WHS Family Newsletter
September 13, 2021
Midterm Week is Here
We are halfway through the first trimester! This is our official midterm week. Teachers will have all grades updated by September 21. We encourage you to check your student's grades in PowerSchool and be in contact with teachers and administrators with questions and concerns.
The weather is still warm, classes are in full swing, and our Shamrocks have already been able to showcase their talents and interests through a myriad of extracurricular activities. This includes but is not limited to the inaugural Festival of Champions marching band contest held at WHS this past weekend. You can read more about it below in our spotlight.
This Thursday during CORE Time will be our bi-annual Shamrock Save a Life walk, where we encourage our students to walk our track to "Know the Facts. Show Compassion. Support One Another." We walk to acknowledge the stigma and struggle of mental health and express our concern and care as a part of Suicide Awareness and Prevention month. We are expecting this to be a powerful, unifying event. Please take a look at the information below to make sure you are "in the know" on the important happenings at WHS.
Finally, some of you have asked some questions regarding support symbols and flags of allegiance, as they pertain to staff and students here at WHS. I would encourage you to read my blog, as I address some information to help provide clarity, as well as speak from the heart on my hope for our culture at WHS and for each and every student here.
New Information This Week
2021 WHS Homecoming Information
You can also see all the information on our WHS website!
Multilingual Family Night - Thursday, September 16th
Please join us as the deadlines for college applications are approaching and we want to make sure that this process is easy for you and your student. We will be providing food and beverages prior to the event and the workshop will start promptly at 7pm.
We hope to see you there to learn more about college opportunities for your student, the financial aid process and other support we can offer on the college application process.
Life Ready Index Assessment Tool
Over the next two weeks we will administer the Life Ready Index to all students. The Life Ready Index assessment tool measures behaviors in competencies that we feel are essential for a student to become a thriving adult, including: Confidence, Respect, Leadership, Coachability, Kindness, Discipline, Growth Mindset, Grit, Teamwork and more. These are the skills in the wellness and career leaves of our Life Ready Shamrock.
This learning instrument is not a survey and as such meets our state's requirements for students to demonstrate proficiency in career-based competency standards. Your student will receive their results immediately so feel free to read through the results thoroughly with them. Your student will take the assessment tool each year and be able to track their individual growth independently and with you as they embark on their "Life Ready" journey here at WHS.
For questions regarding this tool, please reach out to Jake Gilbert.
Please take a moment to watch this video shown on Rock TV this past Wednesday.
Rocks Spotlight
WHS Staff Provides Opportunities for ALL Shamrocks
Our WHS staff hits it out of the park when providing opportunities for our students to excel in their passions and also to connect our students to future opportunities. Today, we wanted to highlight a few of those activities that happened on our campus this past week!
On Thursday, September 9th, WHS hosted the Fall Shamrock College Fair (during the morning) and Shamrock Career Fair (during the afternoon). Students in grades 10-12 were invited to speak with college representatives from over 35 different institutions and representatives from almost 40 different businesses!
Our staff continues to do the work to prepare all Shamrocks for the day after graduation. Our WHS counselors especially do an INCREDIBLE job putting these two events together in order to connect our students with people who can open opportunities for their future!
We also had several "firsts" take place this past weekend! Our Pride of Westfield Marching Band program hosted the Festival of Champions - the first marching band contest since the competitive marching band season was cancelled! It was also the first time Westfield has hosted a band contest in 13 seasons. And it was the very first time a band contest has been held at Riverview Health Stadium!
Over 80% of our WHS marching band students have never competed in a fall season due to Covid and we can report that it was a huge success! We are GRATEFUL for all the time, effort and hard work our students, WHS staff, parent volunteers, and community partners put in to make this event a success. Thanks to all of you for building a tradition of excellence "One Rock At A Time!" The Pride of Westfield competes this weekend at Northwestern High School at 9:10pm.
Also, if you'd like to come and see our band perform here at WHS, we are happy to report that
in-person concerts back for the 2021-2022 school year, however, they will be ticketed events. Please click here for detailed information about ordering individual tickets as well as season passes for all band and choir concerts.
Reminders
A Message From Our WHS Nurses and New Quarantine Guidelines
WHS Students should NOT come to school if they are sick - regardless of vaccination status.
Please review the list of Covid symptoms on the district website. If you have any of those symptoms- again - regardless of vaccination status and even if you do not have fever, STAY HOME and contact a healthcare provider.
Thank you for your help in limiting the spread of COVID by STAYING HOME when you are ill. That is vital for keeping in-person learning going strong this school year.
Also, based on new quarantine guidelines, we will no longer need to quarantine any students in masked settings. This includes the classrooms and the buses. We will still need to quarantine unvaccinated individuals in unmasked settings such as the lunch rooms or indoor athletic or performing arts settings where students are unable to distance six feet apart from one another.
Shamrock Save A Life Walk
WHS will invite students to join together this Thursday, September 16th during CORE for our 2021 Shamrock Save a Life Walk.
Students who sign-up to attend will walk in unison around the Riverview Health Stadium Track (or the MPIF depending on weather) in the name of mental health and suicide awareness and prevention.
The Wellbeing Coalition of Westfield is our partner for this event, along with a few of our own clubs--including WHS student ambassadors for Robbie's Hope. We are grateful for financial support from the family of WHS Graduate Chandlar Williams. #SaveALife #WeStandUnited
September 15 - No In Person Learning For WHS Students
Westfield Washington Schools has included three (3) Extended Learning Days in the school calendar for the 2021-22 school year (one per trimester). The first of these three dates is this Wednesday, September 15, 2021.
For students, it is time outside of the traditional school day for students to work on projects, take educational trips or visit a university, job shadow someone in a career they are interested in, etc.
These days are not eLearning days. Teachers will not be providing specific assignments and school work for the day.
For teachers, it is a time to work on our Continuous Quality Improvement process through professional development and the PLC process to improve our horizontal & vertical alignment in curriculum and instruction.
Please be sure you have this date on your family's calendar.
About Us
Email: webmaster@wws.k12.in.us
Website: https://www.wws.k12.in.us/whs
Location: 18250 North Union Street, Westfield, IN, USA
Phone: (317)867-6800
Facebook: facebook.com/westfieldhighschool
Twitter: @WWSWHS