👋🏻 Hello Highlands Families!

It has been an AMAZING week here at HI. We held our first All-School Mindful Morning where we discussed month's theme: "Self-Management" and practiced using this skill as a school.

Hawks Nests: Last Friday, we had our first Hawks Nest. Students are organized in multi-aged groups with a "Nest Leader" (a staff member other than their classroom teacher).

• This will be held once a month on Fridays from 8:20-8:50.
• During this time, students connect with older and younger peers and create relationships outside of their grade level or social group.
• The Nest Leader facilitates an activity that is aligned with the social-emotional theme of the month (August was "Belonging").
• We spent the week leading up to our first Hawks Nest practicing how to get to our location (shout-out to our 5th and 6th grade students for picking up K-2 students and serving as leaders in our building!).
• Next Hawks Nest: September 22nd "Self-Management"

Hawk Night Flight: Color Run Edition: 👏🏼 A HUGE thank you to our Highlands PTA for organizing Friday's Hawk Night Flight! So many smiles, so much laughter! It was an awesome community-builder and place where every Hawk felt as if they "belong".

🚫 No School: Friday, September 15th (Teacher Professional Learning)

It's great to be a Highlands Hawk!

Laura LaHue

Principal

https://highlands.smsd.org/

✅ Sign up for the PTA!

Joining PTA is a great way to support Highlands. The PTA helps with funding for the school and teachers. We provide funding for educational training, all field trips, an educational aid, and teacher stipends. The PTA sponsors events such as the Hawk Night Flight, Carnival, Auction, STEAM night, and Talent show. Last year the PTA purchased a 3-D printer, sensory pathways, educational coding robots, and training for families and staff on improving student overall wellness. There is no requirement to volunteer by joining. You can be involved as much as you want. The membership includes access to the new website and app. CLICK HERE to join!

HI WIG #1: Implement a system-wide monitoring process that utilizes collaborative instructional teams who meet regularly to review student data from screening, progress monitoring, and common formative assessments (CFAs) to identify next steps for instruction.

• ✅ Lead Measures (to get us there):
• Intentional Core Instruction: Students are doing the talking (thinking); teachers are asking questions to encourage students to think and generalize what they know to new situations.
• Intentional Core Instruction: Teacher teams will use information from CFAs and real-time observations during core instruction to strategically target skills that will accelerate achievement
• Educational Equity: How will we get EVERY student there? A collective responsibility to provide students with what they need, when they need it, and with an urgency to master essential outcomes.

HI WIG #2: Prioritize social/emotional personalized learning through explicit instruction, modeling, classroom norms, school rituals/routines, and caring attention.

• ✅ Lead Measures (to get us there):
• Student absenteeism: monitor student absenteeism and create a plan to help students be at school consistently. Students that miss 10% of school days are defined as chronically absent.
• Mindful Mornings: Each morning from 8:00-8:30 will be a time for face-to-face (device-free) connection and friendship. Students know they can softly enter their school day.
• Schoolwide system of mentorship: all-school mindful mornings each month, Hawks Nests each month, classroom buddies, and 6th grade jobs.
• Positive behavior system: of grace and accountability through our PBIS and BIST programs.

Chronic Absenteeism is 10% - or 18 days - of school missed. That comes out to being absent 2 days a month throughout the year.

Chronic Absenteeism in Kindergarten, or even Pre-K, can predict lower test scores, poor attendance and retention in later grades, especially if the problem persists for more than a year.

If your child is struggling to get to school, please reach out to your classroom teacher, Mrs. LaHue, or Mrs. Sutton (social worker) and we will provide wraparound support. ❤️