Father William Kelly, Pastor of Saint Paul's, was happy to announce at the SPCS Parents Guild that Saint Paul's Choir School will add a third-grade class beginning in the 2018-2019 academic year.
Father Kelly shared that the school's advisory board had several discussions about the optimal grade levels to have at Saint Paul’s Choir School over the long-term. The Advisory Board recommended last year that the school should eventually enroll grades 3 through 8 and recommended recently to move forward with the idea so that a new third-grade class would be recruited to begin in the 2018-2019 academic year.
Father Kelly shared some of the reasons why the school is moving forward with the third-grade class:
• Boys voices are changing earlier - the school thinks that third grade is the best time to begin choral training for boys.
• Many other boys choir schools, such as Saint Thomas Choir School in NYC, also begin in third grade and have shared with SPCS that it is great for the boys and for the school community. .
• For many years SPCS has been contacted by parents of second-grade boys inquiring about the school. The school recognizes that second-grade is a time in which many parents see that their high-achieving sons beginning to need more acaemic challenge than their current school is providing and see the benefits of smaller class sizes in tailoring academic programs to challenge and engage each boy.
Mr. John Robinson, the school's music director, also addressed the parents and indicated that he had been hoping the school would move in this direction since he arrived at SPCS in 2010. He was happy that the school took the first step a few years ago in adding a fourth grade and that he is thrilled that now the school is ready to move ahead with a third grade class in 2018-2019.
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