

Preschoolers collaborated on “Colors and the Arts” featuring artist Keith Haring, while Grade 5 students collaborated Celebrating Holidays Around the World.” Both collaborations involved videoconferencing in Spanish!

Grade 9 and 10 students’ completed their interdisciplinary unit, “Transcending Borders.” Some of the students celebrated their projects by traveling en masse to Europe.

We celebrated International Education Week in collaboration with the College of Idaho.

Through recruitment efforts, Riverstone established more direct relationships with agents around the world.

Outdoor Education & Athletics

Thanks to our fearless faculty and older student leaders, over 320 students embarked on challenging outdoor trips to Idaho and Oregon rivers, Idaho and Utah canyons, and wet and snowy locales in Idaho and Wyoming.

Five classes in the Elementary School branched out to new destinations for their spring trips in an effort to better connect their indoor classroom experiences to their outdoor classroom experiences.

Middle School Volleyball and Basketball teams were introduced and coached by faculty

Elementary students held their first Field Day, including a Fun Run in which they ran the final leg of their “half marathon.”

Thanks to our improved field conditions, elementary soccer teams practiced on site.

Riverstone hosted its first ever soccer match on home turf!

A new after-school care program was implemented.

After school activities for all grades continued to flourish and involve record numbers of students.

Riverstone high school students continue to excel in sports beyond the school’s doorsteps. In addition to our soccer and basketball teams, students participated in the state competitions in lacrosse, golf, and swimming, junior nationals for skiing, and junior nationals for cycling. We have students who compete on a US team racing in Europe, on a western all-star softball team, an in Nordic skiing.

This was the year of “Yes, we can.”

Dear Parents and members of the Riverstone community,

I sincerely hope you have all had a wonderful, restful and productive summer vacation. All of the staff members are now back in school and are getting ready for an exciting new school year.

Although we have several new staff members and some new positions at school, I would specifically like to welcome our three new faculty members who have joined us from overseas:

Lauren Bastion comes to us from Australia and has a wealth of PYP experience around the world. Lauren will be teaching Grade 1.

Oliver Martin joins us from England and brings with him a great background in Mathematics and outdoor education. Oliver will be teaching Middle School math.

Anke Voigt is a true international teacher having worked in many international schools. She joins us from her previous position as Athletics Director at the United Nations School in Hanoi. Anke will be teaching P.E. in Grades 4 – 10.

We wish them all every happiness and success in the Riverstone community.

Despite the summer vacation, the school has been a hive of activity these past few months. Summer school has been very successful this year with many new camps and a great number of new faces to the school. Ben Brock has plans to make sure that next year will be even better, so make sure you sign up early when new camps are announced in spring 2010.

The Strategic Planning Team has also been hard at work. The plan is now in a draft stage and will be presented to the team on Wednesday, August 26. From there, it will go to the Board of Trustees before being presented to the community for final comment in mid-September.

You may have noticed that the new Elementary building is progressing beautifully. We remain on track for completion in early December. If this date holds, we plan on moving both the Elementary and Middle Schools in to their new homes over the winter break. This will result in a delayed return to school; however, we will be asking our parents and students to come in to the school to help us move into the new facilities.

Various international links and exchanges have been taking shape over the summer and yesterday we ran our final tests on the new video-conferencing facilities. Although we will make sure you get more detailed information in the coming weeks about these new exchanges, I wanted to give parents of students in Grades 8, 9 and 10 plenty of notice since those students will have the possibility of being involved in exchanges to Bogota, Shanghai and Europe in the spring and summer.

Also, over the summer, we received several external benchmarks that confirm Riverstone’s incredibly strong academic program:

ACT summary results detailing the percentage of students ready for College-Level work:

English Comprehension: State: 72%     National: 67%     Riverstone: 100%

Math:                              State: 45%     National: 42%     Riverstone: 100%

Social Science:                State: 60%     National: 53%     Riverstone: 100%

Biology:                          State: 30%     National: 28%     Riverstone: 100%

All-round: State: 24%     National: 23%     Riverstone: 100%

IB Results: This year, Riverstone seniors achieved an 80% pass rate on their IB Diploma exams with an average score of 31.4 points. In addition, 24% of our students were awarded ‘bilingual’ diplomas. All of these scores are well above all international averages.

Newsweek released its annual public school rankings earlier this week. The rankings use an index that basically divides the number of AP or IB courses taken by the students this year by the total number of graduating students. Unfortunately, Riverstone was not permitted to be part of the study as an independent school. However, it is worth noting that Riverstone’s index is 5.97 for 2009, which would place it firmly at 25th place across the entire USA if included in the study.

In addition, we will publish the full list of college acceptances for our graduates in an upcoming newsletter. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our students on their incredible successes.

As always, all up to date information about the school and particularly student successes, can be found on our website: www.riverstoneschool.org

With the global economy the way it is, I realize that many families have to make difficult financial choices. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for prioritizing high-quality international education for your family. For our part, Riverstone will continue to offer a modern, demanding, yet supportive education that truly prepares students for the realities of the world today and tomorrow. We will make it our priority to get to know and understand all of our students and their families and to strive to help each individual reach their full potential.

