|
 |
Good afternoon, RJ Grey Families:
I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving last week. It's hard to believe that we've already arrived at the first week of December. With the start of a new trimester, it's a good time to check in on a number of items: tardiness to school, our school musical, our annual coat drive, and report cards!
Overall, our student attendance has been strong. Our daily average attendance rate for November was 96.4%, down from 98.1% in October. I've already written about attendance this year, and I appreciate your efforts to make sure your kids get to school as many days as possible. Starting this week, and over the next few weeks, our Assistant Principals are going to have conversations with students whose tardiness to school shows a pattern that needs to be addressed. There are always reasons for a student to be late on occasion: orthodontic appointments, pediatricians, etc. Those random tardies to school aren't a problem, and we know they are a fact of life.
We are looking to help improve some routines for students who regularly get to school anywhere from a minute or two late to an hour late on a regular basis. Our staff will start by talking to our students, and may follow up with you, as parents, if we can help brainstorm routines at home that would make the morning feel smoother. Thank you for your support in making sure your kids arrive before 7:55 each day. With school starting at 8 am, a 7:55 arrival makes sure they've unpacked their belongings and have gotten to homeroom, ready to start their day.
Our school musical, Seussical, Jr., will open tonight! If you're able to join us on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday at 7 pm or Sunday at 2 pm, you'll be in for a treat. If you are interested in purchasing tickets, please click here!
Each December, our Student Council organizes a Coat Drive at RJ Grey. For more than 25 years, we donated those coats to Anton's Cleaners to be distributed through local organizations. In more recent years, we give our coats directly to the AB Resource Center to be distributed to needy members of our Acton and Boxborough communities. If you have a minute to pull out good-quality coats that your family doesn't need anymore, we would appreciate it. There will be a bin in our main lobby through next Friday, December 12. If you're coming to our musical this weekend, please feel free to drop off a coat while you're here!
The first trimester at RJ Grey is complete. Congratulations to all of our students for meeting that milestone! Teachers are finishing up entering grades and comments this week before we produce report cards next week. We hope to have those 830 documents ready to share next Tuesday or Wednesday. Report cards will be delivered to families via email and will also be posted as documents on the Parent Portal.
On the report card, you'll see letter grades for classes along with comments from each teacher. If you have questions about something, I suggest starting by talking with your child, and if a question remains, please be in touch directly with the teacher. The beauty of junior high school is that we start to take more seriously the idea of grades, but we are not yet at the level where grades are important for access to college or work. If your child experiences their first disappointing grade this year, please know that the grade matters less than the habits and the learning that are behind that grade. If your child needs help making a specific plan for improving in a certain subject, please reach out to the teacher or counselor to determine appropriate next steps.
I hope you have a great weekend!
Jim
Thursday, Dec 4: Seussical, Jr performance at 7 pm
Friday, Dec 5: Seussical, Jr performance at 7 pm
Saturday, Dec 6: Seussical, Jr performance at 7 pm
Sunday, Dec 7: Seussical, Jr performance at 2 pm
Friday, Dec 12: Formal Dress Day at RJ Grey
Monday, Dec 15: Early Release at 1 pm
Tuesday, Dec 23: Early Release (11:10) for Winter Vacation
Monday, Jan 5: School reopens for the New Year |
|
|
Additional settings for Safari Browser.
