Happy Sunday Groton Dunstable Regional Middle School Families. I hope you had a lovely weekend. This is a picture of Sam sitting in on the 5th grade students doing observational drawings of their ceramic pets before they start glazing them. Sam is a paper mache critter that I found the first week of school in a trash pile. Sam looked to me like a birthday cake that my mom once had for me of a princess where the frosting was all rosettes. I just didn’t have the heart to let it get thrown away so I named it Sam and it has been traveling around the school this year. We have a slide show of all the places Sam has been. Today he is with you in this family email.
POW Corner: Belonging, I had talked about using the ABCD=E words in this section of the memo and this week we talk about Belonging. Belongingness, refers to a human emotional need for interpersonal relationships, affiliating, connectedness, and being part of a group. Our A+B+C+D=E corner is an amazing example of being part of a group. Thank you Ms, Viera for sharing this story.
A+B+C+D=E Corner: Our Spanish teacher shared this email with me. We have a new student who speaks very little English. When the Spanish teacher went to check on this student during lunch. “He was sitting with a fine example of what a community looks, sounds and feels like...they included him in conversation via google translate. They made him feel like he is part of this community. I asked them if they knew who I was and one of them said, you're the lady helping him...haha..I introduced myself and when I told them I teach Spanish to 7th and8th graders they started blurting out...Yo hable espanol...I thanked them for helping. They said they are teaching him English and he is teaching them Spanish..I said this is a WIN-WIN!” I say this is an awesome example of what our middle school community is.
COVID Update:
We should do our home tests on Sunday. Those that have been covid positive in the last 90 days MAY NOT participate in the at home testing and may not participate in pool testing. If your child does test positive on Sunday please let your building nurse.
If you have noticed we are no longer doing contact tracing. If we have a positive case or are notified that we had a positive student in school we will simply email that grade and let you know. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out.
New Topics to be aware of:
MCAS starts this week. Our MCAS schedule is at the bottom of this memo and is on our website at the bottom, on the events calendar.
3rd quarter ended on April 5th and teachers should have grades in school brains by April 12th.
We are so pleased to be letting you know that our Project 351 8th grade ambassadors will be helping with a state wide service campaign, Cradles to Crayons. Every ambassador will collect clothing at a host site. Our ambassadors will be collecting clothing here in both the North and South buildings. They will be collecting clothing from April 4-8. This event is being run by 2 of our 8th grade students and we hope that families will show up and bring in their gently used clothes.
We are excited to be communicating to you that during the fifth grade school year, our fifth grade students have the opportunity to learn about growth and development. This includes an introduction to puberty and menstruation. This opportunity is part of the district's overall health education curriculum. This year, beginning in May, we will be able to present this curriculum to fifth, sixth and seventh grade students, who last year did not get this information due to changes that had occurred in our scheduling as a result of COVID 19. You will receive communication on specific dates as they get closer for each grade level.
We invite you to attend a Parent Informational Meeting on April 12 or 14 regarding the curriculum being delivered. We are providing two opportunities for your convenience. Our first informational meeting will occur on April 12 from 7pm-8pm in the PAC and our second will occur on April 14 9am-10am in the PAC. For more information please view the invitation HERE. Prior to attending we would love to hear about your fears, questions and concerns. You may anonymously present any of those by filling out a quick survey HERE. We hope that you will be able to attend either of these webinars but if you are unable please do not hesitate to reach out to Nicole Pelletier, K-12 PE/Health Coordinator npelletier@grdrsd.org .
The yearbook committee is looking for photos of students engaging in various school-related activities throughout the year! Examples include first day photos, spirit day pictures, sports (especially football), after school clubs etc. If you have any photos and would like to submit them, please send them here: link.entourageyearbooks.com
All photos are due by April 30th, 2022. Please feel free to email the yearbook advisors, Clare O’Neill coneill@gdrsd.org or Caroline Keras ckeras@gdrsd.org for questions.
