January 6, 2023
Dear Florence Roche Families,
Happy New Year! I hope everyone enjoyed the extended vacation week. It’s always nice to have time to relax and recharge at this point in our year. Students and staff excitedly returned on Tuesday happy to reconnect with their classmates and colleagues.
We are uniting our classrooms for recess on the playground for a trial run throughout the month of January. Prior to COVID and the need for smaller groups of students, recess on our playground included all students in the grade level. The back field (prior to construction) and the front lawn have served as secondary recess locations throughout COVID and up until the start of our vacation break. The front lawn is no longer covered in grass and all that remains is a dirt surface. Any amount of moisture during the day creates a muddy area that is no longer an enjoyable play space for students. We will evaluate this trial run at the end of the month and make a decision on our best recess option at that time.
The January edition of the FloRo News Report is available for viewing. This is produced by our 4th grade students with support from Mrs. Disch. This month’s episode requires you to manually advance after each segment to progress through the news report. We are working to resolve this issue with our February report. Enjoy the news!
If you’ve taken a look behind our building in the past couple of weeks, you would have noticed the steel beams being placed and the vertical structure of our building taking shape. This is very exciting as you can see noticeable progress each day. On January 17th at 9:30am, there will be a “Topping Off” ceremony to signify the last piece of steel being put into place. During the week of January 17th, a special beam will be available to the community to sign to commemorate the construction of the new Florence Roche School. This beam will eventually be placed in the gym in an exposed area, so that the signatures will be viewable by all who visit the building. I was talking with a class of students about signing the beam and informed them that our current building is over 70 years old. I then shared that one day they could return to the new school and show their children or grandchildren where they signed the beam. They thought that was pretty cool!
Is your 1st, 2nd or 3rd grader curious about science? One of our Groton-Dunstable high school students is leading a “Fun with Science” program at the Prescott Community Center beginning on January 22nd. Click on the link below for all of the details and sign up information.
https://prescottscc.org/product/sunday-fun-with-science-grades-1-3/
Our school resource officer, Pete Breslin, shared this information for parents about internet safety. As our elementary students are learning about internet safety in school, this training is helpful for any parent/guardian wanting to learn more about what to be aware of when children are accessing the internet at home.
The United States Attorney’s Office is hosting a virtual Internet safety presentation for parents the evening of Wednesday, January 18th from 6:30 – 7:30 pm. The presentation, entitled Keeping Kids Safe and Secure Online: A Project Safe Childhood Presentation for Parents will bring awareness to the dangers of the internet, including gaming and social media platforms that predators use to groom children with the intent of exploiting them sexually online or for an in person meeting. The presentation will focus on prevention by educating parents and community members how to help keep children safe online. We will be covering the following topics:
Social Media 101 & Digital Footprint
Cyberbullying
Sexting
Gaming
Victim Support
Protecting Against Online Predation
Who should attend: Parents, guardians, local police departments, school administrators, youth program leaders and anyone who would like to learn how to keep children safe from online dangers.
The presentation is free. Registration is required. The link to register is included on the attached flyer and is also included here:
REGISTRATION DETAILS
Please register at the following link: (via Chrome browser))
Event address for attendees: https://usao.webex.com/usao/on... |
Password: PSC1
Questions or difficulty registering? Please contact
Karen Legace @ USAMA.PSCOutreach@usdoj.gov
Have a nice weekend!
Brian