Welcome Back for the 2025-2026 School Year at École Parkside School
“Education isn’t teacher or student-centered — it’s relationship-centered. Learning happens through connection, trust and collaboration.” - Dr. Brad Johnson
There is something about the arrival of September and the harvest dust dancing across the skies that brings life to a pause.
This morning as I was walking through our backyard, a gentle breeze swept across the house, jingling leaves loose from the trees, setting a rhythm that matched the beat of my heart and brought a smile to my face.
I love fall and the changing of seasons. I love the start of a school year and the changing of energy that comes with starting something anew.
This year is the 22nd year of my heartbeat getting in sync with the life of Parkside in September. I do sometimes wonder if I have lost my mind continuing to return to another 10 months of intensity with adolescent students. And then I meet former students working at the various businesses around town or I watch them teaching younger children swimming lessons at the pool, and I see young adults contributing in positive and community building ways and they remind me why our work together at Parkside is so important.
Teen years are challenging years for the children moving through them, and the parents and adults who interact with these young people.
Teenagers put all of their energy into feeling seen, being heard and finding their own way or feeling free. Often this energy can look and sound like attitude.
I believe this energy is about self-determination — developing an identity that is unique and separate from being someone’s child, sibling, student, etc. Self-determination is really about finding what makes us thrive as humans.
Thriving requires:
1.Autonomy — “I have a say.”
2.Competence — “I am good at something.”
3.Relatedness — “I matter to someone.”
When teens don’t feel these, they rise up in protest telling us they feel powerless.
Teens want freedom but freedom, without chaos. They thrive with structured choice—usually options that we can live with like choosing when to complete a chore—now or after supper.
If we work together between school and home to build structured choices, we help our teens feel respected and it builds trust in our relationships.
Teen years are identity building years. At school we want our students learning. We want them to build respectful relationships where trust and working together are the foundation. We want them to grow their confidence by stepping up to high expectations, setting goals and investing their energy and effort to improve and get stronger over time, regardless of the goal—academic, social, emotional or physical.
Sometimes this means failure first. That is okay. By reflecting with them when they fail, we can help them to believe in themselves and try again.
Please help us send a consistent message of working together by being available to connect with your teen. In our actions and our words, we want to communicate —”You matter. We are here with you, even it is hard.”
Let’s be present and show we are here for our teens. Let’s give them space to figure some things out on their own without stepping in too soon. The struggle of figuring it out, is the space where learning happens. So, let’s work to get out of the way.
The relationships we build with our teens helps them navigate the struggle and come out stronger through the process.
Leanne Braun