In closing, I would like to remind us all that students learn best when there is a supportive and effective partnership among school, family, and the student. To this end, the entire staff and I look forward to working with you and your children to make the 2009-2010 school year a great success.

Yours sincerely,

Andrew Derry

Head of School

Dear Parents,

It is a strangely calm week at the school. With so many students out on their spring trips in all sections of the school, the atmosphere is more like the summer vacation rather than term time.

In addition, Grade 12 students are currently sitting for their final IB Diploma exams. Some 30,000 students around the world take these external exams, which extend over a three-week period. The results could significantly affect the credits and scholarships students receive from their chosen colleges. We wish all of our Grade 12 students success with their exams.

As we prepare for the end of this year, our thoughts are also on preparing for the start of another successful academic year. I will write to you with more information about some changes for next academic year shortly, but in the meantime, I wanted to inform you of some of the staffing changes.

Since our faculty is our greatest single asset, the Directors and I have put a great deal of effort in to the staff plans for next year. As well as some exciting internal changes, we are delighted with the caliber of the new hires we have been able to make. Quite simply, we made sure we found the best teachers from around the world to come and join the team at Riverstone.

New Staff members for next year:

Lauren Bastion. Grade 1 teacher: Lauren is an Australian national who graduated from Griffith University in Queensland with a B.Ed in Early Childhood Education.  Lauren comes to us with several years of teaching in PYP schools in Australia, The International School Tanganyika, Tanzania, , and The British International School, Bratislava in Slovakia. 

Oliver Martin. MYP Mathematics and Outdoor Education: Oliver is a British national currently working in the UK. As well as teaching Middle School math, Oliver also coordinates the Gifted and Talented program at his current school. Oliver is a qualified Mountain Leader and is Head of Outdoor Pursuits. He regularly leads groups around the world as part of the World Challenge Expeditions Program.

Anke Voigt. MYP PE and Health: Anke is a German national and is currently working as Athletics Director at the United Nations International school in Hanoi, Vietnam. Anke comes to us with a wealth of MYP experience working at the American International School in Kuwait, Lebanon and Germany.

Matthew Miller. IT Technician/Registrar: Matthew has a M.Ed in Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology from Arizona State as well as a wealth of IT experience.  Matthew was co-founder of Stability Networks and until recently was their Chief Technology Officer. He also has international experience as a volunteer in the US Peace Corps in Russia.

Ximena Bundren. Pre-K Teacher:  Ximena will be joining us from Parkside School.  A native of Colombia, Ximena has experience of teaching in Colombia, the Boise School District, and three other local preschools in Boise.  Ximena will lead our bilingual Pre-K program.

Lilly Palacios. Pre-K Assistant:  Lilly is also a native Spanish speaker having worked at Whitney Elementary, Hillcrest Elementary, Trail Wind and Riverside.  She has also worked in a Migrant Head Start facility.

Anne-Marie Derry. Pre-K assistant: Anne-Marie moves from volunteering in the library to return to the classroom. Anne-Marie has several years experience working with the PYP in Switzerland and France.

Susan Tabb has kindly volunteered to take over as our Librarian.  Susan and her family have a truly international outlook having lived and worked in many countries around the world.

Kathleen Gilton. Administrative Assistant: Although known to most of us in her most recently role, chairing the auction committee, Kathleen also comes to us with a wealth of experience in human resources and customer satisfaction. Look out for Kathleen working alongside Robyn and the Directors at the Warm Springs campus.

Gloria Gude. High School Spanish: Gloria and her family moved to Boise from Texas where Gloria worked as a Spanish teacher in Hyde Park Baptist School and Bailey Middle School.

Faculty changes for next academic year

Ben Brock’s role will change slightly to become Director of Extra Curricular Activities. Ben’s focus will be to create a coherent and coordinated program that links smoothly with the academic program in all grades.

Tarrah Elam and Sylvie Ryan will take on the responsibility of coordinating and promoting international links and exchanges. Already this year, we have established links with schools in Peru, France, China and Colombia.

Alex Ide takes on the responsibility of Head of Science (K – 12).

Scott Learned takes on the responsibility of Head of Math (k – 12).

Laureen Quick will take on the additional responsibility of coordinating our International Economic Summit program

Hannah Roberts will continue to coordinate the ToK program and will also be our first ESL coordinator.

Kate Saldin will continue as IB coordinator but will reduce her teaching load. We wish Kate and Andrew Hunter well as they expect their first baby in September.

Jamie Whitmer will move from part time to full time Spanish teacher

Eric Selekof will move from part time to full time PE teacher.

Gemma Utting will take on the additional responsibility of coordinating our international students.

We are looking forward to a great culmination of the 08/09 school year and we are excited about the start of the 09/10.

Yours sincerely,

Andrew Derry

Head of School