Newtowne News

Corinne Kelly joined the Newtowne faculty and the Orange Sea Star teaching team.
Ashley Dronsfield and Jess Keating’s Green Dragonfly classroom was featured as an exemplary anti-bias classroom environment for Master’s students in Lesley University’s Anti-Bias Communities in Early Childhood course.
Newtowne families continued the Lantern Parade tradition by coming together safely in small classroom pods to light up parks across Cambridge with hand-crafted lanterns and spirited songs.

Newtowne teachers Ursula Arruda, Perry Gulden, and Jess Keating participated in the first session of a year-long workshop series Envisioning Justice: Anti-Bias Teaching in Reggio-Inspired Classrooms, hosted by the Boston Area Reggio Inspired Network (BARIN).
Newtowne School kicked off Yellow Gulls, its first-ever virtual program, developed and led by former Orange Sea Star teacher Nicole Werther.
Newtowne teachers Dayane Pierre and Amanda McCracken received funding through Cambridge’s Birth-to-Third Grade partnership to take a course in Infant and Toddler Curriculum.
Newtowne faculty and families came together for a joint workshop entitled Anti-bias Education: Having Honest Conversations on Topics That Matter with Children and Adults, led by Debbie Leekeenan of the Anti-Bias Leaders in Early Childhood Education group.

Newtowne School successfully reopened all four classrooms after being closed since March 2020 for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Director Caitlin Malloy published her research on relations between culturally-and linguistically-diverse children’s narrative skills and their classroom sociodramatic play in the journal Early Education and Development.
Several new members were added to Newtowne’s 2020-2021 Board of Directors: Purple Fish teachers Stephanie Crawford and Dayane Pierre (Teacher Representatives), former Cambridge Public School teacher Betsy Damian (Member-at-Large), and current parent Randy Berkowitz (Fundraising Chair).
Newtowne families reinvisioned the traditional Fall potluck event and picnicked at home while connecting virtually!
Director Caitlin Malloy gave a presentation entitled Classroom Spaces for Social Engagement at a virtual workshop for early childhood educators, hosted in Hong Kong, China.

Dayane Pierre, Stephanie Crawford, and Perry Gulden joined the Newtowne faculty.

Newtowne Faculty members Jess Keating and Emily Whitney attended a virtual conference entitled Be About It: Unpacking White Privilege, Bias, and Anti-Racist Instruction hosted by Get Your Teach On.

Newtowne parents Naomi Azar (President), Amber Porter (Executive Vice President), Cecily Epstein (Vice President), Steve Bronstein (Vice President), Ruth Ann Day (Secretary), Sophie Ward (Treasurer), and Camilla Christensen (Enrollment Manager) were confirmed for the 2020-2021 Newtowne Board of Directors.
Dr. Caitlin Malloy was hired as the new Executive Director of Newtowne School.

In compliance with Governor Baker’s mandate to close schools state-wide, Newtowne School finalized a remote learning plan for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year and canceled all summer programming.

Newtowne’s Atelierista Amanda McCracken took part in the Boston Area Reggio-Inspired Pedagogical Leadership Cohort, led by Dr. Tiziana Filippini of Reggio Emilia and hosted by the Boston Area Reggio-Inspired Network (BARIN).
Newtowne School suspended regular operations and moved to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic.