On Tuesday, Oct. 19, an email was sent out to notify the entire Kingswood Oxford community that Thanksgiving Break had been extended to an entire week. This decision was made primarily by Head of School Tom Dillow, along with the entire administrative team.
This decision allowed the community to enjoy much-needed downtime and provided students and faculty with more time to relax and regroup before coming back to school for the second half of the first semester.
The primary reason for extending the holiday break was because Mr. Dillow wanted to give the community a bit of a break and something to look forward to. “It has been difficult this past year and a half with the pandemic,” Mr. Dillow said, “and I think I think we went into this year with a lot of hope about the new year, about the vaccine, and what we would or would not be able to do, and maybe didn’t see forward fully the impact that this would still have on people’s social, emotional, and mental health.”
While this year has seen improvements since last fall, everyone is still learning that normalcy is not just going to happen overnight. “I think there are lots of members in the community that are still struggling in some ways to adapt to the academic expectations that have a regular school day schedule,” Mr. Dillow said, “and there’s only so many things you can do to try to help or ease stress where you can, and one of those is in giving some time back to people.”
Sophomore Emma Barringer thinks that the break offered the student body, as well as faculty, well-needed time to rest and destress. “This year has been rigorous, and with the extended break, everyone was most definitely able to put their schoolwork aside and focus on themselves and their families,” she said.
Upper School Math teacher Nicole Baratz agreed that the extended break was a great opportunity for students, faculty, and staff to reset and relax before heading back into the last stretch before exams. “There is a long stretch of time between our last break and Thanksgiving, and the KO community has been working hard and deserves some time to rest, recover,” she said. “A runner would not run two marathons two days in a row; that time to rest in between is important. The break hopefully helped everyone be more successful and productive.”
Moreover, the extended Thanksgiving Break gave students and faculty much-needed time to relax and reset before returning to school leading up to exams, and the KO community is grateful to Mr. Dillow and the entire administration for giving students and faculty this extra time off.
