CURRENT NEWS

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Join us at our WINTER OPEN HOUSE on Sunday, February 14, 2010 from 2:00-4:00. This event is for parents interested in learning more about The Orion School. Please RSVP to ccarden@theorionschool.org if you plan on attending.

Parent Tour dates are on the following Fridays at 9:00am:
February 19th
March 19th
April 16th
May 21st

Thanks to Sigma Beta Rho (pictured right) fraternity and friends from Georgia Tech. we were able to complete some much needed projects - including an outdoor classroom, a garden, painting rooms, and cleaning and setting up our new after school space.

Our Afterschool Program for elementary age children who have ADHD continues to grow. The nurturing and novel yet structured afternoon ensures a successful experience for our curious and energetic children! This program includes a ratio of 1:5 or less, homework help, and social skill building activities that address issues common to children with ADHD. Enrichment activities included each week of afterschool are: art, dance, martial arts, sport skills, and Kumandi Drumming with Chuck Cogliandro. The Spring semester enrollment fee for the afterschool is $2100.

Local artist Jonathan Chang (pictured left) donated his time and talent to work with our students to create an interpretive mural representing Orion for our multipurpose/after school space.

The Orion School was one of seven Atlanta area schools and the only special needs school to participate in the MEGA Family Conference Resource Fair. Read the article in the Southern Voice called MEGA Family Conference takes broad look at LGBT parenting - group aims for diversity.

The Orion School submitted a scarecrow depicting who else but Orion for the Atlanta Botanical Garden's annual scarecrow exhibit. This is the second year we have participated in this exhibit. Our students helped make the scarecrow and visited him during one of our Friday Field Trips. A recent AJC article called Atlanta Botanical Garden's scarecrows a fright of fancy  profiled our scarecrow! 

Ken Wright, the father of an Orion School student, wrote an article in a local magazine about his child's success at The Orion School. Click the link to read the original copy published on The Orion School blog ADDed View.

This year, Irene Celcer, MA, LCSW will continue to offer our families emotional and educational support through our monthly parenting series. Irene is an international speaker, author, and mental health professional.

Thanks to our ongoing relationship with The Athletic Club Northeast our students now spend one afternoon a week working on gym sport skills and group instruction in tennis, swimming, and rock climbing.

Thank You!
The Orion School is pleased to announce a major donation of laptops from one of our business partners -Internap Network Services Corporation.  This donation allows the Orion School to lay the foundation for a first-class computer lab and enables the School to enhance its use of assisted technology approaches as part of the curriculum.  Thank you Internap! Internap is headquartered in Atlanta and is a global leader in providing internet network services to businesses.

Teacher Training

Matt, Chelsea, and Celeste just returned from the national CHADD Conference in Cleveland, Ohio. They learned the latest research based interventions and strategies to help our learners who have ADHD.

Elizabeth is attending Georgia's 13th annual Outdoor Classroom Symposium in Athens GA. She is learning how to create specific types of school gardens and how to use our school grounds to enhance cross-curricular learning.  Elizabeth plans on incorporating gardening into the lower school curriculum and the after school program. Our students are super excited to help Elizabeth with the garden.

Our teachers are now trained in YogaKids and Angel Bear Yoga! This training helps them integrate yoga more organically into the school day.

With dysgraphia as a common struggle for our students, we continue to train our teachers in the Handwriting Without Tears program. This training is an invaluable way to ensure that handwriting skills are integrated into the daily curriculum.

Katherine attended the Alert Program training to help our students learn another strategy for self-regulation awareness. This program is based on the book How Does Your Engine Run

Our Supporters Can Now Help Us Without Spending Any Money!

PUBLIX PARTNER PROGRAM - By simply scanning our Publix Partners card before paying for your purchase at any Publix grocery store, Publix will donate a portion of your sale directly to The Orion School. Please contact us and we will supply you with as many Publix Partners cards as you would like.

BOX TOPS FOR EDUCATION - Save and send us Box Tops from participating products. You can also shop at your favorite online stores through btfe.com/marketplace and up to 8% of each qualifying purchase is automatically donated to our school. Sign up to support our school at http://www.btfe.com   You will learn about new and easy ways to help our school earn the extra cash it needs.

We have a rolling admission policy and have very limited spots available for the 2009/2010 school year. We are also enrolling students for the 2010/2011 school year.

For more information about The Orion School please contact Cristina at ccarden@theorionschool.org  call 404.551.2574