Family Handbook 2025-26

ACADEMIC LIFE

Student-Led Conferences Student-Led Conferences showcase what students are currently learning in the classroom and provide students the opportunity to present their progress to their families formally. Rather than showing a final product, students focus on the process of learning. Student-Led Conferences are meant to empower students to take ownership of their learning, while also fostering a meaningful dialogue that allows each child to actively engage in reflection, goal-setting and metacognition.

Academic Honesty and Integrity

Philosophy of Academic Honesty and Integrity

When students exhibit academic honesty, their learning and achievements can be assessed fairly and accurately and the integrity and ethical conduct of the academic community is maintained. Academic honesty means presenting their own learning, knowledge and skills while also properly acknowledging their use of all forms of intellectual and creative expression and contributions of others. Academic dishonesty is a type of fraud (an attempt to deceive) and can take several forms. It is a serious offense in all educational institutions and elsewhere in society. It may carry severe penalties, ranging from receiving zero on an assessment or test, to failure in a course or even to expulsion from school. Some common forms of academic dishonesty include, but are not limited to cheating, plagiarism and self-plagiarism. Definitions ●​ Cheating: Cheating is gaining an unfair advantage during tests and exams by bringing and consulting with unauthorized material or an unauthorized device during the testing period or by communicating with another student during or after the test to gain an unfair advantage. Cheating also occurs when students copy the work of others and submit it as their own. ●​ Plagiarism: Plagiarism is using the ideas or expressions of others in submitted work without acknowledging the source, thereby fraudulently presenting other people’s ideas as one’s own. Plagiarism constitutes intellectual theft. While completing academic work, it can become easy to plagiarize even if students do not intend to. It is important that students become knowledgeable of the many forms of plagiarism. Teachers will review proper documentation of sources with students. ●​ Self-plagiarism: In an academic environment, it is the expectation that all course material students create is original work. Therefore, it is considered plagiarism when students submit

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