H2O PTO Way 2 Go...update! SB 4-9-21
Special thanks to the wonderful Stony Brook PTO for their tremendous efforts in helping us to secure all 3 Water Bottle Filling Stations!! We had 155 families donate a whopping total of $7122 far exceeding our goal of $4500!!! The SBTO will be able to use the additional funds to help us provide the student agendas for next year and continue with the special teacher appreciation events that they have provided each month of this incredibly demanding year.
Translations via Google Translate
Teachers are sharing some of our schedule changes and protocols that will be taking place when we transition to our new schedule on April 26. Advisory teachers are going to reach out to their students to make sure everyone is aware of any adjustments that are being made to the Advisory groups. Our goal is make sure that everyone is confident with where they will be starting their day on April 26 either in person or in the RLA. As students will continue to move as a group and stay together with their Advisory, no one will be needing to find anything on their own which is certainly helpful. Bringing the pods together also means that half of each class is going to include new faces so students transitioning from one model to the other will not be the only new faces in the Advisory which is comforting for most middle school students. Although their behavior doesn’t always reflect it...most adolescents do not want to stick out or have a spotlight of any kind on them at this age. April 26 in many ways is going to be like the first day of school all over again and our teachers are approaching it that way in terms of re-establishing environments, getting everyone acquainted with each other, and making everyone comfortable. But the reality is that it is clearly not the first day of school and most of our students are ready to just keep swimming as the lovely animated fish has reminded us to do before these current middle school students were even born...wow, that movie is older than I thought...plus, I thought a nice water reference would help thread the update theme :-)
Our lunch protocols will most likely be our biggest adjustment. We will be eating outside everyday that the weather allows. At the beginning of the year, we provided all of our students with a resealable bag containing a small white board and marker. We have more of those bags and we are going to provide those to all of the students in which they can place a thin beach towel or t-shirts or something else to make a more comfortable cushion if they would like as they will all be sitting on the ground more than 6’ apart from each other outside in their Advisory lines. We have painted additional marks to make it easier for them to all identify where they should be seated to maintain the safe distance while their masks are off for lunch. It will be different from the mask breaks that they will also have during the day as I am going to explain the importance of only having their masks off while they are seated during the lunch block. Their mask breaks are supervised by their classroom teachers and there are more adults to help remind them to keep their distance if they choose to remove their masks for a break. Our lunch supervisors will be watching the entire grade outside and it will not be possible for them to keep reminding everyone to keep their distance; so, the expectation will be that they can only remove their masks while they are seated. When they are done eating, they can certainly get up and move around outside and enjoy the fresh air but they will need to keep their masks on if they are not seated. Another great benefit to being outside is that they do not need to all face the same direction as long as they maintain 6’ distance and it is possible for them to talk with other students around them while they are eating. Eating inside does not allow that to happen based on DESE guidelines. Once we are able to practice this for a little while in their Advisory lines, we will be able to let students pick any lunch spot on the “grid” and visit with their friends more easily during lunch...can you imagine?
If the weather does not allow us to eat outside, our “indoor picnic” plan is to move inside and eat in the Gym. We can’t fit enough students in our cafeteria with the spacing requirements, so we will turn our Gym into a temporary cafe. Students will still be more than 6’ apart and spread out in their Advisory “lines”. They will have access to chairs if they would like to use them to sit on or use them as makeshift tables but they will need to remain in their designated lunch spot and all be facing the same direction in order to maintain the 6’ of distance and adhere to the DESE guidelines while masks are not being worn inside. Again, this will only be our plan if the weather does not allow us to be outside...just like indoor recess adjustments that need to be made on a daily basis.
Last weekend, one of our students had an ad pop up on YouTube that was filled with inaccurate, racist propaganda. This individual immediately reported it to YouTube and talked about it with family members at home and shared the concern with teachers here at school. I share this as a reminder to everyone that it is incredibly important for our students to develop the critical thinking skills that support their ability to identify reliable sources of information online. I am very proud of the student for both reporting the false misleading information as well as talking to the adults in their life both at home and in school to help prevent the same thing happening to other students. If you are looking for resources to share with your children at home to help support digital literacy and critical thinking skills necessary for deciphering reliable sources, Learning for Justice has some wonderful resources for support.
This week’s notes from the clinic are brought to you from the new water filling stations anxiously waiting to be installed…
As a member of the Board of Health, I have assisted Gail Johnson, the Public Health Nurse with contact tracing for the past year along with a few other nurses. We have had an uptick in cases in Westford recently: It appears the variants are here and much more contagious. With all of the cases I have worked over the past year, children have done very well. Most often they have mild symptoms if any. Not one child in Westford who tested positive had to be hospitalized or was seriously ill with COVID. As we prepare to return to full days in person, I would ask all of you to help us keep our schools safe by keeping your child at home if a family member has symptoms as well as a known exposure. With the full return, there will be more close contacts when a child is in our school building and tests positive.
There are still plenty of testing sites available that do PCR testing and we have the results within 24 hours. Circle Health in Westford and Tewskbury do PCR tests and the results are in the next day. You do need appointments there but Lawrence and Methuen still have their ‘stop the spread sites’. Please refer to this link for more information: https://www.transformativehc.com/stopthespread.html (Lawrence site is located at 70 General Street in Lawrence-call 978-946-8409 for more information; Methuen-walk up site: 147 Pelham Street, call 978-685-7663; M-F 3-6P and Sat 9-12)
6th grade parents, continue to send in your child’s updated physicals. That will minimize the amount of letters I send out at the end of the school year. 7th grade is the year we require a current physical as well as up-to-date immunizations. The physicals they had in the fall, winter and now spring are the ones I need. At this time, we do not have confirmation that we will have Spring Sports but if your child is an athlete and in grades 7 and 8, please make sure I have a current physical on file in the clinic. (Physicals are required in grades K, 3, 7, 11 and every year if you participate in athletics in middle school and high school).
As always, reach out with any questions or concerns.
Sue Hanly, MSN, RN
978-392-6974
Cheers!
Chris
Dr. Christopher Chew
Principal
Stony Brook School
Westford
WA GIRLS' BASKETBALL SUMMER CLINIC
The WA Girls' Basketball program is happy to offer several options for outdoor basketball clinics at the Blanchard School this summer! Members of the Girls' Varsity basketball team are ready to teach all levels of players how to become better basketball players while participating in a fun, supportive environment. Please check out the new WA Girls' Basketball website for clinic dates and registration information. All proceeds go to the WAGB program account. Thanks for your support!
Join Westford Friends of East Boston Camps Walk on The Wild Side challenge and help raise money to refurbish Nashoba Lodge. The challenge will encompass the whole month of May to see how many trails or miles you can walk. Create a group with your friends or families and enjoy the beautiful scenery. Learn more about our event on our website westfordfriendsebc.org