Parents Are Connected at BRES!

We just finished our first Parents Are Connected (PAC) Night here at Banks Road Elementary School.  PAC is a event hosted by our Tier II Intervention Teachers focused on increasing student literacy skills.  Banks Road Elementary's Title I program this year is "school wide."  This means every student and their family is invited to participate in our PAC Night events.  The first session gave an overview of the federal Title I program at Banks.  After the first session parents were able to choose from a session in Spanish, a K-2 literacy skills session or a 3-5 comprehension skills session.  Each family that attended was given a book to take home for their child's reading library.  Thank you to our Title I Tier II Invention teachers (Ms. Mathis, Ms. Tyson, Ms. Cutrell, and Ms. Bone for their hard work and time in preparing and hosting this event.  Thank you to our ESL teacher Ms. Blair for presenting a session in Spanish to our families.  Thank you to our homeroom teachers Ms. Bishop and Ms. Chesser for providing FREE childcare so that our parents could come and learn about these critical literacy skills. And finally, thank you to our families who took the time to come out this evening and learn more about how to support literacy instruction.  Look at the photos below and please be sure to follow the links for the presentations of the materials tonight. 



Ms. Mathis and Ms. Cutrell presenting on comprehension skills



Ms. Chesser (L) and Ms. Bishop (R) who provided FREE childcare so our parents can attend the literacy sessions

Ms. Tyson leading our K-2 literacy session

Ms. Blair, our ESL teacher, presenting to our Spanish speaking families

An example of the handouts we provided to our parents

Please check our website soon for the PowerPoint presentations.  Please call the school if you would like a hard copy of the handouts. 

BRES is participating in JDRF!

Banks Road Elementary School values and promotes living a healthy lifestyle.  Our active PTA supports these values with their programming with events such as our Boosterthon Fun Run and Family Fitness Night.  This year BRES will participate in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund Walk Program.  Students will attend a Kick Off Event on Monday, October 1st, where they will hear about healthy living strategies and Type I Diabetes.  Materials will be sent home after the kick off event for tracks.  This is a fundraising event for JDRF.  10% of the funds collected will go directly to BRES.  Please follow the link to learn more about the mission, vision and work of the JDRF http://www.jdrf.org/.  Please feel free to contact the school with any questions about this opportunity to support JDRF and BRES. 

5th Grade Tree Planting Ceremony is Coming!

                                              

A tradition will continue this year at BRES as we will once again plant a tree in honor of our fifth grade student body.  Parents and families of fifth grade students, please join us on for the tree planting ceremony on the 3-5 playground area, near the large shade structure on October 12th for students on Tracks 1, 2 and 3 at 9:30 a.m..  Track 4 parents and families please join us on October 24th at 3:00 p.m. 

Please call the school if you have any questions about this special event. 

First Grade Project Based Learning Activities

First grade students explored academic content through the world of apples.  Today students participated in learning activities that included geometry (shapes), problem solving, reading and writing skills.  Additionally, students were able to use their five senses to see, taste, smell and touch products that were made from apples.  A big thank you goes out to the parent volunteers who supported this event.  Check out the learning process in action below. 

This Week at BRES!

Blazing trails here at BRES!  We have a lot going on here at various grade levels including the following:

• Writer in Residence, Richard Krawiec teacher, writer and publish author is working with Track 2 & 4 fourth grade students.  Students are working through the writing process with a self selected topic.  Mr. Krawiec is leading students through brainstorming, drafting, revising their pieces until the best final copy can be achieved. Mr. Krawiec will be back to work with fourth grade students on Tracks 1 & 3 in October. Want to learn more about Mr. Kraweic?  Click here to link to his website  http://www.rkeditor.com/ 
• Case 21 Benckmark testing in underway in grades 3-5 for Tracks 2-4.  Students are taking reading and math assessments during this testing window. 
• Early Release is scheduled for Friday at 1:15 p.m.  We will begin our dismissal procedures at 1:15 for both carpool and bus students.

Mark your calendars for our PTA sponsored Fall Festival.  Join us here at school for an evening of family fun filled with food and games on October 26th from 5:30-8:30 p.m. What a great way to support BRES and have spend some time with your family. 

Please call the school if you have any questions about this information. 

Student Assignment Plan 2013-2014

Families may now enter their addresses to see their proposed 2013-14 base school assignments under a draft assignment plan presented September 18 to the Wake County Board of Education.

These base assignments are in draft form, and are subject to change as the board reviews and takes action on the draft plan.
Staff in the Office of Student Assignment drafted the proposal in response to a June directive from the Board of Education, which requested that the district’s current assignment plan be revised for 2013-14 to include address-based school assignments. These draft base assignments were proposed based on several criteria, including student achievement, stability and proximity, real estate data and growth projections.

