Dawson Elementary School Mission Statement

The Mission of Dawson Elementary School is to develop each student's knowledge, skills and talents to the fullest, so that, as a participant in a community of learners, he/she can use these to make the world a better place for all.  

Core Values

The following are our CORE VALUES and will permeate everything we do. It is our aim to develop a community that will:

Have personal courage, confidence, integrity, and respect for one another as people and as learners.

Demonstrate a daily commitment to learning. Individuals who achieve this will be curious, risk making a mistake, and take pride in a job well done.

Make good decisions; be effective communicators; be competent in group process and accept responsibility for their own behavior.

Dolphins + Geese = IALAC

“People who feel good about themselves produce good results!” These words fill what I consider to be the most significant page of Ken Blanchard’s book, The One Minute Manager, which was an international best seller and attributed to major turn arounds in businesses around the world after its publication. For years, the research has taught us that emotional health is associated with high performance. Emotionally healthy individuals are always defined as competent and caring. Emotional well-being and happiness are impossible when one of these two dimensions is missing. Because we care about the performance of our students and our goal is that they produce very good results, we have adopted the theme of “IALAC” at Dawson School. The letters stand for “I Am Lovable And Capable”, which is our goal for how every member of our school community will feel. The letters can also stand for “I Am Loving And Caring” which is how we believe we must act toward others if they are going to feel “lovable and capable”.

Every school year on opening day, we meet with the entire student body to remind them about IALAC. We implore them to always act and behave in a manner which will spread IALAC throughout our Dawson School community. We remind all students and staff that our school mascot is the dolphin, which is known for friendliness and helping (even saving) those in trouble. We remind everyone of the expectation that we model the positive qualities of our mascot at all times. Finally, we share with them the lessons to be learned from the geese, as explained on the reverse side of this page. This is also the last thing that we share with a fifth grade class when they gather together for the final time as students at Dawson School. At that time, we present each of them with a copy of Lessons From Geese. One of the hallmarks of Dawson School is its strong spirit of teamwork. The geese show us clearly the power of this characteristic in an organization. We are pleased to provide you with a copy so that you can discuss it as a family at home and keep it posted for frequent reference.

If we can always act following the model of the dolphins and the geese, then the spirit of IALAC will be present and experienced by all! We have worked these concepts firmly and consistently over several years now at Dawson. Has it made a difference? Is Ken Blanchard correct? On state and national measures of academic achievement, Dawson students have consistently scored among the highest in the Wachusett Regional School District, whose students, in turn, perform extremely well in comparison with the rest of the country. We believe that most of our students do feel good about themselves, and they clearly produce good results!

We ask parents to do all they can to work the model of the dolphin, the lessons from the geese, and the concept of IALAC into their ongoing communication and relationships with their children. This will reinforce our efforts as school and home work together to form our young people into competent and caring individuals who are emotionally secure and highly productive. People who feel good about themselves and are secure in the knowledge that they are capable and cared about, truly do produce good results! We look forward to our working together within this spirit for the sound education and well-being of your children, our students, here at Dawson School!

- Patricia A. Scales, Principal