Deer Families
Deer Hill School News . March 24, 2023
Dear Deer Hill Families,
In conjunction with this newsletter, there are additional emails coming your way today that I want to highlight. I apologize in advance for the extra traffic in your inbox and appreciate your attention to these important matters.
- Progress reports will be published in Aspen later today. You will receive an email when they're available. To access your reports, please login to our Aspen website. If you have trouble logging in, please email Deer Hill secretary, Collette McElhinney, at cmcelhinney@cohassetk12.org. Aspen support is her super power and my kryptonite!
- One of the central goals of the Cohasset Public Schools Strategic Plan is to expand opportunities for families to be engaged in school practices with the goal of improving communication and sharing responsibility for student learning. To that end, the Deer Hill School Council asks you to complete a survey which will be sent in a separate email to help us identify areas of parental concern and ideas for continued school improvement.Thank you for sharing your perceptions. Please submit one questionnaire per Deer Hill family no later than March 31, 2023. If you have students in other buildings, you will receive a separate survey for each school.
Teachers are so pleased to share student progress with your through these published reports as well as through our upcoming conferences next week (remember that Tuesday and Wednesday are early release days). The entirety of the Deer Hill staff is proud of our accomplishments in regard to our district strategic plan as well as our own school improvement plan, and we, along with the members of the Deer Hill School Council, look forward to hearing your feedback so that we can improve even further.
All the best,
Alexandra L. Sullivan
Principal, Deer Hill School
P.S. Our next newsletter will be published on Friday, April 7, 2023 .
P.P.S. Follow me on Twitter @DeerHillSchool for ongoing info and joy throughout the week.
Need to Knows
- The CPS 2023-2024 calendar was approved at a recent School Committee meeting. You may access it on our district website, and I will keep a link on this and future newsletters.
- As has been shared weekly in Superintendent Sullivan's newsletters, school attendance is a priority to student success. As mandated by state law, attendance letters are sent to families after 5, 10, and 15 absences. At 15 absences, I contact families to schedule a meeting to discuss ways we can partner to improve attendance. To date, Deer Hill has sent 188 letters noting unexcused absences of 5 or more days for a total of over 1,120 days missed of school. Additionally, our early dismissals on Fridays often exceed 50 students, or almost 20% of our school. This not only impacts the learning of the students where are not at school, but makes it difficult to advance lesson objectives when at times, especially the days before and after a holiday, seven or more students may be absent or dismissed from one class. While we recognize the value of family travel and understand that there are also at times unavoidable and compelling circumstances such as illnesses that do not necessitate a visit to the the doctor, we cannot teach an empty seat and love most when ALL of our scholars are at school!
Keeping the Joy (happenings at Deer Hill)
- Deer Hill is getting in the game with the PSO Read-a-Thon! We've gotten cozy on Read Your Heart Out Day and are enjoying our all school read aloud, Nuts to You. Next up is Book Character Dress Up Day on March 28 and the completion of our classroom door decorations. For Character Dress Up Day students are encouraged to shop their closets and see if they can channel their favorite book characters from now or their younger days! One final reminder that Bingo Boards are due on April 3.
- At the March 15 School Committee meeting grade 3 SPED teacher Julia Dumoulin, grade 3 teacher, Michele Mosher, and several students from Ms. Mosher's class (Luke Burns, Katelyn Sunday, Joy Roth, Isabella Wyganowski, John Watkins, and Ava D'Adamo) treated the committee to a brief reading lesson that highlighted their higher level reading strategies and passion for mystery books!
- This week was a triumph for our music department as Deer Hill's chorus and bands joined middle and high school performers at Wednesday's All School Chorus Concert and Thursday's All School Band Concert. Many thanks to Kristen Lewis, chorus teacher, and John DeWaal, band teacher, for their leadership of our musicians.
- Mr. Youmans, our PE teacher, received a special delivery this week with the arrival of a fleet of bikes (and helmets!) to support his new bike safety and riding curriculum. This exciting addition to PE instruction is due to the generosity of the CEF who funded a grant that Mr. Youmans submitted this past fall.
Candids & Curriculum...
Deer Hill Dates
3.24: Progress reports published in Aspen
3.27: ½ grade 5 to South Shore Art Center
3.27: Grade 4 Senior Center visit: Moser
3.28 & 3.29: Teacher conferences; 1:15 dismissal
3.28: Book Character Dress Up Day
4.3: Read-a-Thon Bingo Boards due
4.4, 6:30pm: Harlem Wizards vs DH/JOS basketball game @CHS
4.5 & 4.6: MCAS ELA (grade 3)
4.10 & 4.11: MCAS ELA (grade 4 & 5)
4.13, 4:00: School Council, Library
4.13: CPS Multicultural Night
4.17-4.21: Spring Break, no school
4.27, 7-8:30: Favorites Art Night
CPS and Deer Hill calendars 2022-23
Flyers of Interest
Deer Hill School
Alexandra L. Sullivan, Principal
Email: alsullivan@cohassetk12.org
Website: https://www.cohassetk12.org/
Location: 208 Sohier St., Cohasset, MA, USA
Phone: 781-383-6115
Twitter: @DeerHillSchool