What Are We Thankful For?

Every other year our teachers take a survey to assess their “working conditions.” Each time they are asked, our teachers cite parents as one of the best things about working at Willow Springs. Having parents that stand behind us through volunteer support but also by being our cheerleaders contributes immensely to the greatness of our school. Parents support us in so many ways: Through the PTA, they have provided us the tools we need to deliver instruction in ways that are engaging and relevant, such as outfitting classrooms with SmartBoards, itouches and ipads, and also providing the little items like tissues, dry erase markers, box tops and even toilet paper rolls. Early Release Day luncheons make our teachers feel the support and appreciation of parents, contributing to the satisfaction they feel being a teacher here. Through the support of so many of our parents, our “Grow Zone” is possible, allowing our students to plant, care for, harvest and enjoy fresh vegetables, and a courtyard has been transformed into an outdoor classroom where our butterfly garden provides hands-on exposure to science-based concepts Parents help us keep our grounds looking beautiful and welcoming. Parents come to have lunch with their children, they volunteer in the classroom, they visit on special days and learning experiences, they help in the Media Center. Our parents come to conferences, they check homework folders, they contact their child’s teacher. Parents who support their children by insisting that homework comes first and ensuring that they read every single day are the Willow Springs parents that help our school stand so proudly among the rest. Make no mistake, we know that parents are not as supportive everywhere, and for your hard work, we take time to thank you today. We hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families. We look forward to seeing you after our holiday break – remember track 1 will track out on Wednesday of next week and Thursday, we will see track 2! We also want to invite you to a winter performance from our chorus and recorder ensemble on Thursday night, December 5 at 7:00 in our gym. Thank you again for being such remarkable parents!

Upcoming events

We are so excited for our annual Math and Science night tomorrow night – remember K-2 begins at 6:15 and 3-5 begins at 7:30. We hope to see you here! We have Early Release this Friday (we dismiss at 1:15) and school is closed for everyone in honor of Veteran’s Day on Monday, November 11. Tomorrow, the NC End of Grade test scores are going to be released. As you have probably heard, throughout the state, we expect all scores to be significantly lower due to the higher requirements for proficiency, but this does not mean that suddenly our students are not performing well. In fact, the growth data that has been released shows that Willow Springs has again exceeded expectations for student growth. We will be sending individual results and more information to you when we receive individual student scores, which we expect in December. For now, we are going to use this new proficiency score as a baseline for the new test and work hard to meet the new targets. We will gauge our success as we compare our scores to the state and the county, and I feel sure that we will measure up favorably when compared to both. I will be having a short informational meeting for any parents who are interested in finding out more about these test scores on Wednesday morning, November 13, at 9:15 in our cafeteria.

Math and Science Night

Parents, we are so excited for another great year at our Math and Science night, which will be this Thursday, November 7. This year, we will be beginning immediately in the classrooms, not in the gym and to keep us from being so crowded we are also starting at alternate times. K-2 will begin their evening at 6:15 and end at 7:30 and 3-5 will begin at 7:30 and finish up at 8:45. If you have siblings that cross the grade span feel free to come at either session, but everyone else be mindful that the presenters are targeting the grade level appropriate audience. Your students came home with the session offerings in their Friday folders this weekend, so please make a plan before you arrive. Track 3, we will have the session descriptions for you the evening of the event. If you have students involved in the science fair at 5th grade, the judging begins at 5:00. We would like to thank the PTA for funding this evening and our teachers for working so hard to develop and work the event. We hope to see you all there!

Friday message

Thank you all so much for a great turn-out at our Fall Festival – I hope you had as much fun as I did. Mrs. Wingler and her team did a fantastic job of putting together a really fun night. Thanks to her and all of the volunteers and our families that made every bit of it possible! I want to remind you to make sure to sign up for our volunteer registry if you want to volunteer this year (in classrooms, on field trips, for field day, etc.) If you reactivate your registration by Oct. 31, we are not charged a fee, but if you have to sign up after Oct. 31, then we are charged $4.95 per applicant. So, if you haven’t signed up yet, help us out by coming on in by Halloween and getting signed up for this year! Report cards for tracks 1,2 and 3 are coming home today. Thank you for your patience as the county has been revamping our new report card. It will look different to you, so look for the explanation that we have provided that explains a little about it. If you have other questions, your child’s teacher will be happy to schedule a conference with you. The more you know, the more you can support your child’s growth!

