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Dear Parents,
Paul
Cuffee School is a Rhode Island Charter school, undertaken by the
International Sailing Institute to provide a college preparatory
K-12 academic program for students from Providence, Rhode Island. Paul Cuffee was a ship builder and a ship captain who lived on the
Southeast coast of Massachusetts at the time of the American
Revolution. He was also an important civic leader committed to
non-violence and also the founder of a progressive school in
Westport, Massachusetts that welcomed children of different racial
and ethnic backgrounds. Paul Cuffee’s mother was Wampanoag Indian,
and his father was a freed slave who had been born in Ghana.
Our
school gives emphasis to the ocean, our environment, and sailing. This means that over the coming years, more and more time will be
devoted to science and mathematics. Students applying to the Paul
Cuffee School need to keep this in mind because the program of
studies requires several hours of homework each night by the time
students reach middle school.
In
the K-5 lower school, we focus primarily on language arts (reading,
phonics, spelling, writing), mathematics, and science. The
arts program helps us to explore and integrate the many lessons we
are learning in language arts and mathematics.
The
work at Paul Cuffee School is demanding. Students who are
prepared to work hard are doing well, regardless of their reading,
writing and math levels. Students not able or willing to work
hard are having a difficult time.
Students whose
parents (or in some cases, grandparents) work with them each day at
home are very successful at our school. We expect parents to review
homework assignments, classroom activities, personal behavior, and
school life each day with their children. Parents meet formally at
least 3 times each year with the classroom teacher, and we expect
parents to learn about our academic programs and our academic
standards.
We also expect
parents to take the time to understand the responsible behavior we
require at the Paul Cuffee School and to support our efforts and the
efforts of their children to behave respectfully, responsibly,
non-violently, and thoughtfully in school and at home.
We believe that our academic programs are exciting, and
we believe that being a
part of our school is enjoyable and
rewarding. We also know that the expectations we place on our
students are not always easy for them. Parents’ involvement in
their children’s work at the Paul Cuffee School is vital. Our
School requires a three-way partnership in which our teachers and
staff, our students, and our parents are all working together to
achieve the academic goals we have for our children, and to create
the kind of safe, caring, and adventurous academic community which
all of
us want.
David Bourns, Head of School
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