P.A.W.S. Back to School Night Time Change | P.A.W.S. Preschool at Wellesley Schools

Dear P.A.W.S. Families,

The P.A.W.S. Back to School Night start time has been move to 6:00pm on Thursday, October 22nd, as I have just been informed that there is another wonderful opportunity occurring on Thursday, October 22nd at 7:00pm when we were originally scheduled to host the P.A.W.S. Back To School Night.

The P.A.W.S. Back to School Night is now going to begin at 6:00pm, in order to provide you all with the option to be able to attend the P.A.W.S. Back to School Night and the DE&I event with author Debby Irving: “I’m a Good Person, Isn’t That Enough?” With Debby Irving, October 22, 2020 @ 7:00 pm Register and the following presentation Using Books to Engage Young Children in Talking About Race & Justice , October 22, 2020 @ 8:30 pm Register

Please feel free to reach out to your child’s classroom teacher with any questions. We look forward to having you join our P.A.W.S. Back to School Night at 6:00pm on Thursday, October 22nd and hope you will also take advantage of the DE&I offerings. Your child’s classroom teacher will send you the Zoom link for your classroom’s event.

Thank you for understanding.

Best to you,

‘Becca Z.

The following is an update from the Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion:

(Image of a map of South America that says: Celebrating Latinx Heritage Month at Wellesley Public Schools, September 15-October 15, 2020)

Dear WPS Parents, Guardians & Community,

These past few weeks have been remarkable! We have had important conversations around inclusion in our school community, marking Latinx Heritage Month and celebrating Solidarity Week, a campaign by GLSEN. We invite you to be a part of these conversations by viewing some of our resources on our website, or on Twitter: Follow us @WellesleyDEI.

These events have brought our community together to build awareness around the history and experiences of Latinx people, and of the LGBTQ+ community. Are you curious about the terms Hispanic and Latinx? Illustrator Terry Blas has created comic strips – with much humor – to help readers unpack their curiosities. This one explains the term Latinx, as well as some of the author’s perspectives on its use, and this one explains the difference between Hispanic and Latinx.

We want to highlight two events taking place this month that may be of interest to some of you:

Debby Irving, a Winchester native, and a racial justice educator will offer a session especially for parents on how to raise empathetic children, particularly with an antiracist lens.
Embrace Race, an organization committed to “supporting parents to raise children who are brave, informed and thoughtful about race,” will offer a session for families on how to use books to engage small children with the issues of justice and race. Research shows that small children develop understanding of differences early, and demonstrate preferences for race and gender in their playmates by age two and a half.

Finally, this November, as a part of another awareness campaign, we will join the nation in marking Native American Heritage Month! Below, check out the following writers to dig into Native American perspectives and narratives.