FASTB Flashback !
Bonjour ! Revving up the time machine to go back exactly one year to our Groundbreaking Ceremony (above) – the mind boggles at how far we have all come in 365 days! From the complete building renovation to opening the school and now a couple weeks away from turning the page to year 2 – an amazing accomplishment for our whole FASTB community – Merci à tous !
Turning to the news, we have reports on 2 fun events – our Suzuki Concert and photo day – a preview of Graduation Day on June 7, Camp FASTB & School enrollment news, classroom reports and more in this week’s News de Nous !
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Last Day Celebrates First Year – Graduation, June 7!
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We will hold our first-ever Graduation Ceremony on the last day of school, June 7, at 2pm, bringing to a close this historic first year of The French American School of Tampa Bay. We will have student presentations and certificates will be presented to each student.
We invite all of our families to join us to celebrate the success of your children in Year 1 – refreshments will be served after the ceremony. We hope to see you there!
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Our end of year Photo Day went very smoothly yesterday as photographer Rob Moorman took over the playground for a little while. Thank you for having your children ready to go – everyone looked great and were very cooperative. We will have information in the coming days on how you can access the photos online for purchase. Thank you as well to Rob and Moorman Photographics for making it a very enjoyable experience!
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Suzuki Students Finish Strong, Welcome Special Guests!
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Last Thursday, we had a very nice turnout of family and friends to see our final Suzuki performance of the year. This marked the end of our third six-week session of group lessons for our first-year violinists and it was great to see their progression and confidence building.
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Our instructor, Jenny Diedrich added a new wrinkle to this final performance, inviting three of her private studio students to perform and play with our students (below)!
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Thank you to our visitors and to our students and parents who put so much time and effort into learning and improving over the last few months.
All of this is not possible, however, without the teaching, talents and dedication of Jenny Diedrich. We’ve mentioned before the correlation between the Suzuki approach and our language immersion approach – Jenny really gets it, plus she has an understanding of children and how to meet the needs of, and motivate, each of her students. We are so lucky to have her – Merci Jenny !!!
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Camp FASTB – Schedule Update
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We have updated our Camp FASTB schedule for this summer – the weeks of camp will be July 8-12 and July 15-19. If you, or someone you know, is interested in signing up, you can enroll on our website by clicking here – it’s not too late. Camp is for ages 5 and up (must be 5 by 9/1/19). We are looking forward to a great first summer of Camp FASTB – hope you will join us!
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FASTB 2019-20 – Ready To Enroll!
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With the last day of this school year right around the corner, we are finalizing 2019-20 applications and enrollments for Pre-K through 8th grade! Wherever you may be in the application process below, or if you are just now considering applying, please contact us so we can work with you to bring things to completion before summer vacation, if possible. We want to make sure we have enough time to plan and have everything in place for FASTB Year 2. You can give us a call at (727) 800-2159 or email dan.hannigan@fastb.org. Below is the sequence of events for our application process (please note that there is a new online application form):
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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 new 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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Florida Scholarships for K-12 – Apply Today
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FASTB has been given the “all clear” to accept Florida state scholarships in 2019-20. As we reported last week, there is now a second income based scholarship offered by the state of Florida: the Family Empowerment Scholarship, which will also be administered by Step Up for Students. Key points for this scholarship 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 is definitely worth filling out the free online application to see if you qualify.
This brings the number of scholarships that we will accept in 2019-20 to five:
- Florida Tax Credit
- Family Empowerment
- McKay
- Gardiner
- Hope
It is very important that you apply now if you want one of these scholarships – the way it works is that your free application is reviewed and the scholarship is awarded before you choose a school, so you can get started right away. Here are the links:
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Pre-K Ready For Photo Day and More
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Practice makes perfect for our Pre-K class (above) but they didn’t need a whole lot to get ready for photo day – the smiles come naturally!
Working in the context of an art project depicting a rain storm, students practiced painting lines (below) – at ages 3 & 4, developing these general drawing skills of lines and shapes, putting paint brush or pencil to paper, is the foundation of what will eventually become the beautiful cursive writing that we are now seeing in our elementary classes.
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There also seems to be something else in the works (below) for certain parents who did not just have a day in their honor but have such a day in June. Our News de Nous investigative team is on it…
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Elementary Class On The Clock
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End of the school year brings opportunities to review and also expand the minds of our students. That’s happening in our Elementary class these final couple of weeks – mastering the clock (above) and multiplication tables (below) reinforces and strengthens skills already learned.
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Students also continue to develop and refine skills in reading and writing – with daily reading sessions (above) and daily cursive writing (below), sometimes with a stylo à plume (feather or fountain pen).
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One fun challenge this week was to build as high a tower as possible with the materials provided (above & below). This tapped into geometry, motor skills and logic. The stronger the foundation, the stronger (and taller) the tower – seems like there’s a life metaphor in there somewhere.
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Attention Adults – French Classes Are Coming To FASTB!
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We are excited to announce that French classes for adults will be coming soon to FASTB – we have to finish working out a few details and once that is done, there will be a sign-up on our website for those interested! Stay tuned…
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Attention High School French Scholars
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We are also pleased to announce that, beginning this fall, we will be offering after school advanced French classes for high school students, who wish to pursue a greater proficiency in the language. The Diplôme d’Etudes de Langue Française (DELF) is a certification of French language abilities for non-native speakers, administered by the International Centre for French Studies for the French Ministry of Education.
The program includes six different units (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2), with each leading to an exam and, if passed, a French diploma. The last levels of the program can give access to French universities without having to take another proficiency test before enrolling. US colleges also recognize the value of these diplomas and they are also be very valuable professionally as proof of fluency in French.
If you or someone you know might be interested in this program, please contact the school. You can click on the photo above, or here, to view the brochure pdf. Merci !
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To access our 2019-20 calendar, click on the image below and you can download a pdf. As we get closer to the beginning of school, be sure to check the Events tab on FASTB.org periodically for more specific information on certain events. Merci !
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Maine School Approached Finish Line Too
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As temperatures rise, school winds down up north at L’Ecole Française du Maine. Recently, the was featured on the local NBC affiliate – great job by Willy LeBihan, the students and parents who participated in the story!! Click here to view the feature.Don’t forget to visit the Blog and Instagram of the school up north too!
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The French American School of Tampa Bay, (FASTB), founded in February 2017 by Elizabeth and Willy LeBihan, offers a unique immersion school experience to students from Early Childhood through grade 12.
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2100 62nd Ave N, St. Petersburg, FL 33702
Telephone: (727) 800-2159
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