Spring update

Our Baby Bengal Bash is coming up on April 24, and there is lots to do to prepare! Please help us make this a lot of fun by donating one item for our monstrous raffle baskets. You can send in one item to coordinate with your child’s grade level theme or send in a gift card and we can find an appropriate basket for it. This raffle is so much fun and gets lots of attention, please consider sending something in to your child’s teacher this week. Also, please consider volunteering for one 20 minute time slot so we can keep all of the games open all night. We are having some trouble getting volunteers this year, and could really use your help – we just need ya for 20 minutes. Please let your child’s teacher know if you are available. If you haven’t already, please take a look at our website to get some great information on our focus this year, Developing a Growth mindset. We have an entire section of our website dedicated to explaining the growth mindset to our parents, its’ importance, and lots of ideas for parents to also cultivate this for their children. We hope you will find it helpful!

Updates for our week: We will have Early Release tomorrow, Friday, March 27. We will dismiss at 1:15. Please remember to have an adult at the bus stop for your K-2 child. Given the confusion with the make-up days, I wanted to remind you that all students will be out next Friday, April 3 – school will be closed. Today in the Friday folders you will be getting some information about our spring festival, the Baby Bengal Bash, which is our big, annual, family event. We have lots of fun activities planned for our families on the evening of April 24, and hope you will plan to attend. Please take a look at the flyers on different ways you can help out – cake walk, raffle ticket sales, and basket contributions are all different ways we could use your support. Please make sure that you are following us on Twitter for school live updates at #willowspringses, and always see our school website for the latest info: willowspringses.wcpss.net.

March message

Thank you so much for your patience throughout our crazy February weather – the safety of our students is of course, the county’s top priority. We will keep you abreast of make-up information, when it is all sorted out, but to clarify: We will not have an Early Release on Friday, March 6 as part of our make-up hours of instruction – school will be in session as a full day for tracks 1,3 and 4. We will not have school on Saturday, March 7; however. Willow Springs’ contributions to the Wake Up and Read Book Drive are coming along nicely. The county is trying to collect 150,000 books for children in our area. Please consider donating new or gently used books appropriate for children K-3 to our collection site through March 13. Our collection box is in the lobby. As a reminder, track one will track out after school tomorrow, March 6 and track 2 comes back on Monday, March 9.

February Updates

This Friday we have Early Release. Students will be dismissed at 1:15, so please remember to be ready to receive your students earlier on Friday. As a reminder, on Early Release days we have lunch 30 minutes earlier. We have posted the NC Report Card link and the Wake County School progress reports on our website, so take a look at how Willow Springs scored on multiple areas of measure. We are proud of our entire school community, and continue to strive for excellence. We will be reviewing the reports at our PTA meeting on Monday night at 6:30, so come out if you have any questions.

January Reminders

Just a reminder that track 3 is tracking out today and track 4 will return on Wednesday this week. Track change requests are due by Friday - just send in a note with your child’s teacher or give us a call at the office. If you have a rising kindergartner and did not register him or her last week, please do so before Friday. Remember that this is the season for requesting a different school for next year. The magnet application period is open now – you will need your child’s student id number to complete this application online at wcpss.net. If you want your child to attend a different school that is not magnet, the transfer application will be February 20-26. Please give us a call if you have any questions about that process. We look forward to welcoming back our track 4 friends tomorrow.

Assignment Information

January 12, 2015 Student assignment strips have gone home, which identify the school your child is assigned to for the 2015-16 school year. I wanted to take a moment and make sure you know the application dates for any changes you may want to make to your child’s school assignment. All applications are completed online at www.wcpss.net and you will need your child’s id number, which is also their lunch number. -If you are currently at Willow Springs as a transfer student, and you wish to return to your base, then you will need to declare your decision this week by Friday. -If you want to choose a magnet school, the application window is Jan. 26-30 and if you want to request a transfer to any other school, the application window is Feb. 20-26. If you are happy with your assignment, then you do not need to do anything, and your assignment will stay the same. Remember Kindergarten Registration is this Thursday. If you have a child that will be 5 by August 31, please take some time to come out and register them on Jan. 15. You will need their birth certificate and a current proof of residence, as well as your drivers’ license. As always, please call us if you have any questions. Have a great week.

