Hello Upham Community,
I hope everyone enjoyed the Back to School Night presentations. This will not be a long missive outlining all the things needed to deal with the craziness surrounding us all. Sometimes you just need to have some fun. We are going to provide that and bring in some normalcy on Thursday and Friday of next week. We obviously cannot have our traditional Halloween Parade but are going to allow the students to wear their costumes. On Thursday, October 29 Cohort A (grades 2-5 only) will wear their costumes and on Friday, October 30 Cohort B and K/1 will wear their costumes. In addition to wearing costumes, we are going to have a “Fall Themed” scavenger hunt for both days. For those families who do not celebrate “Halloween” please have no fear. Our scavenger hunt is fall-themed and everyone can join in. You do not have to wear a costume, it is optional! The only part that is missing is parent participation. I am sorry. We cannot have parents visiting classrooms but we will have each teacher report to you how the day went and share any photos taken. If you have any questions please contact the office.
Back To School Night
There were a few questions that were asked during the BTSN (Back To School Night) presentations centered on our curriculum, interventions for missed curriculum in the spring of 2020, and plans to address any deficiencies. We are performing all of the assessments to find any deficiencies. If we find that a student is not reading, writing, or performing math at their current grade level we will communicate that to you and provide support in order to “catch them up.” Currently, we are moving forward with the full elementary curriculum. As stated earlier, if we find any student showing deficiencies we will address it immediately and communicate to you our plan for filling in any gaps. If you have specific questions about the curriculum please reach out to me (Mr. Dees).
Upcoming Dates and Parent-Teacher Conferences
The conference dates are Tuesday, October 27. That is an early release day and kids will dismiss at 12:00 pm. Wednesday, October 28 is the second conference day and that is an all-remote 1/2 day. Our final conference day is Tuesday, November 3. Please follow along on this one. This is an all-remote 1/2 day. The students will be dismissed from their Zoom meetings at 12:00 pm. Wednesday, November 4 will be a full day for Cohort B. If you have questions please contact Robin (Outstanding School Secretary).
Thank you all for supporting us. This is definitely a difficult time for everyone. We are going to get through this and I can assure you if we keep a positive attitude we will be better people(big and little) on the other side of this mess. Please find some time to laugh and enjoy your blessings. Thank you for being there.
Dare to Dream,
Mr. Dees