Dear NHS Community,
Seabrook Station Announcement
I wanted to let you know that Seabrook Station will have a scheduled on-site training activity on Wednesday, Sept. 30. As part of the training activity, they will sound one siren on the morning of Sept. 30. The siren is located at Seabrook Station and will be sounded just once between the hours of 7 and 10 a.m. This is only a training activity and no action is needed from the public. I am not sure we can even hear it in North Hampton, but wanted to pass the information along.
Parent Conferences
We are pleased to announce that we will be scheduling virtual Parent Conferences during the week of October 13th. Teachers will be in touch with parents in PK-8 at NHS to arrange appointment times. RLA teachers met with students and families at the beginning of the school year and have a different timeline for parent conferences. Due to the prolonged closure of school, and the fact that our middle school students are working virtually, we will devote the Parent Conference time to social/emotional learning. We believe that students need to feel a strong sense of connection to school staff and to peers and this topic is deserving of the conference time during this pandemic. As a reminder, Wednesday, October 14th is an early release day with a 12:00 dismissal time for all NHS PK-8 students. This allows teachers to schedule conferences during the afternoon hours on the 14th.
Spanish Update
Students in grades 4-8 have Spanish class either one or two times per week with Senor Johnston. In grades 6-8, this represents a decrease in class time due to the EVL schedule and our desire to carefully manage the screen time for students. Last year, we also had a half-time Spanish teacher who taught lessons to students in grades K-3 for shorter amounts of time. That teacher, Ms. Murphy, resigned over the summer and we elected not to replace her for the 2020-21 school year. We made this decision knowing that we would have a shorter elementary day and would be decreasing the amount of time students spend in all UA’s to start this school year. Additionally, this a curriculum program review year for foreign language across the SAU and we felt it best to complete the review process to determine the desired outcomes, goals, appropriate amount of instructional time, and instructional methodology. It remains our goal to provide a sequential curriculum for foreign language in our elementary school.
Forms, Forms, Forms
Last week, we sent home a Health Form and a Device Take Home form both electronically and paper copies. Some additional information was also included in the Powerschool Parent Portal. It has come to our attention that many parents were not aware of the need to log onto their Parent Portal account and therefore, did not receive this important information, acknowledge receipt, and provide us with any needed updates. We will do a better job of communicating this procedure going forward. Specific instructions will be shared at Curriculum Night. Kelly Ford is also available by email for any questions or to provide support.
EVL
Students were able to pick up science materials for a safe at-home experiment in grades 6-8. Mrs. Jones and Mr. LaCroix worked together to design this assignment together and hope that students benefited from this hands on experience at home.
Our librarian, Mrs. McCombs has been working to provide library books for students in grades 6-8. She is presenting about the format she is using at Thursday’s School Board meeting. Tune in to see if you have time.
In Person NHS K-5
We had our first Fire Drill last week. Some classes were already working outside and some were inside. We were able to conduct a drill and maintain social distance! Many thanks to North Hampton Fire Department for working with us to conduct this important safety drill and maintain our standards for a safe school day with Covid precautions in place.
Curriculum Nights 2020
The format for Curriculum Night will be a bit different this year. Since we will be ‘zooming,’ each grade will conduct one unified zoom. The links for each zoom will be sent in a separate email.
Each meeting will begin with an introduction and very brief presentation by one of the North Hampton School Administrators, who will also be the Zoom host for the meeting. We will then turn the meeting over to the teachers, who will present information about curriculum and grade level expectations. There will be time to answer questions. Each meeting is scheduled to be 45 minutes in length, with a hard stop time after 60 minutes. Parent Conferences will be scheduled the following week, so if you have any unanswered questions, you will be able to ask the teacher then.
Curriculum Night Meeting Dates/Times
Tuesday (10/6): 5:00-5:45 - K; 6:00 - 6:45 - 1st; 7:00-7:45 - 2nd (Zoom host-Ms. Snyder)
Wednesday (10/7): 5:00-5:45 - 3rd; 6:00 - 6:45 - 4th ; 7:00-7:45 - 5th (Zoom host-Ms. Weaver)
Thursday (10/8): 5:00 - 5:45 6th; 6:00 - 6:45 7th; 7:00-7:45 8th (Zoom host-Ms. Carlson)
Dates to remember:
Oct. 1: North Hampton School Board meeting at 6:30 PM via Zoom
Oct. 12: No school--Columbus Day
Oct. 13, 14, 15, 16: Parent Conferences scheduled by appointment and via Zoom/Google Meet
Oct. 14: Early Release Day--12:00 dismissal
Nov. 3: Election Day--No school for students--PD day for staff
Nov. 11: No school--Veteran’s Day
Dec. 4: No school--SAU 21 PD day for teachers
Dec. 4: End of first trimester