Good afternoon, RJ Grey Families:
Judging by the volume of cars in our parking lots on Tuesday, I'm sure many of you came to RJ Grey to vote this week. While you were voting, our staff was in our school working collaboratively and learning together. The professional learning day is a great opportunity for us to work together on our collective teaching practices. Teachers worked with their departments on developing common assessments, analyzing data about student learning, continuing to develop our workshop groups, and more. This professional day was one well spent.
Today and yesterday, our 8th graders participated in team assemblies where they met the principal and other staff members from Acton-Boxborough Regional High School. The high school presentation highlighted course offerings, extracurricular activities, and the general school experience at AB. While the start of ninth grade is still far off, we use the fall to expose students to their options for high school. We will talk more about high school courses and registration in the spring, but in the meantime, check in with your 8th grader to see what they learned about ABRHS this week.
This week, I have reminded students about our expectations for after school at RJ Grey. As your child makes plans for their afternoons, it is helpful for you to be aware of what we expect, as well. Here is the text of our morning announcement: A reminder to all students about staying in the building after 2:36 each day. Only students who stay for extra help with a teacher, or for a club or activity, are allowed to stay at school after 2:36. Any other student without a school obligation must leave school at dismissal. Any student whose extra help or club has ended will remain in the Library to be picked up. Additionally, students are not allowed to return to school after leaving to be picked up or take the late bus. With limited supervision after school, we need to be mindful of the number of students in the building at that time. Thank you for your help with this.
Over 100 of our students and staff have already given hours of their time to put together our fall musical, Frozen, Jr. Our shows will run December 5 - 8. I hope you'll mark your calendars for that weekend and purchase tickets when we release info about them in the coming weeks. I am regularly amazed by what our students are able to do in our theater productions - I hope you'll spread the word about our upcoming show - it will be a great one!
We have published our winter athletic season tryouts on our school webpage. If your child is interested in basketball or cheer, please make sure to review the tryout procedures and pay attention to two important things: Sign up on Family ID, and have a recent physical exam on file with our Health Office. Our winter sports tend to bring out a lot of interested players and we usually need to make cuts in order to create appropriately-sized teams. Thank you for helping to set expectations if your child is planning to try out for a team. We are still in the process of finding an interested and qualified coach for our Cheer Team. If you, or someone you know, would be interested in talking about this opportunity, please reach out directly to Jon Duclos, our athletic director, at [email protected].
There is an interesting webinar from Cartwheel Care next Wednesday evening. I invite you to learn more about it and possibly attend:
Title: Can We Talk? How to have conversations with kids & teens about mental health
Date: 11/13/2024
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Zoom webinar
Registration: LINK
Description: Join Cartwheel and The NAN Project for a free live webinar that will cover mental health questions that kids & teens have but are often afraid to ask, and suggestions for how caregivers can safely and appropriately respond when mental health topics come up in their homes.
Happy Veteran's Day to all, especially those who have served our country. I appreciate your service.
Take care and have a good weekend,
Jim
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