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Important Upcoming Events
- December 23-January 3- Holidays/Winter Break - No School- Offices Closed
- January 6 - School returns on an "A" Day schedule
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Tutoring Resources for Families
Is your family looking for resources to help support your child’s academic success? FCPS’ Family Resource Center (FRC) maintains a list of district employees who hold a valid Virginia teaching credential and who are available to be hired as a tutor by parents. FRC maintains this list, but families are responsible for contacting and working directly with tutors. This list is not “approved” by FCPS and is only meant as a resource.
FCPS also partners with Varsity Tutors to provide students and families with extra resources for learning. Every student can take advantage of Varsity Tutors' services at no cost, including weekly live online classes, on demand 24/7 chat tutoring, essay editing, study resources such as recorded content, practice problems, and diagnostic tests.
Winter Weather
❄️ Preparing for Winter Weather
Winter weather will be here before you know it! Watch this video to see how weather-related closing decisions are made.
FCPS’ website is generally the first place to find out about emergency weather closings. Other communication channels will be used as quickly as possible including email, text, social media, and news stations. Learn more about how schedule changes are communicated.
Be sure to plan for the winter season. Update your contact information in SIS ParentVUE, bookmark the FCPS website, and arrange for childcare if needed.
Keep Your Child Warm During Outdoor Activities
We will monitor the weather for low temperatures, wind chill advisories and warnings, and weather advisories which may prevent children from being outside. Make sure your child is dressed appropriately with a warm coat and other cold-weather clothing, so they can comfortably enjoy their time outdoors. See the National Weather Service’s tips on staying safe during cold weather.
If you need assistance supplying your child with cold-weather clothing, please call Fairfax County's Coordinated Services Planning at 703-222-0880. Their multilingual staff can assist with any challenges you are facing, including food, shelter, employment, financial assistance, and health care.
Private School Request
If your student is planning on applying to any private schools for the 2025-2026 school year, please complete the "Private School Request Form" and the "Parent Consent Form: SS-SE79" and submit them to the Student Service’s Office or to your counselor. Counselors will be emailing all records to the requested schools via an admissions email OR the school's portal. Please note these requests are due at least 2 weeks prior to the due date.
Please visit our website for more information regarding required forms and teacher recommendations – Rachel Carson Middle School Private School Requests
Webinar on Overcoming School Resistance
Does your child resist going to school or refuse to go? If so, join the Family Resource Center’s School Resistance webinar on Friday, January 10, 10-11:30 a.m. The webinar will explore how to take care of yourself in the heat of the moment and set supportive boundaries at home. Register in advance.
✨ Student attendance is one measure of Strategic Plan Goal 2: Safe, Supported, Included, and Empowered.
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The office will be closed from Monday, December 23, through Friday, January 3, 2025.
We will See you on Monday, January 6, 2025!
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Federal Impact Aid Survey
Tuesday, December 17, is our deadline for paper copies to be turned in.
Please complete this survey online in ParentVUE. Click HERE to log into ParentVue to complete the survey or to create and set up a ParentVUE account. Please remember, only the enrolling parent may complete and submit the survey. Please complete the online survey by December 16, 2024.
If you are having technical difficulties with the online survey, call the Parent Technology Help Desk 8T33-921-3277
www.fcps.edu/impact
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Impact Aid programs and grants are designed to assist local school districts that enroll federally connected students.
www.fcps.edu.
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Student Services Family Workshops
Student Services will offer Family Workshops throughout the school year to support our families using feedback from our Advisory Council meeting. Our first is a prerecorded presentation called Middle School Mastery led by our amazing RCMS Strategies for Success teacher, Kelli McCoy-Williams. You can view the recording and access the workshop materials in the Student Services Quarterly Newsletter. Please click here to access the Student Services Quarterly Newsletter.
We are excited to announce that Rachel Bailey, former ADHD coach, intensive in-home mentor, and psychotherapist for children, adolescents, and adults, will be presenting our next workshop virtually to Rachel Carson families on Friday, December 13th from 9:00-10:00 AM via Zoom. Please join us to learn more about “Helping Students Manage Anxiety.” To register for the Zoom link, please click here. We hope to see you virtually!
Going Green at Carson
Get2Green leads, Ms. Bickford and Ms. Walsh, are thrilled to announce that Carson MS is starting a food sharing and food scrap collection program to reduce food waste in our cafeteria and to help families with food insecurities in our community. When you are helping students pack their lunches, encourage them to only pack what they need and will eat. If your child buys lunch, encourage them to take part in the food sharing and food scrap collecting process when appropriate. Students who bring their lunch may participate too. The food sharing table and food scrap collection containers are on the right side of the stage. A big “thank you” goes to the PTA who is paying for Composting Crew to pick up our collected food scraps each week. We also want to acknowledge the Going Green Club members who are gathering donated food each lunch and putting it in the fridge each lunch period. Lastly, thanks to Ms. Clark for creating a Sign-Up Genius to organize families to pick up the donated food each Friday and bring it to the Cornerstone food collection warehouse in Sterling each week. A student can earn an hour of service for participating in this food transportation with their parents. Any family in the Carson community can sign up. Detailed directions are on the Sign-Up Genius. Together WE can make a difference.
