Takoma Park Elementary School
Newsletter
October 10, 2021
TPES and all schools are required to conduct safety drills throughout the school year. We are required to conduct 2 fire drills and one active shooter (lockdown & shelter) drill within the first 30 days of school. The fire drills have already taken place with success. As we approach the 30th day of school, we must conduct the Lockdown and Shelter drills. Tomorrow morning we will use the intercom system to announce the Lockdown and Shelter drills. For the Lockdown drill, the children will be told by their teacher that they are practicing hiding from a mean animal that got into the school or some other story that does not create increased anxiety. Children will not be told about active shooters. Although we know the truth of what this drill is for, we do not want to create anxiety in our young learners. They will be asked to go to a specific locations within the classroom and the lights will be turned off. Students will be required to remain silent until the drill is over. For the Shelter drill, instruction and movement within the school will continue but students will be asked to remain in the presence of their teachers with the exterior doors to the building closed and locked. The intercom announcement for the lockdown will be short and will only say that there is a lockdown in place. The announcement will say "This is a lockdown drill, please secure all classroom and exterior doors, this is a lockdown drill." The Shelter announcement may contain more information and will include specific directions for the staff. The Shelter announcement might include things like the option for teachers to keep their classroom doors open while limiting student movement throughout the building.
Please talk with your child about the practice drills to help ease any potential anxiety.
Saturday School
The virtual doors of The George B. Thomas. Sr. Learning Academy, Inc. - Saturday School will open for its 35th year of service on Saturday, September 25th. Online registration started on September 1st and we have adequate space for additional students.
Classes will be offered in reading (Benchmarks) and math (Eureka) for grades Pre-K through 5 from 8:30am - 11:00am through May of 2022. We will also have a special center for our ELL students and families. Our dynamic programming will include weekly Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) lessons, recreational activities and academic acceleration with opportunities for enrichment.
Our program fees are $40 for FARMS students and $85 for all other students. These fees cover the ENTIRE year of tutoring. Weekly attendance is strongly encouraged as students that attend regularly outperform students that do not.
Registration can be found at www.saturdayschool.org.
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