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Volume 3, Issue 12; October 27, 2024
Centre Ridge All-Stars
Help your child to be a good digital citizen and an online upstander by reporting problematic behaviors, reposting only accurate information, and sharing positive images and messages. The “Golden Rule” is effective in digital citizenship — treat others online as you would like to be treated.
Dear CRES Community,
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Every Day Counts at CRES!
To ensure transparency and celebrate our progress, we will be sharing weekly attendance data in our newsletter. By highlighting this important information, we aim to keep our families informed and energized about our collective efforts to reduce absenteeism.
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A Three Week Comparison of Students Present in October
Here’s a quick look at our current attendance situation:
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Attendance Rate: 90.8% (which means 9.2% absenteeism)
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Concern: We are seeing about 10% of our students missing too much school.
Why Does Attendance Matter? Every day counts! Good attendance is crucial not only for your child’s success but also affects our school’s accreditation rating. This year, 10% of our rating will include chronic absenteeism, which is defined as missing 10% or more of the school year. That’s about 18 days total—or just 2 to 3 days each month!
How Can You Help?
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Ensure Regular Attendance: Please make vacations during school breaks, not during class time.
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Understand the Impact of Tardiness: Arriving late or leaving early also adds up and can disrupt learning.
What Happens Next? We have reached out to families whose children have missed 4 or more days of school. These students will have opportunities to earn back time through special programs in literacy and math. For younger students, attending for two hours can earn back one day missed; for 6th graders, three hours is needed to earn back each day missed.
Let’s Work Together! We want every child to succeed, and that starts with being present in the classroom. Your partnership is key in helping us improve attendance and boost our students’ learning experiences.
Together, let’s make every day count!
Student Experience Survey: Grades 3-6
As you know, our Strategic Plan includes five equity commitments that focus on centering student voice and experiences as we work toward accomplishing our 2030 goals. This fall, FCPS will pilot a Student Experience Survey in select schools across the county.
Unlike the Fairfax County Youth Survey that focuses on health, well-being, and risky behaviors, or the Social Emotional (SEL) Screener which helps schools improve mental health and wellness practices; the purpose of the Student Experience Survey is to understand how students view and experience school. The information from the Student Experience Survey will help us center student voice in the decisions we make as a school system to support positive school culture, student engagement, access and opportunity, and more.
If you would like to view the survey, please visit the Student Experience Survey webpage. Additional information will be shared directly with classroom teachers and students this week!
Elementary School Language Arts Grading Updates
Our teachers have been hard at work teaching with the new Language Arts curriculum, and we are excited to help all of our students become strong readers and writers! This year we also have new assessments, which is how we check if your student needs extra help with reading and writing, and new Standards of Learning (SOLs).
Because of these changes, we are now teaching all of the Language Arts skills your child needs to know (and checking if they need extra help) throughout the whole school year, instead of different skills each quarter. While these skills will be new to your child in the beginning of the year, the goal is for your child to grow strong in all of their new skills by the end of the year.
This means that when you get your child’s progress report next month, it might look different. Your child’s teacher will give you more information on the new progress reporting and how we’re making sure your child is getting any extra help they might need. You can also find more information on FCPS’ Grading and Reporting webpage.
We will also have new ways for you to help your child practice their reading and writing skills at home. These resources are coming soon!
Return Your Federal Impact Aid Survey
FCPS is asking all families to fill out a Federal Impact Aid Survey. The form is available in SIS ParentVUE under Online Packets (in the upper right corner after logging in). Please complete it as soon as possible.
For any families who have not completed the survey in ParentVUE, schools will provide paper forms starting Wednesday, November 13. Paper forms should be returned by Wednesday, December 4.
Completing this form for each school-aged child in every household is important. Information from this survey resulted in more than $4 million in funding last year from the U.S. Department of Education. These funds are used to support all Fairfax County public schools and centers.
For more information, please watch this video on Impact Aid and visit the Federal Impact Aid Survey page.
Need to Register for ParentVUE?
Learn how to activate your SIS ParentVUE account, so you can easily submit your survey.
Technical support for using ParentVUE or completing the survey online is available by submitting a Parent Support Request ticket. Select SISParent in the Application dropdown menu and type Federal Impact Aid Survey under Issue Description. Or, call the Parent Technology Help Desk at 833-921-3277 (833-921-FCPS).
🎤 Our Schools, Our Future: Register Today for a Community Conversation!
Superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid invites you to share your thoughts and ask questions at the final community conversation this fall. It will be held Wednesday, October 30, 6:30-7:30 p.m., at Herndon Middle School. Click the date to register. Childcare and language interpretation services will be provided.
Safeway Immunization Clinics for All FCPS Students
Safeway Pharmacy will host immunization clinics for any FCPS student age 18 or younger at Frost Middle School on Monday, October 28, and Tuesday, October 29, from 3 to 7 p.m.
