Good afternoon,
I hope you all fared well with the wild weather over the past week. With significant snow and a surprise snow day, lots of rain Tuesday night, and temps in the 40s yesterday, it was refreshing to be dry and simply cold at this morning’s drop-off.
This morning, I sent a message to all 7th grade parents/guardians about our Signs of Suicide (SOS) program. That message includes all of the important information about the program, so please check it out. There could be a chance you are reading this Eye on the Junior High message and you’re wondering why you’re a 7th grade parent and didn’t yet receive the SOS message. It’s likely because you either haven’t set up your Parent Square account yet, or you have preferences that default to sending messages as a “digest” late in the day. If that set-up works for you, great. If you’d rather see messages from the school in more real-time, I encourage you to explore Parent Square a bit. Please reach out if you need us to resend an invitation to your account.
In December, we had our students spend a few minutes taking a survey about their RJ Grey experience. Hearing from students only helps us, and in many cases, confirms that what we’re working on matters. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share a few of the response results.
You know we care very much that each of our kids has an adult they can trust at school if they need help with something. Last year, we ended the year with 81% of our students saying they had a trusted adult. This December, 89% of our kids reported that they have a trusted adult. We are very pleased with the increase this year.
We also ask students if they have an adult outside of school, and as predicted, that number is higher. It is clear that a strong majority of our students feel supported by adults both in and outside of school.
The third item to share today, and one that I will keep to show 6th grade families in the spring, is that 97% of our students report making new friends this year. While we are certainly focused on learning content, skills, reading, writing, and critical thinking, we also care that kids come to school and make strong connections with peers. Our students clearly told us that they’re making friends, which I hope you hear about at home!
I hope the graphs above help show that the work we do at RJ Grey every day matters. We feel very lucky to be able to work with our students and their families every day.
Upcoming Dates
Monday, Jan 15: No School, MLK Jr Day
Tuesday, Jan 16: Ski/Board Club Session #2 after school
Wed, Jan 17: JH Winter Band Concert, 7 pm
Fri, Jan 19: Summer Fun in Winter event, 3:00 - 4:30
Fri, Jan 19: Hawaiian Shirt Day at RJ Grey
Mon, Jan 22: Last day for Quarter 2 and Semester 1 classes
Tues, Jan 23: Ski/Board Club Session #3 after school
Wed, Jan 24: JH Winter Chorus/Orchestra Concert, 7 pm
Take care and have a great weekend!
Jim