School Spirit now and coming soon... a School Song!

Ms. Loftin has chorus underway. Almost one hundred students show up each Tuesday to participate in our Trailblazer Chorus! Under the direction of Ms. Loftin, these students are preparing for our Piece of Gold audition in November and our Winter Program in December.

On top of the work she is doing with our students in chorus, Ms. Loftin will soon be working on creating our school song. She will seeking input from the students on what should be included in the song. Students will have an opportunity to submit their ideas for consideration and will be able to give input on the actual creation of the song. Our goal is to release our school song in the Spring! We will keep you updated on the progress of the school song.

School Spirit Update

School Spirit on a roll at BRES! Today we kicked off the week with Crazy Hat day. We had a myriad of different hats show up on campus. Thank you for supporting your child in participating in events this week.

The PTA sent out a message earlier about the change in spirit events for tomorrow, but I wanted to reach those of you who regularly receive the blog updates or visit the site. Tomorrow, in order to respect our history we have changed our spirit activity from "backwards day" to "wear red, white and blue day."

All other events will remain the same. See below for the events of the remainder of the week.
9/11 Wear red, white and blue
9/12 Backwards Day: Wear red, white and blue
9/13 Crazy Hair Day: A teacher favorite...what can you do with your hair?
9/14 School Colors: Same as usual, blue and green or official BRES t-shirts

Spirit Night will be September 11th from 5-8 p.m. at McDonald's in Fuquay Varina (this is a change from the date that went out in the PTA Newsletter.)

Additionally, the PTA Board will meet at 5:00 p.m. this Thursday in the Media Center for our monthly meeting. You are always welcome to join us.

Blazing Academic Trails

In a July post I shared that our preliminary academic acheivement data was positive and promising. Today, I can officially announce (or should I say officially type) that we made good gains in our data for all subgroups of students served here at Banks. The main WCPSS website has been updated with specific school data for you. The academic gains we made afforded us to move from a School of Progress (60-79 percent of students' scores are at or above achievement Level III and school makes or exceeds its expected growth goal) designation to a School of Distinction (80-89 percent of students' scores are at or above achievement Level III and school makes or exceeds its expected growth goal.) That is definitely something to celebrate!

While we celebrate the academic gains made last school year, we are blazing down the path of this school year. We are critically looking at our areas of instructional need and with a laser-like focus, planning and taking action to support those needs, such as our Tier II Invention groups and our AIG instructional groups. Those are two examples of how the staff at Banks Road Elementary enhances and supports learning for all!

Blazing Trails...on the Horizon...

Did you know that BRES will soon offer our very first Student Council? A committee has been meeting and actively planning the details to be able to offer this great leadership opportunity to our students. Be on the look out for more information about BRES Student Council.

School Spirit is HERE!

The time has come... it is SCHOOL SPIRIT WEEK! Fridays are usually a sea of blue and green here at BRES, but for the next week you are going to see some funny things going on here all in the name of school spirit. Our students are excited to participate in these activities. Please mark your calendars, set your alarms in your Smart-phones and be sure to check the blog and website for great photos of our students showing off their school spirit beginning Friday, September 7th.

Here is a list school spirit activities for next week:

• 9/7 School Colors: Same as usual, blue and green or official BRES t-shirts & Penny Drive begins (send in your pennies all week)
• 9/10 Hat Day: Wear your favorite hat
• 9/11 Backwards Day: What can you wear backwards?
• 9/12 Olympics Day: Wear red, white and blue
• 9/13 Crazy Hair Day: A teacher favorite...what can you do with your hair?
• 9/14 School Colors: Same as usual, blue and green or official BRES t-shirts
• Spirit Night will be September 11th from 5-8 p.m. at McDonald's in Fuquay Varina (this is a change from the date that went out in the PTA Newsletter)

Our PTA has provided us with a beautiful trophy that will be passed to each classroom showing the highest participation in our school spirit week activities.

Transportation Update

We have had a great week with our transportation for students. All of our buses are arriving on campus each morning. In the afternoons the buses are arriving and leaving campus with in the 3:45-4:15 time frame. This is great news for your after school activities and evening family time!

Carpool is getting better each day. On Friday, we moved numerous cars and still were completely finished by 4:10. This week we continuously improved our loading time. The Fuquay Police Department has also been supporting us at the turn in from Banks Road onto Chambers. We appreciate their support with monitoring traffic and helping many of you be able to turn left from the school!

I have received many positive comments about the changes in carpool and our bus departure times. Thank you for your positive feedback. And thank you for all that you do to support Banks Road Elementary School!