October 3, 2013 Do you have questions about the School Bond that will be voted on next week? We thought it would be a good idea to provide you some information about that and a venue where you could ask some questions, so we have some representatives coming out on Monday night at our next PTA meeting to help us better understand what this bond will and will not fund, how it will affect our school, our kids and our wallets. Please join us at 6:30 Monday night in our Media Center. Similarly, Willow Springs is a voting site on Tuesday, Oct. 8, so please be extra careful in our parking lot and watch for pedestrians. Remember to cast your vote for your school board member and the bond! We want to thank everyone who voted in the Moe’s Garden Grant… We won!!! Our garden will be awarded $500! Also, congratulations to Mrs. McClure and all of our students who helped us in our art project for the American Girl Grant… our art program was recognized nationally and we received an award of $2500 for the art program. We are so proud! Finally, the Fall Festival is here!! We look forward to seeing you tomorrow between 5:30-7:30. You can purchase armbands for $10 at the front of the school and in the bus loading zone. We hope to see you here!!

Hey everyone! We hope you have had a great week and are loving life at Willow Springs. We have so much going on and are looking forward to a fabulous fall. I wanted you to know about three ways you can help us raise some money for our school with just a click of your mouse. First of all, Target is running a contest and we will earn $1 with every vote up to $10,000.. just go to givewith.target.com (no www and remember the dot after with) and select Willow Springs Elementary. You can vote as many times as you want! The contest ends next Saturday, Sept. 21. Secondly, you can order your discounted fair tickets through our Willow Springs website portal, and we will get back $2 for every adult ticket and $1 for every student ticket at no extra cost to you. Finally, you can go to Moe’s Facebook page and vote for our garden, as we are a finalist in a grant for $500 to support our school garden. Each of these will take just a little time and could make a big difference. Take a moment if you will!

Sept. 9 Reminders

Great Job on the Raffle!! The results have exceeded the expectations of our PTA and helped us to provide great programs and field trips for our students this year. Remember, track 1 will be tracking out on Tuesday and will not come to school on Wednesday. Track 2 tracks back in on Wednesday!

August 30

Our annual raffle is winding down and we still have many tickets out. Please remember that this is one way our PTA provides supplemental funding for your child’s field trips, and all of the programs for our students during their town meetings. You can turn in the stubs and the money until Tuesday, Sept. 3, so please help us support Willow Springs!! Also, remember that we are out of school on Monday, Sept. 2 for Labor Day, but we will see you back here on Tuesday! Enjoy your holiday.

Transportation Update

Remember that traditional school will begin on Monday, so we expect that some delays with the buses may occur. Please be patient with any delays while the drivers take a little longer with routes that will occur for the school starting earlier than ours, at least for the first few days. The transportation website http://www.wcpss.net/transportation has been updated, and is an excellent source of information for parents and staff. It includes bus routes, bus updates, FAQs and transportation policy and guidelines. You can check online for any delays at this site, then click on "contact us" and click on Willow Springs. Of course, we will continue to note delays for the afternoon on our twitter site: @wsesbus Also, the new contact number for transportation is: 805-3030. Please call them with concerns about your child's transportation. Thanks for your patience!

August 22, 2013

If you have not already, then by Monday, you will be receiving a mCLASS Literacy Progress Report in your child’s folder. (Track 1 and 2 sent their letters a couple of weeks ago.) This progress report will let you know where your child is on important reading skills assessed over the last few weeks as indicated by the running person on the charts. You will also find activities that you can do at home to help support your child’s reading development. Your child’s teacher will also be reviewing this progress with you at your first quarter conference, but please contact your teacher if you have any questions. Thank you for your help in supporting your child’s reading growth!

