BrewsterConnections - Brewster Academy

It’s All About Relationshipsrecently listened to Pat Bassett, president of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS),speak about the challenges facing independent schools in the realm of fund raising. While that’s notthe topic of this Connections Head Lines (although perhaps it will be in the near future), the context inwhich he framed his remarks is important and timely. In his talk he made reference to what NAIS callsthe “markers of success” or those things that we can point to that distinguish and show the value of a Brewstereducation. Naturally such a topic is of tremendous importance to us for a variety of reasons, not the least ofwhich is being able to talk about how we impact lives.Without delving too far into his remarks, there is one marker of success that he spoke about that relates tothe theme of this issue of Connections and that’s about the impact of relationships that get developed whileat school and the value that these provide students attending Brewster. One of the benchmarks that wepay close attention to is the rate of attrition, or the number of students who voluntarily leave the school,either through the year or who do not return for the following academic year. The NAIS average for boardingschools is around 8 percent while our attrition rate has consistently hovered around 4 percent. While wemake good matches at the front door during the admission process as to who is likely to succeed here andwho is not, much of the low attrition rate can be attributed to the kind of experience that students have oncethey attend Brewster.Research concludes thathigh-quality interpersonalrelationships in students’lives add to their academicmotivation, engagement,and achievement. Ourexperience would supportthis conclusion.It’s the community that we have and the climate found here among the students, faculty, and staff that makethe difference. We see evidence of the power of positive relationships each week when students sit with theiradvisors to reflect on the past week’s activities, both good and bad, and map out strategies for the comingweek. The resulting “weekly blog” to parents that outlines the discussion points between student and advisorfurther solidifies the sense of community and importance of relationship building. The benefits of interactionssuch as this extend well beyond the advisor meeting. There is a fair amount of research that supports thedevelopment of positive relationships with significant others and the proposition that these interactionsare significant antecedents to adolescent’s ability to function effectively in social, affective, and academicdomains. Some of the research concludes that high-quality interpersonal relationships in students’ lives addto their academic motivation, engagement, and achievement. Our experience would support this conclusion.When we take these findings a step further and look at the relationships that also develop student tostudent, and how often these translate into tremendous opportunities throughout life, we see outcomeslike you will be reading in the pages of this issue of Connections, lifelong associations that morph intobusiness partnerships. Taken in its entirety, it offers us more reason for why we would make a move intothe realm of emotional and social literacy, as we have. It is such an important dimension toward furtheringthe development of relationships that we believe that we will have a clear opportunity to build off what isalready a powerful model and provide our students with an even greater leg up when it comes to how theymanage the connections between themselves and others throughout their lives. We hope to be able to tellyou more about our social and emotional literacy program over the next few months as we continue to bringelements of the approach into the daily fabric of life at the school.In the meantime, I hope that you enjoy the pages that follow and look forward to your continued connectionswith Brewster.Dr. Michael E. Cooper, Head of School