Janney Elementary School

2010-2011

Janney Elementary School is a Pre-K through 5th grade school located in the District of Columbia. In the 2010-11 school year we have approximately 504 students enrolled at Janney who speak over thirty different languages. The academic program at our school consists of English, Math, Social Studies, and Science at each grade level. In addition, our students receive daily instruction in the areas of Art, PE, and Music.  We have an extended day program (JED) and we offer several after school enrichment courses. 

The staff at our school are committed to providing a rigorous curriculum that meets the needs of each individual student. We strive toward excellence every day. We are fortunate to have a Math Coach and a Literacy Coach that works with teachers to develop innovative and challenging instructional materials. Our staff takes advantage of professional development opportunities regularly and views themselves as life-long learners.  

At Janney Elementary School, we provide our children with a caring and nurturing environment that stimulates intellectual curiosity, and encourages them to enjoy the learning process. Our parents, students and staff are committed to having a safe, learning centered environment where students are given the skills to become successful citizens.

Here at Janney Elementary School, our parents are partners in the educational program. We encourage parents to visit the school, consult with staff and participate in school programs and events. We regularly meet with parents and our PTA (Parent-Teacher-Association) is a highly respected organization that is actively involved in our school.

We have built on the foundation of a remarkable academic and social program by looking more closely at teaching practices and their connection to individual student learning, refining systems and procedures, working to create an even more inclusive environment, planning for a modernized facility, and fostering collaboration among all of the critical participants in our community. We have designed an observation and feedback cycle to talk about best practices in the classroom, held data and action conferences to discuss the skill-level needs of students, refined a new morning routine in the form of Jamboree, and are near the final stages of the modernization design process, just to name a few things.

But for all that we have accomplished, we will persist in meeting our goal of creating a community of learners who consistently enjoy the values of achievement, inquiry, reflection, experimentation, collaboration and equity. Part of moving forward means a few adjustments - a new specials schedule that increases academic learning time and teacher collaborative time, weekly themes of respect and responsibility at Jamboree and breaking ground on the new building, scheduled for completion by the start of the 2011-12 academic year.

We encourage you to read more about our school and community on our website. If you need additional information, please feel free to contact me.

In our weekly newsletter I will try to discuss topics that affect Janney in order to answer several questions:  What are our goals, both in the long and short terms?  Why have those goals been set?   Where are we in achieving those goals?  These inquiries will be framed around our developing Local School Plan (in the areas of teaching and learning, knowledge development, climate and culture, parent and community engagement, leadership and vision, and resources), our values (achievement, inquiry, equity, collaboration, reflection and experimentation), our key conversations around inclusion, efficacy and purposeful decision-making, and the areas in which these objectives overlap. These messages are elaborated upon below.

2009-2010