Winter Break

We are winding down our first semester and so excited about all that your children have accomplished in such a short time. We wanted to remind you that we have Early Release tomorrow, we will be dismissing at 1:15. Then we will all be out until Jan. 5, when tracks 1,2 and 3 will return from the winter break. If you are interested in a track change for the 15-16 school year, please let us know when you return from break. You can call the front office or send in a note. We will be accepting track change requests until January 30, and we will let parents know of track change approvals by mid-February. Likewise, this is a great time to let us know if you do not plan to be returning to Willow Springs for the 15-16 school year. Making us aware of family moves, etc, will let us know where we will have openings on tracks for families, and will also keep our numbers in line for teacher hiring – because of course, we want to get an early start so we can hire the best! All of us at Willow Springs wish you a wonderful holiday !

Our Food Drive is going on now through November 21. Thank you for showing your kindness and contributing to help make someone’s Thanksgiving a little brighter! Please follow us on Twitter to get the latest updates on what is going on at Willow Springs, in addition to the up to the date bus dismissals…. It will keep you in the loop: you can find us at #willowspringses. November 11 is a holiday , so there is no school. Remember, we have the Boosterthon Fun run on Friday for tracks 1,3 and 4, so hurry and get your pledges in, because team huddle fun will begin again tomorrow! Track 2 has now tracked out Track 3 is tracking back in tomorrow -we look forward to seeing you! Enjoy your day!

This Thursday night is our annual Math and Science Night! We know you look forward to making slime and oobleck and super balls, plus we have lots of other things in store for you this year –check out the flyers that were in your child’s Friday folders, or you can pick up a flyer when you arrive at the door. Remember K-2 starts at 6:15 and 3-5 rotations will begin at 7:30. We hope to see everyone out at our Math and Science night on Thursday, November 6. For now, have a great Sunday!!

Chick-fil-A Night is Monday night – we encourage you to come out and have dinner with your Willow Springs family – I know I’ll be there – you might see your teacher and a lot of your classmates out there, too. Please remember to bring the coupon we sent home in the Friday folder, so our PTA will get a percentage of you purchase. This is an easy way to support our school, so we hope to see you there! Reflections deadlines are coming up: If your child is entering the Reflections contest, entries for tracks 1, 2 and 4 are due on October 31. Mrs. Moreland will be in the front lobby to accept your entries. Track 3, your entries are due on November 10 when you track back in. If you have questions or need information, you can contact the committee at Reflectionscommiittee2014@aol.com

Fall news!

We hope you are enjoying our wonderful weather this fall, and finding some time to be outdoors with your family. Just a reminder of some events going on at Willow Springs: -We have Early Release this Friday, October 17. We will dismiss at 1:15. -Our Math and Science night is coming up on November 6. Please mark your calendars, so you won’t miss this great annual event! More details will be coming home in the next few weeks. -Thank you to all of you for your support with our Boxtops and Campbell soup labels. We have already collected enough for an ipad for our school, and are well on our way to many other goodies…keep ‘em coming. -Just a reminder that each year, our PTA leads an effort with our students to allowing them feel the joy in helping others. This year, we are excited to be donating with our WSES Cares campaign to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. We do have students at our school who have Diabetes, and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to give, in hopes of finding a cure. Please encourage your child to bring in extra pennies, change, or dollars to support this great cause. Our first push ends in December before track out, so let’s see which class can bring in the most!! -Finally, Track 3 will track out after October 17, and track 4 will come back on Oct. 20!

Fall update

I hope you have had a great weekend! We just wanted to remind you know of a few activities happening this week at Willow Springs. First, tomorrow night is our Executive PTA meeting at 6:30 in the Media Center. I will be presenting our school theme for the year and a philosophy we hope will positively impact our students, staff and families – Growth Mindset. We invite you to attend to hear all about it and the business of our wonderful PTA. Friday night is our PTA's Willow Springs movie night! Bring out a blanket and join us for the newest Muppet movie. We will have food vendors for the evening or you can pack a picnic under the stars! The movie will start when the sun goes down and we hope you’ll come!! I would like to thank all of the families that participated and the moms and dads who volunteered so that our BookFair could be a huge success. Our students were so excited about their new books and they have been eager to share all about their favorites. We appreciate the hard work that went into making it such a huge success! As always, thank you for your continued support of us at Willow Springs. We are having a great year so far and look forward to more fun and wonderful learning opportunities.

Welcome back!