Reminders:
Families, please let your students know that we only allow water in school. Most recently students have been walking in with Ice Coffees and other canned and bottled beverages. As I’m sure you can imagine, leaving soda bottles and coffee cups in lockers creates a mess and causes ants. Please remind your middle schoolers of this.
Families who walk behind Florence Roche. Please note that we have been asked to stop using that access road as it will be used for construction vehicles only. You may want to plan with your students another route to walk. Thank you.
Unfortunately we received a call from the Dunkin Donuts in the center of town that our middle school students have been going in during ½ days and after school and not representing the community in the best light. If you know that your student will be heading to Dunks after school please give them a reminder of what a good customer should look, feel and sound like. We can’t take for granted that our children know what to do. We need to model, reinforce, and remind. We will also do this in our after school announcements.
High School Drama Guild Production, You are invited & very welcome to go and see the High School Drama Guild production of Clue! On Stage in April. Opening Night is Friday April 8th at 7:00 pm. Then 2 shows on Saturday, April 9th at 2:00 pm and at 7:00 pm.
A note from the bus company. At this time we are not allowing students to switch buses. Students must still ride their assigned bus to and from school. They will re-evaluate for the 22-23 school year
Note from the 7th grade nurse:
2021-2022 Physical Exam and Immunization Requirements. Physical Exam requirements for the 2021-2022 School Year per the MA Dept. of Public Health Immunization Division: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/school-immunizations requires a physical exam dated within 1 year of entry into grade 7 to be on file in the school health office. If your child has had a physical during the current school year, please send a copy to the school nurse so we may update our records. If your child has not had a recent physical, please make an appointment with your primary care physician. If you are unsure if your student has an updated physical exam and the required immunizations on file at school, please email the school nurse Pam Fleming RN at pfleming@gdrsd.org or call 978-448-6155 X 2180. Thank you.
Notes from the Office
(A few reminders about Absences, from the GDRMS Student Handbook.)
If a student is going to be absent from school, their parent/guardian should call the school attendance line prior to 8:00 AM on the morning of the absence. The attendance line is cleared daily. If you email teachers about attendance, they may not get to the attendance administrative assistant on time which would result in an automated attendance call. The attendance line can be reached at 978-448-6155, option 5.
Absences default to unexcused until we receive doctor’s notes or other accepted documentation. The absence will be changed to excused once the documentation is received. We accept doctor’s notes at any time.
Please see the GDRMS Student Handbook for more information.
For 8th grade families:
We have scheduled our grade 8 Promotion ceremony for Wednesday June 15th. Mark your calendars
MCAS/SBIRT SCHEDULE there is a 5th grade schedule change
ELA | SBIRT | ELA Makeups | Science | Science Makeups | Math | Math Makeups | |
Grade 5 | April 7 & 8 | N/A | April 26-28 | May 3 & 4 | May 5 & 6 | May 10 & 11 | May 12 & 13 |
Grade 6 | April 7 & 8 | N/A | April 26-28 | N/A | N/A | May 10 & 11 | May 12 & 13 |
Grade 7 | April 11 & 12 | April 13 | April 14; April 26-28 | N/A | N/A | May 17 & 18 | May 19 & 20 |
Grade 8 | April 11 & 12 | N/A | April 14; April 26-28 | May 3 & 4 | May 5 & 6 | May 17 & 18 | May 19 & 20 |
Athletics
Practices
Track: Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 2:45 to 4:30....until we move to the high school....then it'll be 2:45 to 4:45.
Softball: Monday/Tuesday/Thursday 2:45-4:15pm (subject to change?)
Volleyball: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 2:45-4:15
https://www.familyid.com/programs/crusader-baseball-clinic-2022 |
Community Activities:
Below find the link for the Community Youth Wellness Programs
Sincerely, your Groton Dunstable Regional Middle School Principal Ms. Wendy Salvatore