The Buddy Program in St. Margaret’s Lower School has become a cherished community-building program that brings students across the division together for fun and friendship.  

 

The program partners younger Lower School students with older ones, one-on-one for a year of connection. A kindergarten student is paired with a grade 3 student, a grade 1 students with a grade 4 student and a grade 2 student with a grade 5 student. The buddies are paired by Lower School classroom teachers.

 

There will be touchpoints throughout the year for the buddies to get together. Buddies met one another at the beginning of the school year and sit with each other at Chapel every Thursday throughout the school year.

 

Also taking place last week was the first of six Buddy breakfasts, where grade 5 and grade 2 buddies got together to enjoy food and spend quality time together. The breakfasts are organized by Director of Community Life Tupper Spring with help from the PTF and grade-level parent volunteers, and each grade will take part in two breakfasts this school year.

 

Other Buddy Program touchpoints will be curriculum-based. For example, grade 3 students who are helping organize a Tartan group for the upcoming Family Assistance Ministries’ FAM Walk will invite their kindergarten buddies to join them, one of many ways St. Margaret’s is building community and connection in the Lower School.