Brown Bears

Dear Families,

I want to thank our PTO for the excellent event they ran this past Sunday. The Wicked Fun Run was an opportunity for students and families to come together for a 2-mile race, crafts, health and wellness activites, and more. We had beautiful weather and the event was well attended. As a result, students and families had a lot of fun and the PTO raised a significant amount of money to help support Brown School. We appreciate all of your support!

Best,

Aidan McCann, Principal

1 - CONFERENCES

Conference time is upon us. Our staff look forward to the opportunity to speak with you and share the good work students are doing here at school. Your classroom teacher will be sending out more information regarding sign-ups with dates and times that are available. If you haven't seen a communication about this yet, please keep an eye out, as it should be coming soon. Conferences days are scheduled for Wednesday, Nov 2nd and Wednesday, Nov 16th. Both of these days are Early Release Days.

2 - FOOD DRIVE

Our PTO coordinated a food drive to support the Natick Service Council from Monday, October 17th to Friday, October 28th. Canned or boxed donations were brought to school and classes tallied how many items they provided. The focus of this effort was to help our community and educate students about the topic of food insecurity. A large percentage of our community qualifies for free and reduced lunch. This combined with the fact that food prices continue to rise makes the topic all the more relevant, timely and important. Our Literacy Specialist, Susan Kennedy, along with our Library Para, Sarah Eastham, put together titles of books that address the issue of food insecurity as well as "helping your community." We met and surpassed our goal of 1,000 items with students bringing in almost 2,000 canned or boxed goods. Thank you Brown School.

3 - ADHD AWARENESS MONTH

October is ADHD Awareness month! Please take a moment this month to consider folks in our

community who live with ADHD. Although each person with ADHD is a unique individual, there

are similarities. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself.

ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects approximately 10% of children according

to the CDC (https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/data.html). Certainly, we all work to manage

our attention and impulsiveness at times (long meetings come to mind). Our students with

ADHD find that regulating attention is so difficult that it affects their learning, playing, and

development. Executive Functions are also a significant problem and getting things done,

organizing materials and activities, and managing emotions can be difficult. It is important to

remember that our children’s brains are still developing and the prefrontal cortex which

regulates these skills is not fully mature until early adulthood. Parents can expect messy

bedrooms for a while!

Interested in more information about ADHD? Please follow this link.

https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/documents/adhdfactsheetenglish.pdf

4 - HALLOWEEN

Students may dress up and there will be a short parade on 10/31 at 9:15 out in the front of the school. We are asking families to stay on the basketball court if you would like to view the parade. Costumes must follow these guidelines: no masks (we need to be able to see and recognize students), no inflatables, no pretend weapons or blood, no clown costumes, and students must maintain full mobility in case of an emergency.

5 - NEWS FROM THE NURSE

Please click on this link for information from the nurse regarding upcoming screenings.

All the best to our families,

Aidan McCann, Principal

The Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) is a volunteer organization made up of parents, teachers and staff with the goal of enriching the educational experience of our children at Brown School. We send out a weekly email newsletter that is separate from this one: please sign up to receive our updates at http://eepurl.com/gCRzwH and follow us at facebook.com/BrownSchoolPto. Questions? Want to volunteer? Contact us anytime at brownptonatick@gmail.com.

Natick Public Schools does not discriminate in employment nor its educational programs, services, and activities based on race, creed, color, age, sex, gender identity, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions, physical and intellectual differences, immigration status, homeless status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Please be aware all electronic communication to and from Natick Public Schools is public record and subject to public disclosure per Massachusetts General Law Chapter 66, Section 10.

• Title I: Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990Title II
• Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990Title VI
• Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964Title IX
• Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972
• MGL, Ch.76, Section 5: Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 76, Section 5