Message from Our Head Owl

Dear Overlake Community,

With this week’s Middle School Back to School Night complete, we are officially launched and into the 2022-23 school year!

My hope is the start of the school year has gone smoothly for you. I imagine that in many homes, the start of the year brought the seasonal work of getting backpacks ready, books purchased, pencils sharpened, alarm clocks set, students awakened and fed before heading out for school.

Here on campus, classrooms are humming with activity. Walking through the various buildings, you hear students talking about a piece of writing, working on a challenging science lab, trying to solve a difficult math problem, or mastering a piece of music. There is joy in their voices and general excitement about being back.  

Outside of the classroom Middle and Upper School sports are in full swing. Last week we had several varsity contests on campus – girls’ volleyball and soccer as well as boys’ tennis. What stood out to me in watching these contests is how committed and multifaceted our students are, from being great chemists as well as amazing setters in volleyball.

With our student athletes, I continue to see how comfortable they are in trying a sport that they may not know much about. This comfort comes from the messages they hear from the adults in their lives to try something new and to take a risk. This attitude is at the core of the Overlake experience and part of the school’s DNA.

Faculty and staff have spent these first few weeks of school using our weekly Wednesday morning professional development sessions to work on collaboration skills. Flavia Vidal, our new Director of Teaching and Learning, has carefully led us in these building block sessions, which will allow academic departments to tackle curriculum work later this year as well as other initiatives in our strategic plan.

These early weeks in the school year reaffirm my beliefs that Overlake is indeed a special place with families committed to their student’s growth in all aspects. Every day in conversation with faculty, I hear how amazing your children are and how fortunate we are to work with them. They use words such as humility, dedication, optimism, and good humor to describe your students and I couldn’t agree more.

I feel thankful to be working in such a place of learning and support – cheers to a new school year!

Warmly,

Matt