We are so excited for our new school year to start on Monday! Just as a reminder, please check the website to find your child’s bus stop and send in the yellow form you picked up at meet the teacher or send in a note letting us know what bus your child will ride. Also, if your child takes medication at school, remember that we are not allowed to give them medication in the new school year without a new medical form completed by your doctor. There will be no garden club this week. Finally, car-rider families, please remember to pass on to the afternoon drivers our rules for car-riders. Please do not arrive at school prior to 3:35 as our line does not begin until then in order to keep traffic off of Dwight Rowland Road. Please do not stop at the entrance to begin forming a line, as that backs traffic up even earlier. Those folks who wait to come at 4:00 have the shortest wait times, so if this suits your schedule, it would help us cut down on traffic, as well. We look forward to working with you this year and we know it’s gonna be great! We’ll see tracks 1,2 3 tomorrow!

Great year!

We would like to thank every family for a wonderful year! Seeing the smiles on our students’ faces, filled with pride and confidence at what they have accomplished is what it is all about. The county will be sending home EOG score results in mid-July, but I am happy to tell you that our children worked very hard and preliminary results show an increase from last year! As you are busy preparing for our next school year, remember you can find our school supply lists on teacherlist.com, and you can find your child’s bus stop on our webpage, remember to click on Willow Springs for each route description. Thank you again for all of your support. I hope that you all have a great break next week – you deserve it.

Transportation Changes

WCPSS has instituted some changes in their transportation request procedures, and is helping transportation identify students who will be riding the bus next year. Transportation will build routes for only those who will use the bus, enabling them to build more efficient routes and provide better customer service to our riders and schools. From now on, students not riding the bus for more than 10 days will be dropped from service and will need to reapply online should they intend to use the bus. If your child currently rides the bus, then no worries – this policy will not affect you. If your child is not riding the bus this year, but you want them to start riding next year, you will need to sign up on-line for service by June 6. Please go to www.wcpss.net/parent/transportation to sign up today!

Meet the Teacher - Track One

We will be having Meet the Teacher for track one on Tuesday, May 27 for our rising first-fifth graders. Track 1 should have received your child’s teacher notification in a letter last Friday, with the room number for Tuesday evening. K-2 is a floating event from 5:30-6:30 and 3-5 will have two repeat presentations in the classrooms, one at 5:30 and another at 6:00. We hope to see all track one parents on Tuesday. Tracks 2-4, your meet the teacher will be on June 24, and you can look for your teacher assignment on June 13. Monday, May 26 is a holiday for all staff and students to honor our fallen soldiers on Memorial Day, so Willow Springs will be closed. Let me take this time to thank all of you that have served in our military, or continue to serve, to protect this great country. WE hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day. We’ll see you on Tuesday.

Parents, today (April 8) 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 security 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.

We had a great day at Willow Springs yesterday! Thank you so much for sending your students on Saturday. We are still awaiting information for the make-up days from last week, but we will let you know when we know. Regarding the Boosterthon, thank you to our parents who have already logged in and gotten pledges. We wanted you to know that in order to provide the high quality character program and get the full Boosterthon experience, we will be moving the Boosterthon to Wednesday the 26th at the same scheduled times for tracks 1,3 and 4. The Track 2 Fun Run will be postponed to Friday April 4th for just Track 2 students Please remember that we need you to help us make this successful, as it is our biggest Fundraiser of the year. This program funds all of our student events, field trips, technology, Math and Science night and cultural arts programs and lots more. Please help your students with pledges this week! Finally, if you are up for wings tomorrow night, remember that it’s Willow Springs Night at Buffalo Wild Wings in Holly Springs every Monday in February! Track 3, we will see you tomorrow and track 2 enjoy your track out!

Weekly News - February

We will have Saturday school for tracks 1,2 and 4 on the next two Saturdays to make up for the missed school last week. We will begin at our normal time and end at 12:45. Remember that no lunch or breakfast will be served, so please send a snack! Our 5th grade transition to Middle School meeting has been rescheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 11 at 8:00. Please join us about information on how to apply to different middle schools in our area. Mondays are Willow Springs Wild Wing nights in February at Buffalo Wild Wings in Holly Springs! Remember to take your tickets sent home in the Friday folder, and a % of the cost of your meal will be donated to our school. Next week is Bus-Driver Appreciation week. It is a thankless job and despite the fact that we have the best kids in the world, it is a tough one. Please send your appreciation to your bus driver sometime next week.

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!