August 11, 2013

• Please remember to come and register to be a volunteer. Remember, you must be approved each year so our database stays current. Our volunteer registry is available daily from 8:30-4:00 in our Media Center. • Please remember that when coming to our campus during car-rider times, you should not turn left into our parking lot. Any other time it’s fine, but please make a right turn only into our school lot between 8:45-9:15 and 3:35-4:15. This will help keep the lines moving in both directions. Thanks for your cooperation. • Our Back to School Raffle is in progress and you have the chance of winning cash and classroom prizes!! Twenty-five tickets were sent home in your child's folder. Please sell to friends, family, co-workers or neighbors and return ticket stubs and cash or check to school no later than September 3rd. • Buffaloe Lanes Spirit Weekend is August 16th-18th anytime! Just bring your 50/50 card (sent home last week) to Buffaloe Lanes South on 401 and our PTA will receive 50% of your sale! Extra cards are available in school office for family, friends and neighbors!

Reminders

I’d like to remind you that our first Willow Springs Spirit night is this Thursday, July 25 at Dairy Queen – any time.  With the heat, it would be a nice cool treat!  Come, see your friend and just mention Willow Springs Elementary and Dairy Queen will donate a portion back to the PTA.

Don’t forget the general PTA informational meeting is Monday night, July 22 at 7:00.  Please meet us in the cafeteria and find out how you can fit in and support our PTA!

We will be taking fall pictures for tracks 1 and 3 on Tuesday, July 23.

Weekly Message

July 12, 2013

What an amazing beginning! Your students have transitioned well to the next grade level and we are off and running to another super year!  If you haven’t followed us on twitter yet, remember that we are alerting bus parents to on-time dismissals and any delays via our tweets.  You can follow us @wsesbus!

We would like to remind you that we need to renew your volunteer registry prior to Oct. 1. For the next two weeks we will have the computer lab set up in the mornings to expedite your renewal, which should only take you about 3 minutes.  Please stop by between 8:45 and 9:15.  During other times, you are welcome to renew in our Media Center.  Remember you will need to have this completed in order to volunteer in any capacity on our site or on field trips.  It’s just one more way we are ensuring the safety of every child in our care.

Our fall PTA raffle is kicking off and we really hope you will help us out!  We are sending home 10 raffle tickets with each child and asking you to help us by selling these for our fall PTA expenditures.  Look for your child’s tickets and information in their folders.  Also, the PTA is having their annual kick-off meeting on July 22.  This is the perfect meeting to come and find out about all of the committees that help support our school.  It’s a great way to get involved in our Willow Springs family, and we could always use your help.  Opportunities range from a very limited time commitment to more significant involvement, but every role is important.  We will begin at 7:00 in the cafeteria, and we hope to see you there!

Welcome Back Letter

Dear Parents and Families,

Welcome back to another great year at Willow Springs!  We are excited as we continue to grow in our abilities to embrace the needs of every child.  This year, we are getting a new playground that is fully accessible to all and includes new and improved climbing structures.  While it is under construction, students will continue to have recess, but well removed from the building of the playground for safety.  We hope to unveil the new structures before the end of summer.

We are also excited about our partnership with Discovery Education, which helps us better integrate technology into our classrooms in meaningful ways.  We have a team of nine teachers that will serve as learning labs for our staff as we begin this journey, and with the support of our generous parents and PTA, we are on our way to a 3:1 device ratio.  Of course, this is a long-term goal, but one that we are very dedicated to.  We hope your child will enjoy these learning experiences and will talk about the technology experiences throughout the year.

We have added a few technology communication tools, as well.  For transportation information, we are going to add a twitter address for parents to follow.  We will post any late bus information as it happens, so parents can have better access to information regarding afternoon routes.  Keep in mind, we have to know about an issue before we can tweet about it, but we will tweet as soon as we are aware. For bus information, please follow us on twitter @WSESbus. 

