Important Upcoming Dates
9/21 Virtual Back to School Event
9/23 Virtual PTA Meeting
10/12 School Planning Day / Student Holiday
IN THIS ISSUE
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Back to School Event
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NEW: iReady Testing at Home
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NEW: Important Information About Receiving Communication from Fairfax County Public Schools
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Technology News
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Library Book Distribution
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Send us your pics!
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LAST CALL: Registration for Band and Strings
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Health Information and Emergency Care Forms
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PTA News
 1.Virtual Back to School Event, September 21
On September 21st, Fairfax Villa will be holding our first ever Virtual Back to School event for families. We look forward to meeting with families to provide information about the curriculum, daily schedule, learning expectations in a virtual environment, school routines and procedures to help your child be successful.
Your child’s teacher should have shared a guest link for a special BBC session. If you do not have that link, please contact your child’s teacher.
The start times for each grade level are:
- 1:00 - Kindergarten
- 1:30 - 1st Grade
- 2:00 - 2nd Grade
- 2:30 - 3rd Grade
- 3:00 - 4th Grade
- 3:30- 5th Grade
- 4:00- 6th Grade
2.iReady Testing at Home
All students in grades 1-6 have started or will start taking the math and reading yearly screener called iReady. In past years, this screener has been given to students online at school. Because it is an adaptive assessment, students take different amounts of time to complete it. It is not a timed test.
This year, the students will START the test online with their teacher. Your child's teacher will let you know the schedule for each test. They will begin at school (synchronous work). If your child does not finish within the synchronous time provided by his/her teacher, your child will finish it at home during specialized instruction/asynchronous time. It must be completed within 21 calendar days of starting the test.
Please check this page to learn more about the iReady assessment at home, for guidance in administering the assessment at home, and a checklist that will assist you in helping your child be successful. Please do not help your child in answering the assessment.
The purpose of these assessments is to determine students’ areas of strength and growth. This data will help drive the teachers’ instruction and enable differentiation to best support your child this school year. These assessments will not be graded. To ensure equity, these assessments should be completed independently by the student. Below are a few suggestions on ways to encourage your student, rather than help, while they take assessments in the virtual environment.
Remind your student that the assessment is not graded and will be used by their teacher to help them learn this school year. It is okay if they do not know the answer to a question as it will tell the teacher that they need help to learn that concept.
Students in grades 1-6 will be taking the math and reading iReady (Universal Screener) assessment from now until October 30.
Students in kindergarten will be taking the reading iReady (Universal Screener) assessment from October 5 to November 13.
 If you have questions about the assessment, please contact Ms. An at kan@fcps.edu or Ms. Schmidt at bdschmidt@fcps.edu.
3.Important Information About Receiving Communication from Fairfax County Public Schools
How can I make sure I receive emergency information from Fairfax County Public Schools?
Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) communicates all emergency and essential information to parents via email. The information is also translated into eight languages: Amharic, Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, Korean, Spanish, Urdu, and Vietnamese. Information communicated via email includes:
- School closings and delays
- Attendance
- Emergencies at school
- Low lunch balance
- Power, phone, or internet outages at school
- Bus delays
- Testing dates
When providing an e-mail address to FCPS, please avoid using an educational (.edu-including fcps.edu), military (.mil) or government (.gov) email address. The security settings on government servers often block messages from FCPS. It is a best practice to not use work related email addresses; therefore, it is important to use an email address from another internet service provider such as Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc.
How do I receive text messages from FCPS?
Parents can receive text messages for emergencies and essential information. Please make sure your parent cell phone numbers are listed in the “cell telephone” fields in the parent/guardian contact information section on the emergency care information form for each of your children.
Parents and guardians can view and update emergency contact information online using the weCare@school feature of FCPS 24-7 Learning. Standard message and data charges may apply for text messages depending on their cell phone service plan. More information: https://www.fcps.edu/resources/parent-communication-overview/fcps-text-messaging-parents-and-students
4.Technology News
- Even if your child gets a message from FCPS to change the password, please do NOT do that. Those messages have been sent to some students in error!
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Password Recovery: (Rising 1st-6th only) We encourage parents to setup password recovery information for their student using the FCPS Account Manager system located here https://itweb.fcps.edu/AccountManager/
- If you are having any problems with the laptop you were issued from Fairfax Villa, the first place to go is this parent help website. It has troubleshooting ideas for everything from finding your child’s google account to how to resolve audio/video issues.There is a helpline (833-921-3277) that you can call from 7am to 11pm 7 days a week. If you need a translator for your call, please let them know.
If none of those fix your problems, there is also a link where parents can put in a RequestIT to the FCPS Service Desk. Please do not let your students put in a RequestIT. There are also parent information phone lines in different languages. Please do not contact your child’s teacher about technology problems unless it is a classroom specific issue (i.e. Google classroom code).
