Washington Post
Family Newsletter for Washington Elementary
Principal Post
Thank you so much for your continued support of our school. We recently had several of you agree to be business sponsors for our PTA. We appreciate your generosity. Also, I see that many of you have signed up to volunteer during our Gift of Reading day last week, during field day, or our upcoming run/walk-a-thon in October. We hope to begin a school-wide service project soon and will again seek parents to partner with their students to provide support for other children in need. As you know, one of our Patriot Promise skills is "service" and we appreciate some of you modeling this for our students.
Soon, you will see other co-curricular activities beginning in our school. In the past, several of these have been offered primarily to fifth grade students. As a group, we wondered about opening some of these opportunities up to other grades. Fifth grade naturally has many opportunities, including HOTS, Troupe and an end-of-year trip to Mountain Trail Outdoor School. With our interest in teaching the whole child, we started to think about reaching more students and enriching their school experiences. The following opportunities will be available this year. You do not need to take any action, this is simply to inform you:
Club time-A co-curricular time every two weeks during which all students can join a club of their choice. Our purpose in offering club time is to help students discover a talent that may otherwise go untapped and/or to enrich students' knowledge of a variety of topics/talents to help them develop a well-rounded perspective on the world. This is offered to all students.
Safety Patrol-This leadership opportunity allows students to support other students in the school. Our Patriot Patrol may raise the flag each day, escort younger students to various locations in the building, host students and guests in the lobby, monitor hallway procedures during arrival and dismissal, and recognize peers for demonstrating the Patriot Promise. This is now offered to fourth and fifth grade students and is by application. This is a before or after school commitment.
WSIC-Student broadcast network "Washington School is Cool". This award winning program has been a tradition at GWES for approximately 20 years. Our news crew shows leadership as they research, produce, anchor, and utilize technology for all programming that is uploaded for classroom viewing each day. This year, the program is available to fifth grade students in the fall and fourth grade in the spring. This is also offered through an application process. This is an after-school commitment.
Patriot Pals: This leadership opportunity is the voice of the school. Functioning much like a student council, this group may set direction for the school's service projects, share the voice of the students, address school issues, lead school assemblies and plan school events. This is by application and is offered to fourth and fifth grade.
Patriot Promise Planning Team: In the spring, we will host a Patriot Promise celebration to honor the work our students have shown in developing the 8 important lifeskills and habits we hope to instill in them. Students from all grade levels are chosen to work alongside administrators to plan this school-wide event.
Other co-curricular activities:
Running club: Morning fitness team that voluntarily commits to Mondays and Wednesday mornings of running and getting their body and brain ready for school.
Lacrosse club: After school team that learns introductory skills and techniques for the game of lacrosse. This group commits one afternoon a week to the development of this game and the tenacity it takes to try something new that will increase coordination, focus, teamwork and gross motor development.
WeCycle: An after school leadership team that leads the efforts in our school to keep our environment healthy by identifying and collecting recyclables that would otherwise be including in our trash removal. This group is saving our school hundreds of dollars in waste removal costs. They learn to interact responsibly with all adults in the building and work as a team to accomplish tasks.
Financial Literacy (Bank of Washington): This after school opportunity is available to a small group who are interested in learning about the value of money and how to save, figure interest and think about how investing is important to our economy. There will be more details on this soon.
News from PTA
The mission of the GWES PTA is to be a powerful voice for all children, a relevant resource for families and communities, and a strong advocate for the education and well-being of every child. I hope you will consider joining. It is our school goal to increase the membership this year. There are many ways you can help our school. Below are simple ways to benefit GWES:
*Be sure to register your Food City cards for GWES! These have to be renewed each year.
*Register your Kroger card.
*Use Amazon Smile.
*When you wash your car at Express Car Wash on Stone Drive, enter fundraiser code 1000.
You must have the flier that will come home with your child for GWES to benefit.
Be sure to enjoy with your child the book that they brought home on September 23rd courtesy of the Gift of Reading program sponsored by the PTA.
Save the date for the Annual GWES Run/Walk A Thon! It is coming up on Friday, October 28th!
State Assessment information for Parents:
Car line reminders:
- Please pull all the way up to number one, or the next number in line rather than stopping in front of the school doors during morning drop off. We know it is nice to see your student walk in, but there are often many cars behind you hoping to make it in time
- Please do not park in the west end parking lot, this is the bus entrance and is only for the Early Childhood Learning Center employees and families
- We are here to help! We will monitor your child exiting the car and do not mind to help if needed, please do not exit your vehicle (refer to bullet one for reason why)
- Thanks for your patience during afternoon dismissal. We know it's a long line...but a very safe process!
- The sun is very bright coming up the hill in the morning, please keep an eye out for students crossing in the crosswalk.
- September is truancy awareness month...please keep in mind that students perform better when they are at school on time, have regular attendance and engage with as many school opportunities as possible.
GWES is working to GO GLOBAL
- Are you or is someone in your family an extensive traveler? If so, we are looking for artifacts from places around the world. Our goal is for each class to have a culture corner in which items from other places in the world can be displayed. We do not want anything overly valuable (either financially or emotionally), just interesting items that will help foster conversations.
- Are you or is someone in your family a native from another country or has spent time living/travelling to another country? We would love to share your story and have you take part in an international event that we will be planning in the future. We want to learn about your culture-including language, food, music, art, and family life.