News From Our Principal

Happy Fall! We are off to the start of a great school year. The classes of 2018 and 2019 are fully engaged in middle school life. As I walk around the school, I see students writing poetry, students and teachers struggling to understand concepts such as privilege and injustice, students observing the environment to learn how to really notice and hypothesize, and students making music together. Watching students challenge themselves and grow is amazing!

It has been great to meet many of you at events including Open House, Team Breakfasts, and the Principal Coffee which includes a visit to our weekly Class Meeting. We are hoping to have many more opportunities to have families join us here in school. Middle school staff and the PGO are currently working to identify topics for a series of parent workshops throughout the year. A workshop on Internet Safety and Cyber bullying is currently being developed by Family Center staff. We will send out information when the date has been set. If you have additional thoughts about topics to examine, please email Becky Demling, co-chair of the PGO, or me with your ideas.

I would like to share a bit more information about our new district resource, the Family Center. The Family Center staff has a wealth of information about community events and community resources. Community members can drop in or schedule an appointment to ask questions or explore the resource library. In addition, Family Center staff is designing parent education presentations as well as community gathering events to help build connections within our community. Finally, the Family Center is also the location of the Steps to Success program which is designed to focus upon helping families gain access to what they need to support the educational
success of their children. The Family Center is located just down the hall from the ARMS office. I encourage you to drop in to share ideas, ask questions, or gather resources about topics related to raising children in our community.

I also want to encourage you to review the new “allergy aware” school guidelines. The Amherst, Pelham and the Amherst-Pelham Regional School Districts will now become "allergy aware" schools. Families and personnel are respectfully asked to refrain from
bringing nuts or foods processed with nuts in lunches and snacks. We have many students with serious nut allergies who are at risk of anaphylactic shock due to cross contamination (ie: a student eats nuts, then plays on equipment and the nut oils are transferred...later a
student with a nut allergy comes in contact with the same equipment and suffers a reaction). Please help the school keep all students healthy.

As we settle into the routines of the year, I would like to share some reminders
- Please remember to visit PowerSchool with your child to review progress from time to time. If you have not picked up a login and
password yet, you can stop by the main office with a picture ID to get one. Checking progress together is a great way to begin
discussions with kids about what is going well and areas in which they might need help but were not sure how to ask.
- Progress reports will be coming out the week of October 21st. Parents/Guardians who have received their parent portal information and signed up for electronic notification, will receive a notification electronically when their child’s progress report is available to be viewed. Parents/Guardians who have not signed up for electronic notifications, will receive their child’s progress report in the mail.
- Seventh grade parent/guardian conferences are start October 21 for Team M&M (Y), October 25 for Team Titan (Z) and October 28 for Team Norwottuck (X). If you have not signed up for a team conference, be sure to contact the main office at 362-1850.
- Afterschool clubs have begun. Please ask your child to share their experiences in clubs so far. It is not too late to sign up for many of our clubs if your child has not yet done so.
- Just a final note to emphasize how important it is for students to attend school consistently. Remember that tardies and absences are not excused unless a student is late for religious reasons or they are sick. Oversleeping, missing the bus, traveling, etc. are not
excused absences. For complete details on the absentee and tardy policies, please see the student handbook.

As we settle into the routines of the year, we hope you will stay actively involved here at ARMS. Thanks for sharing your fabulous children with us. Have a great month!

Betsy Dinger
(From October Newsletter)