Earth Bears Fruit on Earth Day!
Virus or no virus, old Mother Earth keeps producing, as our News de Nous photojournalist team captured at Le Jardin de FASTB Wednesday – tomatoes looking plump and healthy, hopefully a sign of good health to come for all.
This week, we update the remaining calendar for this school year and look ahead toward 2020-21, take a peek at photos and videos of students working hard and being very creative, share another birthday parade sighting and look back at a special delivery in our FASTB Flashback…
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L’Ecole à la Maison: Strong to the Finish
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The French American School of Tampa Bay is complying with the recommendations of the Florida Governor and Commissioner of Education to close public and private school campuses for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year. Our school year will still end as scheduled, on May 22nd, and between now and then, we will continue L’Ecole à la Maison, or school at home.
In order for L’Ecole à la Maison to be successful to date, and continue to be in the weeks ahead, it requires a tremendous amount of effort and dedication from our teachers, our parents and of course, our students. We have seen that so far from all three, from the rapid start-up through the ensuing 4+ weeks, and we anticipate a strong finish as well. It has been a remarkable transition under difficult circumstances and we are grateful to all who have made it work so well.
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Les élèves créatifs en photo et vidéo
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Music and poetry creativity headline our week in review – Suzuki music instruction (above & below) with Miss Jenny has continued virtually during the pandemic. In fact, next week we will have video of our virtual spring recital to share!
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Emmy’s middle school students (below) took on the creative challenge of turning verb conjugation into art (Emmy says it already IS art), explaining a conjugation rule in the form of poetry, rap etc. Emmy even turned the tables on her native French student and had him perform in English! Click on the photo for their video submissions.
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Last, but certainly not least, below we have an elementary student who took creativity to the next level – adapting the Tones and I hit, “Dance Monkey”, she expresses, in French, English and dance, her desire for the end of confinement and the coronavirus and her wish to see her classmates again. We are all on board with that – Bravo !!!
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Honk & Wave If You Love Birthday Parades
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For a second time this spring, our preschool families hit the road for a pandemic-style birthday party. This time, rain was a factor, but not a deterrent, as families paraded past the guest of honor in their cars showering her with birthday wishes of good cheer. Another super school community event – well done!
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FASTB Flashback – Delivering the Goods
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We go back five months for this week’s FASTB Flashback – the culmination of our first FASTB Food Drive, when our middle school students delivered food, donated by our school families, to Feeding Tampa Bay. After the delivery, students were led on a tour of this amazing facility. Our guide, Riyza Jose-Morales (pictured with our group below), explained the process of how food comes in and eventually gets distributed to individuals and families in 10 West Central Florida counties (about 300,000 pounds of food move in and out every day!), with the help of thousands of volunteers who help sort and prepare the food for delivery.
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During this pandemic, Feeding Tampa Bay has stepped things up, helping young and old receive nutritious food at this critical time. Below you’ll see suggestions on how to help, if you can – just click the text to learn more.I
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For many of you considering FASTB for your child or children in the 2020-21 school year, we understand that the current situation has created many uncertainties in your lives. You may also be wondering what the impact will be on our school, so our Founder and Head of School, Willy LeBihan, is available to do private videoconferences with families to discuss these matters. For those who have not previously visited the school, Willy is also available to do a live virtual tour with you. Please email dan.hannigan@fastb.org if you are interested in setting up a meeting or a tour. We are currently accepting applications for 2020-21 and below you will find the sequence of steps to apply and enroll at FASTB:
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- Inquiry: Submit the Application Inquiry Form on our web site and we will contact you to set up a school visit to give you more information about FASTB and answer questions
- Apply: Click here for our online Enrollment Application which offers the convenience of applying and paying the fee entirely online
- Interview: After receiving the completed application we set up a parent or guardian and child interview to assess readiness and ability to benefit from our program
- Acceptance & Enrollment: Upon acceptance, an Enrollment Contract must be signed and deposit paid to secure a spot for the upcoming year
Please visit FASTB.org and click on the Admission tab for more on the process, tuition, financial aid and more – we look forward to hearing from you!
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2020 Florida Scholarships – Accepting Applications Now
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The current crisis has impacted many of you financially and our Florida scholarship partners have announced that, despite the disruptions in schools, they are accepting and processing applications for 2020-21 – all are welcome to apply.
FASTB accepts Florida state scholarships and we are a participating school on the Step Up for Students, AAA Scholarships, Family Empowerment andMcKay Scholarship websites, so when you apply and you are awarded a scholarship, you can opt for our school there.
Please note that there are two income based scholarship offered by the state of Florida: the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship and the Family Empowerment Scholarship, which was created just last year. Key points for the FES are:
- For students currently in public schools OR students entering Kindergarten
- Income thresholds are higher than those in the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship
If you meet the criteria in the first item above, it will definitely be worth filling out the free online FES application to see if you qualify.
The total number of scholarship programs that we will accept in 2019-20 and 2020-21 is five:
- Florida Tax Credit
- Family Empowerment
- McKay
- Gardiner
- Hope
Here are the links:
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Our FASTB calendar for the 2020-21 school year has been released – you can click on the calendar image above to find out when school starts and ends, and everything else in between.
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Camp FASTB Is Back – Enrollment Is Open
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Camp FASTB Year 2 is on track to begin in July and you can enroll your child today by visiting the camp page on our website. Our French Immersion camp is open to children ages 5 to 12 (must turn 5 as of Sept 1, 2020) and will begin the week of July 6, and run 4 consecutive weeks to the end of the month – you can sign up for 1, 2 , 3 or 4 weeks and we have both full & half day options. Please contact us at (727) 800-2159 if you have any questions – Merci !
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Plongez-vous dans la Culture Française
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“Immerse yourself in French Culture” is the message from Gaëtan Bruel, the Cultural Counselor of the French Embassy in the United States, and he has put together a very large selection of online offerings for those of you looking for a bit of an escape from stay at home life. Click here and see the Embassy’s list of links that will transport you to the best of French art, music, dance, film, drama, literature and virtual reality. The page is continually updated so check back every so often to see what is new.
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FASTB Featured in February Courrier de Floride
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In the February edition of Le Courrier de Floride, you’ll find a terrific feature story about FASTB, written by founder Gwendal Gauthier, who interviewed FASTB Head of School, Willy LeBihan, and teachers Olivier & Magali Guilhem, about the progression of our school in year two, as well as the evolution of French education and how it works in our immersion environment.
Thank you to Le Courrier de Floride for this wonderful article !
Until next time, wishing you all good health and safety – merci !
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2100 62nd Ave N, St. Petersburg, FL 33702
Telephone: (727) 800-2159
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