Parent weekly messages will also now be posted on my blog at our new website, www.willowspringses.wcpss.net.   Each time I send out a phone message, I will copy that message onto my page, so you can keep up with all of our information.  I hope you will check out our new website – it looks great and is full of everything you ever wanted to know about WSES!

Thank you to our carpool parents for following our afternoon procedures for car-riders.  It will be very important to maintain the 3:35 line up time as we move into a new school year for safety on Dwight Rowland Road.  Please note that we will have new parents joining us, and I ask for everyone’s patience as they are learning the procedures.  We ask that you NOT arrive on campus for car-riders prior to 3:35.  For those of you who may arrive early, we do NOT line cars up until 3:35, so you must park in a parking space (not at the entrance.)  When the line begins at 3:35, we ask for your patience and civility for getting into line.  Your actions are representative of our school population and you are models for your children, so please be patient with one another.

Our first PTA meeting is scheduled for July 22, and it will be a great place for you to come to learn about how to get involved, the budget and expenditures and our fundraisers.  Please join us in the cafeteria at 7:00.

Remember to check your child’s folder regularly and ensure that your child reads every night!!!  We hope to have a great year!

Welcome Back!

July 5, 2013

Monday is almost here and we are very excited about kicking off a new school year.  We would like to welcome all new parents and students to our Baby Bengal family and encourage you to get involved in all things Willow Springs.  Most importantly, we want to ensure the safety of your child at all times.  Along those lines, I’d like to remind all returning parents that we have two new bus routes this year, so please check your child’s bus route on our new website, www.willowspringses.wcpss.net and be sure to let your child’s teacher know how he or she should be going home.  We don’t want you to assume that they will still ride the same bus and have us place him or her on the wrong route on Monday afternoon.  Parents of kindergarten and first grade students must have a responsible adult at the bus stop to receive students or the bus driver will not drop the student off.  Also, as a reminder, our car-rider line does not begin until 3:35, so please do not arrive on campus early, and you must have a car-rider sign to pick up your child in the carpool line.  Kindergarten parents will pick these signs up when you bring your child in for their screening day next week.

Remember to check your teacher’s supply list on teacherlist.com. Please note that on this list you may see a student supply list and a teacher wish list – there is a difference!

Garden Club will not meet this Tuesday during the first week of school, but will resume again on July 16 for students currently involved.

Our PTA is very active and an amazing group of people that support our school and our students at every turn.  Please join our PTA by completing the membership information that will come home with your child this week and returning it to your child’s teacher.

Tracks 1,2,and 3 – we will see you on Monday!!  Let’s make it a fun year J

June 25, 2013

I am so excited to announce that in conjunction with Wake County Parks, WCPSS and our PTA, Willow Springs will be receiving a new playground for the 2013-14 school year!  They began removing our old equipment today and will embark on the construction, which will include removal of the wall, the sand and development of new structures.  We are very excited about the prospect of having the first installation of the latest and greatest equipment.  Of course, it does mean that the playground will be closed during this time, but we hope to have everything ready before the end of the summer. Recess will continue, safely away from the building of the new playground during this time.

We hope to see tracks 2, 3, and 4 at Meet the Teacher tonight for grades 1-5.

Friday is the last day of school for the 2012-13 school year, and we hope it held great memories for you and your child.  You should receive your child’s report card in their Friday folder, along with other important information.  A new adventure will begin soon as school will start for tracks 1, 2 and 3 on July 8.

Parents, on June 18 we held an unannounced lock-down drill for our staff and students.  They are all to be congratulated on a wonderful job.  Our students followed procedures and behaved very maturely, even though they were not expecting the drill.  We had several Wake County Deputies here, as well as Wake County school personnel to monitor our lockdown procedures, ensuring that we will be prepared, if ever we need to secure our building.  Please thank your child for their participation and cooperating with staff.

As a reminder, we will have meet the teacher next Tuesday, June 25 for tracks 2,3, and 4.  We do have 2 teachers who are meeting their students on different days, so please check the assignment letter that went home with your child on Friday.

We look forward to a great last week of school next week!  Please remember the last day for this school year is June 28.