TA News

Dear TA Families,

The weeks between Thanksgiving and the Holiday Break are busy ones at Thetford Academy. Here is a preview of some key December dates.

Dec. 9 – FAFSA Workshop for the Class of 2025

We hope to see lots of seniors and their family members on Monday evening at our annual FAFSA workshop (FAFSA = Free Application for Federal Student Aid). This is an in-person working session, held in the TA library, from 6-8pm. More details about the event and how to prepare for it in a recent email from Tippi Oshoniyi to senior students and parents (Dec. 3). Information and resource links about FAFSA are also always available on the counseling page of the TA website. On the topic of college planning, Class of 2026 families should keep an eye out for more details soon on a session geared toward juniors in January.

Dec. 11 – Winter Concert

Join us on Wednesday evening next week for our annual instrumental and choral concert during the holiday season. There will be performances by the middle school chorus classes and high school instrumental classes. The event takes place in the Martha Jane Rich Theater with a start time of 6:30pm. The community is invited to attend and admission is free. This year’s concert theme is a joyful one we can all celebrate: Music makes the world a better place! For more details about the program, visit the TA website.

Dec. 13 – Special Half Day

Friday, December 13 is designated as half day in the TA calendar, in order to provide additional professional development and meeting time for faculty in the afternoon. The student day will run from 8:10am-12:10pm. We will have a special schedule with schoolwide programming, along with specially designed activities for each grade level. One of the things we will do as a whole school is an evacuation and reunification drill; look for more details about this next week. Students will also have time to develop and build their portfolios, attend workshops with the counseling department, and other activities that can be hard to build in during a regular school day. 

Additional Event News – from right now to the new year …

• The 8th grade hosts a dance for middle school students – tonight! (7-9pm in the annex)
• Good luck to our MS & HS debate teams, who are hosting a meet at TA tomorrow 12/7
• Middle school winter sports kick off on Monday 12/9
• Sophomores visit Hartford Career & Technology Center 12/11 (sign-up required)
• High school sports begin competition on 12/14
• The final day before break is a half day 12/20
• Thetford Academy is closed for the holidays Dec. 21 through Jan. 1

Emergency Notification

Lastly, please note that we will be running a test of our emergency notification system midday on Saturday. Alerts will be going through our new student information system, Alma, in the form of a call to the primary number listed (cell or landline – but not both), along with an email. If you have any questions about the notification, first start with reviewing your profile in Alma – you likely can fix the issue by editing the information provided; and, of course, reach out to Gloria Konicki in the front office for support if needed. We will use this approach to reach families in the event of a weather delay or cancellation or other emergency communication.

Enjoy the winter wonderland out there!

Carrie Brennan, Head of School

p.s. Thank you to science teacher Gary Engler for the beautiful sunrise photo!