TJ Information
The TJ Investigative Science Outreach, a student-led organization at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology will be hosting their 12th annual invitational science fair on April 5th, 2025 and welcome 5th-8th grade students to participate. Admission to the science fair is completely free.
Participants will complete a research project of their choice and present at the fair in-person on April 5th, 2025. We help students prepare for this fair by holding multiple sessions to teach them important skills in STEM like brainstorming, collecting data, presenting, writing an experiment summary, using statistics, creating an experimental diagram, etc.
Our first interest/brainstorming session is October 11th, 2024 at 6:00 pm. We will be holding this session both in-person at TJHSST and virtually through zoom. During this session we will go over the goals and guidelines of this fair and introduce students to a multitude of project ideas. All interested students should sign up using the form at the link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd0Y0oodU11TzBUfWFnU5lsxoWaqixuX50fxVNv5A5DxcmRvw/viewform?usp=sf_link
Feel free to also check out our website at tjsciencefair.wordpress.com or email us at tjhsstsciencefair@gmail.com
Sincerely,
TJ Investigative Science Outreach
Attention 8th Grade Parents - Civics Field Trips
Rachel Carson Middle School 8th graders will attend Finance Park in person this year. We would love to have you come along with us! We are in need of 25 parent volunteers for each of our six teams. This is a 4.5 hour commitment, and includes an hour of training at the Finance Park facility next to Frost MS before our students arrive. You will help guide students through different phases of the day, which simulate real-world budgeting decisions, spending research, and bill payment. Then you’ll share your own life experiences and help them walk a day in your shoes. You bring the program to life!
Carson MS 8th grade teams are going to Finance Park on the following dates (any snow days will be rescheduled at a later time) –
Monday, December 16th - Dolphins
Tuesday, December 17th - Discovery
Wednesday, December 18th – Explorers
Thursday, December 19th - Voyagers
Friday, December 20th - Wolves
If you are able to volunteer with Carson’s Finance Park field trip, please view this link to create a JA account and then sign up for your child’s date to volunteer.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RWoYRLCor3U0XkEsLfIW88RX-2e8mly_/view
Thank you for donating your time and experience to our students. If you have any questions, please contact your child’s civics teacher.
Other Schools Are Sharing
South Lakes High School
Parents and caregivers can report up to two consecutive full-day absences using ParentVUE. For absences longer than two days, please contact CarsonMiddle.Attendance@fcps.edu
All Day Absences: The Attendance feature in ParentVUE is the FCPS secure web solution for reporting all day absences.
Partial Absence: To report late arrivals, or to update already submitted attendance, please contact CarsonMiddle.Attendance@fcps.edu
Early Dismissal Procedure
Please do not request early dismissals online or by phone.
To request an early dismissal please send a note with your child, or complete and print an Early Dismissal Request Form for your child. Your child should bring the note or form to the main office upon arrival to school in order to receive an early dismissal pass for that day. If you forget to send a note, students should still come to the front office to get an early dismissal pass.
All early dismissals must be before 2:00pm.
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Learn more about attendance reporting through ParentVue
Phones Down, Engagement Up: FCPS Cell Phone Policy and Storage Pilot
Keeping cell phones off during the school day helps students focus and learn. It also boosts positive social behavior. Review FCPS’ cell phone expectations by grade level with your child and help keep our classrooms free of distractions! If you need to reach your child during the school day for emergencies only, please call Rachel Carson Middle School main office - 703-925-3600.
Greetings Panther families!
Click the link for the Q2 After School Schedule. Each activity is hyperlinked with a description and information about each club. In order for students to participate in our after school program, parents must fill out the After School Registration Form (This form gives your child permission to participate in after school activities, it does not sign them up for specific activities)
Late bus numbers are different than regular bus numbers. Please check SIS to find your child’s late bus number, it will say RCLR (Rachel Carson Late Run).
If you have questions about our after-school program, please contact Riley Barrows, rtbarrows1@fcps.edu.
After School Program Specialist
Who to Contact
If you have a question or concern, please visit our website for a full listing of Who to Contact. This listing includes all of our administrators, our counselors, and who to speak to regarding a specific content area or class. Contact information for all staff members is listed on our website - just click on the name of the person you wish to contact to be redirected to their email address: RCMS Staff Directory.
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