From the Principal: 9/25/2023

Dear Greenwood Families,

Happy Monday! It was so wonderful to see the turnout at Back to School Night last Thursday! I hope that those of you who were able to attend learned a lot about your child’s classroom and day-to-day life here at Greenwood School. Communication between school and home is extremely important to us, so please do not ever hesitate to reach out if you have questions about anything!

Early Release - Wednesday, September 27th Our first early release day for students is on Wednesday, September 7th. All students will be dismissed at 11:55 a.m. in order for WPS staff to have professional development sessions in the afternoon. Please note: there will be a scheduled lunch block for students prior to dismissal.

District Assessments If your child happens to come home and say, “I did a reading activity with a different teacher today!” or “I logged into iReady to do math today,” that’s just a sign that we have entered the beginning of the year elementary assessment window. You may have heard about some of this from your child’s classroom teacher on Back to School Night - there are three times over the course of the school year where we benchmark information about students in reading and math to better refine our general classroom instructional needs, identify and form intervention/enrichment groups, and monitor overall student growth. We will be sharing this assessment information out with families as well - more to come about that soon!

Smartwatches/Cell Phones in School Technology is amazing and wonderful! However, it can also be a huge distraction in our learning spaces during the school day. At the elementary level, personal tech devices (cell phones, smartwatches, etc.) are not allowed to be in use during the school day. We understand that students may need access to these devices for family communication either before the school day begins or once school is out for the day, so we ask that all cell phones and smartwatches remain off and in backpacks during the school day. We appreciate your support in this!

Science Letter Regarding Allergies In order to keep families informed about organic materials being used in science classes, the linked letter was sent out via School Messenger on Friday morning. Any questions can be directed to me or your child’s science teacher.

Updating Parent/Guardian Contacts in PowerSchool The following message was sent out to WPS families by WPS Technology last Tuesday. It’s really important that we have updated contact information for your family in our PowerSchool system, as that is how we reach you with important information!

Attached are instructions on reviewing and updating the parent/guardian contacts for your student in the PowerSchool Parent Portal.

If you don’t have a logon to the Parent Portal please contact the school that your student is in. A list of who to contact at each building is on the last page of the attached document. If you can’t remember your username or password, click on the Forgot Username or Password link on the main login screen.

The URL to connect to the portal is: Wakefield.PowerSchool.com

If you have a Parent Portal Logon, you can add, delete and update contacts. You will need to email the school in order to change the order of the contacts if needed.

The technology department can not give you access codes of any students. You must go through the school that your child is attending.

Updating Parent/Guardian Contact information

Note: It may take several days before your updates/additions are approved and uploaded into Power School. Each change must be reviewed by a staff member before being approved.

Lunchroom Volunteers It’s a new year, and we are once again looking for adults to support students during lunchtime!

Do you have any free time between 12:00-1:10pm on school days? Or 10:30-11:50am on early release days? Looking for a way to help out at Greenwood? Then join us for our lunchroom volunteer opportunities! If you’d like to come in and help support students while they’re eating lunch, please see the linked Sign-Up Genius to select time slots through the end of September. Single days, multiple days, one time slot, the whole lunch block…we welcome any and all helpers!

Lunchroom volunteers will help students with those tricky thermoses, hand out napkins and utensils, support students while they sort items into composting/food rescue/trash, and help clean tables at the end of each lunch. Oh, and the most important thing - bring smiles and laughter!

NOTE: You will need to have a CORI form completed before coming in for any lunch shifts - please contact Ms. Paiva about the process or to check if you have a current one on file.

Greenwood School Social Media We are on Facebook and Instagram, and one of my personal goals this year is to show off the fun we’re having throughout Greenwood! Check us out - @wpsgreenwood on both Instagram and Facebook!

As always, please do not hesitate to reach out with questions.

Thank you for everything you do to support your children and their learning! Let’s have a great week!

Tiffany Back