Dear Parents and Guardians:

We have 2+ weeks until the first day of school for 2020-2021 school year.  We look forward to welcoming back our students, reestablishing old relationships and building new ones, and most importantly promoting learning.  Like you, we recognize this will be an unconventional start to school for all of our students; nevertheless, we believe staff, students, and parents working together can overcome this challenge.  

This email includes specific information for many events and topics.  Distance Learning will require parents/guardians and students to regularly monitor email and other online resources (i.e. webpage, Schoology, etc.) to receive our most current information.  Be sure to check for updates to our Return to School page on the Westfield webpage.

Stay healthy; be safe; GO BULLDOGS!

Anthony E. Copeland, PhD

Principal

NEWS AND INFORMATION

Equity Leads

We are excited to continue our cultural responsiveness work where we keep equity at the center of everything we do. Our 2020-2021 equity leads are Kevin Laub (English Department Chair) and Nicole Tifft (ESOL teacher). More information will be forthcoming of how you can support our work. 

Freshman and New Student Laptop Distribution (August 24 and 25)

We have enjoyed meeting so many of our 9th graders and new students!  On Monday, August 24, students with last names A-Jac will pick up their laptops during their scheduled appointment time that was emailed to both students and parents/guardians.  Any new student or 9th grader who has not picked up his/her laptop and is not scheduled for an appointment should email Susan Fox  safox@fcps.edu for an appointment time.  

Schoology Update 

For the 2020-2021 school year, Westfield is a pilot school for Schoology.  Schoology is a Learning Management System that will replace Blackboard 24/7 and Google Classroom.  Teachers will use Schoology as follows: 

• to post their classroom materials online
• to provide a safe forum for students to discuss their ideas and collaborate on projects
• to assign and collect homework electronically. 

More information about Schoology is available on our Westfield HS webpage.  

Your student’s Schoology account will be available on Monday, August 24.  He/she will see the following:

• On this date, upon login they will only see one course – Westfield Student All course. 
• His/her individual class courses will be available on September 2.  
• This video demonstrates a student perspective in Schoology:  Student Getting Started with Schoology Video
• Schoology Student Login Information
• URL: https://lms.fcps.eduUsername: Student ID#
• Password: Computer/Network Password*

*Student network passwords will be the same as last year. If a password reset is needed,please use the FCPS student password self-service tool.

Virtual Open House (All Students) 

On Monday, August 24, students can access a virtual Open House Gameboard in Schoology with the Westfield Student Course to become acclimated to Westfield for the 2020-21 school year.  Their task is to explore each square in this game board by clicking on the underlined hyperlinks.  Once they finish exploring, they can test their Westfield knowledge by solving each clue in our digital breakout before crossing the finish line.  Each student who successfully solves the breakout clues and submits the form by September 8 will be entered in a raffle for Westfield gear!  We are excited to welcome our students back to school! 

Virtual Freshman Orientation (August 24 and 26)

Our counselors will host live, virtual presentations for all students on August 24 and 26.  They will provide advice, share information about school events, and 10th-12th students will also be available to answer questions.  

All rising 9th graders will receive a personalized link to access the presentations in their fcpsschools.net email one weekday before their scheduled presentation.  Please advise your student to look out for this link.  If the link hasn’t arrived by 5pm on the day before the meeting, email Ms. Fox at safox@fcps.edu to have it re-sent.  Note: An FCPS laptop is not required and the presentations can be accessed from any device with an internet connection.  Students will meet their counselors by subschool per the schedule below.  Each  presentation lasts approximately 1 hour. 

If you have not taken the opportunity to view the Virtual Bulldog Orientation Bootcamp videos, they are now available to view. These videos contain a welcome message from me, information about student activities, a student Q&A panel, a narrated tour of the building, and more. 

Senior Parent/Student Night by Subschool: Thursday, Aug 27 - 6:00 PM

We are excited to welcome our Senior parents and students. A guest link to join the meeting will be sent to parent and student emails.  Parents and students will have this opportunity to talk with their subschool counselors about post-secondary planning and the college application process.  The powerpoint will be sent prior to the meeting for parents and students to review,  so this will be a Q&A session.  

Senior Individual meetings: Beginning August 27

Seniors will have an opportunity to sign up to meet virtually with their counselor to discuss their post-secondary plans and any additional questions they may have.  Counselors will email their seniors a link to sign-up for the meetings.  

SAT Test Prep Program: Register by August 30

We are partnering with Edmentum to offer access to their Test Pack Benchmarks program, which is aligned with the content evaluated on the SAT test components – math with and without calculator, Dreading, writing and language arts.  The benchmarks automatically generate individualized learning paths based on knowledge gaps and students work through their learning paths at their own pace. Registration costs $7.00 and is available in the school store in MySchoolBucks.com.  All students who have registered by August 30 will receive login information on August 31.  After August 31, registration will be accepted on a rolling basis.  For more information, contact Dana Ouart at deouart@fcps.edu  

Textbooks

Students who still have textbooks or other school property from the 2019-2020 school year can return those items to the main office Monday-Friday from 9:00 am - 12:00 pm. Additional information will be communicated regarding textbook and material distribution for the 2020-2021 school year in a subsequent weekly email. 

New Staff Members

We are excited to welcome several new staff members to Westfield High School this year. If you would like to hear more about them, please check out our WHS New Staff Flipgrid messages. 

Additional Parent Resources

Please find a list of additional resources to support parents and caregivers. We will continue to update this list in additional communication. 

• Distance Learning Resource Center

• Tips to Create Effective Virtual Learning Environments

• Supporting Teenagers and Young Adults
• How to talk to teens about CoronaVirus

Upcoming Dates and Events

Please continue to refer to the FCPS website, as well as the Westfield High School website for updated Return to School information.

4700 Stonecroft Blvd, Chantilly, VA 20151  | Main Office: 703-488-6300
Attendance: 703-488-6316 | Web | Twitter