Walk-ins are welcome, but appointments are highly encouraged to avoid wait times. A parent or guardian must accompany walk-in students age 18 or younger to provide consent. Learn more about immunization resources and registering in other languages for the Safeway clinic.
Students age 19 and older may access free immunizations at their middle/high school immunization clinic, the Fairfax County Health Department or through other community resources.
Elementary School Clinics
The Fairfax County Health Department will provide immunizations for FCPS elementary students on limited early release Mondays at their district offices. All school-required immunizations will be offered at no cost. Call 703-246-7100 to make your appointment.
Special Education Review Final Report
FCPS is committed to providing excellence for all students, and continues to seek ways to improve and ensure the highest quality of special education and related services for students and families. At the request of the School Board, the FCPS Office of Auditor General engaged a consultant to conduct an independent, third-party review of FCPS’ special education program in October 2020.
American Institutes for Research® (AIR) presented their final report during the School Board’s October 4 work session. Watch the video of AIR’s presentation and visit FCPS’ Office of Auditor General webpage for more information.
The School Board will hold a second session to discuss a framework for the Special Education Enhancement Plan at their Tuesday, November 15 work session.
FCPS News: In Case You Missed It!
In case you missed it in FCPS This Week, the school division shared updates on the following topics and others:
- Federal Impact Aid Survey
- Football Players Tackle Literacy
- Tips to Keep Children Safe
Read FCPS This Week to learn more about these topics. If you are not already receiving this weekly newsletter, please sign up today.
Ronnie Ram's Homerun Highlights!
We love highlighting learning experiences that support the acquisition of Portrait of a Graduate attributes and skills across our classrooms!
So much goes into planning and preparing to teach our students, and our new literacy curriculum offers no exceptions.
Check out our all-star staff #collaborating on shared literacy goals which teachers will pursue for second quarter.
We appreciate your #goal-directed and #criticalthinking, Literacy Core Team!
For more information on Portrait of a Graduate, ask your child how they are a communicator, collaborator, critical and creative thinker, goal-directed and resilient individual, or ethical and global citizen. Or, click here!
Please click on our main hashtags, #CRESSchoolofDreams and #CRESAllStars, for more awesome highlights from Centre Ridge!
We will continue to expand our social media presence this year!
Twitter and InstagRAM
DedicatED: For Parents and Teachers
Growing with GLAD: Elevating Learning for All!
We are excited to share our commitment to supporting multilingual learners and enhancing learning for all students through Guided Language Acquisition Design, or Project GLAD. Project GLAD provides strategies that help students build language skills, deepen content knowledge, and develop critical thinking across all subjects. These research-based techniques are particularly valuable for multilingual learners and also benefit all students by enhancing vocabulary, engagement, and collaboration.
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Our teachers are actively advancing their training in these strategies through "GLAD Labs," which we have organized in partnership with our central office ESOL resource team. These labs provide our staff with collaborative and reflective opportunities to refine and expand their instructional approaches. We are dedicated to sending more staff to these valuable training sessions so we can scale up these effective practices across all grade levels. This commitment is part of our ongoing mission to ensure that every student receives the highest level of support and engagement in every classroom, every day.
Be on the lookout for more information on what GLAD looks like in action!
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Family Literacy Program: Learn English!
Who: For parents with children in FCPS or with children from 3-5 years old.
When: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10 am-12 pm (You can join anytime!)
Where: At Centre Ridge Elementary!
For more information, please contact Mary Pierri, our Family Liaison, at (703) 227-2600.
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Advanced Academic Program Parent Information Night
Full-time Referral & Screening Process
November 12, 2024, 5:00-6:00 pm
Please join us in the CRES library (or online) for our upcoming AAP Parent Information Meeting to learn about the referral and screening process for the full-time Advanced Academic Program. Please RSVP at your earliest convenience. We will share a link with those who RSVP 30 minutes prior to the meeting. We hope you can join us!
December 15, 2024 -Deadline for all referrals (grades 2-6) for full-time screening
If you have questions, please contact Valerie Carter, Advanced Academic Resource Teacher.
Please Mark Your Calendars!
Great news! Centre Ridge Elementary School's events are now easily added to your own personal calendar. To find out how to download our calendar feed, please go here.
Monday, October 28th: Early-release at 12:30 pm (Today counts as a full school day!)
Monday, November 4th: Staff Planning Day; no school for students
Tuesday, November 5th: Teacher Workday; no school for students
Monday, November 11th: Veterans Day
Tuesday, November 12th: AAP Parent Information Meeting Full-time Screening Process; Please RSVP here.
See the complete 2024-2025 school year calendar.
FCPS Cares Program
Recognizing employees who go above and beyond
FCPS Cares is an opportunity for parents, staff, and community members to recognize those who go above and beyond to help others and show they care. We invite you to submit your story so we can all acknowledge the outstanding work of FCPS, and more specifically, Centre Ridge employees.
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Ram Reflection
To provide feedback directly to Dr. Hertzberg, please use the QR code, or click on this link. Thank you, in advance, for sharing your thinking!
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