- If you did not request an FCPS laptop for your child and would now like one, please email Ms. Schmidt at bdschmidt@fcps.edu to set up an appointment to get one.
- If you do not have internet in your home and would like to learn how to obtain low-cost internet service for qualifying families from Cox, please email our social worker, Maria Marris, at msmarris@fcps.edu.
- Don’t forget to give your consent for your student to use the approved digital applications for our school. Go here to see the list and find the link for submitting your approval.
5.Library Book Distribution
Beginning Tuesday, September 22, Fairfax Villa will be holding a curbside checkout of library books every Tuesday from 12:00 – 1:00 PM. Curbside checkout will provide students the opportunity to quickly and safely check-out and return library books.
Here’s how the process will work:
- Students will put up to 5 books on hold in the library catalog by the Thursday night before the curbside checkout event. Mrs. Case, our librarian, will show students how to put books on hold. Here is a screencast with the directions:
Putting Books on Hold Screencast
- Mrs. Case will check out the books to the student and have them ready at the checkout event. Please note there is no browsing at this event. Books must be put on hold ahead of time.
- Students should check their FCPS Gmail accounts the morning of the event to see if their books are ready. An email will be sent when the holds are ready to be picked up.
- On curbside checkout day, the books will be on a table right inside the main door of the school. When you come to the school, you can walk up and just take the books labeled with your child’s name. They will already be checked out to them.
- Books may be returned Monday through Friday between 8:00 am and 4:00 pm. Please put the books in the box in the blue cart inside Door #1.
- On Monday afternoons, we will be traveling to Waples Mobile Home Park office parking lot and Robinson Square community building parking lot to distribute books. This will begin on September 21st and the times are listed below:
- 1:00 Waples
- 1:30 Robinson Square
I am looking forward to working with your children this year and supporting them in having great books to read!
6.Send us your pics!
Over the next couple of weeks, if you have created learning activities that your children have enjoyed or have pictures of your children learning online, please email us at drgerstner@fcps.edu and DRSutter@fcps.edu with a picture and a brief description. We would like to share them in our upcoming Friday News You Choose messages and they may also be included in the 2020-21 yearbook.
7.LAST CALL: Registration for Band or Strings
Would you like to be part of something “noteworthy” this year? Consider joining BAND (for 5th & 6th graders) or STRINGS (for 4th, 5th, & 6th graders)! Ms. Ammirati (band) and Ms. Reilly (strings) would be delighted to welcome you to their classes and promises there’ll be lots of awesome music-making and fun! Please take a look at the resources below to help guide your decision about joining one of the exciting programs! Online registration closes on Friday, September 18th and must be completed via the Google Form included in these links.
Questions? Please email Ms. Ammirati (cmammirati@fcps.edu) or Ms. Reilly (eareilly@fcps.edu). Thank you!
BAND: https://sites.google.com/view/fvesband
STRINGS: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YHpZ_hVnYU-InR6h0QnV0692LRKMRWTr6w0JyMyza4w/edit?usp=sharing
8.Health Information and Emergency Care Forms
The Health Information Form (HIF) (SS/SE -71) and the Emergency Care Information form (SS/SE-3) provide valuable information regarding student health conditions. These forms are critical in the early identification of students who may need healthcare support in the educational environment. Along with the development of Healthcare Plans (HCP) and Action Plans, the Public Health Nurses (PHN) utilize the information contained in the HIF to develop teaching strategies for FCPS staff in order to meet the requirements of Regulation 2104 Health Services-School Health Related Needs.
As the school year begins virtually, it is important to communicate to our Fairfax Villa parents that both these forms are required for all students for SY 20-21 and are available for electronic submission by parents via their FCPS 24/7 (Blackboard) accounts within the weCare@school (weCare) module.
9.PTA News
The following message is sent on behalf of the Fairfax Villa ES School PTA. Its content reflects the views of the PTA.
Memberships
Membership is open for the 2020-2021 school year! Please join online at https://fairfaxvilla.memberhub.store/.
PTA Meeting
Mark your calendars for the first PTA meeting of the year! We will be meeting virtually on Wednesday, September 23 at 7:00 PM. Join us by using this Blackboard link:
https://us.bbcollab.com/guest/e553065b5c314a049de3492858780664
Please contact Jessie Crain & Simon Bowyer (CO-PRESIDENTS) anytime with questions at villapta@gmail.com.
Outside Activities
Is your child looking for a safe, socially distant activity? Then check out Pack 1513 Cub Scouts! Meetings are both in person and virtual. Activities are outdoor with social distancing. For more information, please contact pack1513fairfax@gmail.com.
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