Messages from Mustang Alley

• TL;DR
• Haycock Road Crosswalk Relocation
• Teacher Conferences
• Progress Reports - Quarter 1
• Order Poinsettias and Support the Choral Boosters
• Support Our School Affiliated Organizations
• Husky Herald
• A Message from the Associate Principal
• MYP and SBL&G
• Congratulations to our Thinkers!
• PTA Movie Night
• Lost and Found
• Picture Retakes
• Mustang Spirit

The Haycock Road crosswalk will move to a new permanent location on Monday, October 31st. 

The crosswalk will now be located on the northside of Mustang Alley and will be prominently marked with striping. As usual, the police will be at the crosswalk to assist walkers and bike riders and direct traffic. Meridian and Henderson will have additional staff on Haycock Road to aid the students in their safe passage. Please let your students know the new route they are to take on Monday.

As we approach the end of the first quarter, we wanted to provide you with information about parent-teacher conferences on the secondary campus.  This email will outline the full process, so please read it in its entirety. 

• When: Teacher conferences will be held in-person on Monday, November 7th. 

• Time: Teacher conferences will be held from 8am-3pm with a reserved teacher lunch from 11:30-12:30 (NO conferences will be held during this time).

• Format: Teacher conferences are drop-in (first come, first serve) and will not be scheduled ahead of time. 

  • You may arrive at any time. However, please know that you may wait based on demand and the time of day (FYI - 8am & 12:30pm are popular times).

  • Teacher conferences are three minutes long and are meant to be a brief update on academic, social, and/or behavioral success/concerns. Please be respectful of these time constraints for our teachers and for parents/guardians who are waiting. 

  • Any conversations that would require more time should be scheduled (directly with teachers) separately. 

• Logistics: Student schedules will be emailed prior to November 7th. We will have maps/classroom assignments on-site to help you find teachers and their conference locations, as we do have cross-grade level & cross-campus teachers. Note: Teachers will not be available for FLEX, Pack, Mustang Block, and Stable Group. 

• Parking: Please be patient when arriving on campus. Parking will be limited so please consider rideshare/walking/biking if these are viable options. Parking is also available at the VA Tech lot for $3.

• Make-Up Conferences: If you are unable to attend teacher conferences on Monday, November, 7th, please contact teachers directly. Teachers may have some flexibility to meet outside of the above times. Please know that we cannot accommodate all requests.

One of our secondary campus goals is to help students “learn how to learn” by teaching Approaches to Learning (ATL) and academic skills. These skills will not only help our students succeed in their coursework, but will benefit them in post-secondary life. We hope that this in turn helps build student agency, including ownership of their own learning. 

An aspect of ownership is reflecting on one’s strengths and weaknesses and setting goals to achieve personal success. To that end, we have developed a take-home student progress report that will give students an opportunity to reflect on their academic progress and ATL skill development from the first quarter as well as set goals for the next marking period. We hope that by engaging in discussions around this progress report with your student, you will also have a better understanding of your student’s school experience. 

Students will receive their progress reports as follows:

• Henderson will receive the progress report on Friday, November 11 through PACK class. 

• Meridian students will receive theirs on Monday, November 14th through Stable group (due to Career Chats, juniors will receive theirs on November 21st)  

We ask that you sit down with your student and help them reflect on where they currently are in each of their classes and where they would like to be. 

Henderson parents: Please review the progress report with your student and have them return it with your signature to their Pack teacher no later than Friday, November 18th.  

Meridian parents: 9th graders will be bringing their progress report home to be signed and returned by November 18th. 10th-12th grade students will be sending you an email version of their progress report for review.

Thank you for your continued support of our schools and your student’s academic and personal journey. 

Dear Mary Ellen Henderson Community, 

Today is the last day of the first quarter! You can probably guess that, with the end of the quarter comes academic pressure, assessment anxiety, and an overall angst that can be felt throughout our building. I am writing today to ask you to help us “take the temperature down.” 

We strive to provide an environment where every student, visitor, and staff member feels safe and comfortable. This comfort and safety can be impacted by unwelcomed pressures around academic performance. While often unintended, this pressure is nonetheless very real for our students. We know this, as the end of a grading period sees higher numbers of students visiting the counseling suite to discuss ways to find balance in navigating all of the challenges that middle school brings. 

I am writing today to ask for your support. Please join us in stressing the importance of growth and personal improvement. Remember that in our grading/reporting model, the end of the first quarter is considered a check in. Whether your student got a two or a seven on a summative, our focus should be on their growth as a learner. 

Want to support your student? Here are some examples of questions you can ask. 

1. How supported do you feel? How can we help?
2. What do  you think you did well this quarter?
3. What are you proud of?
4. What was a challenge that you overcame?
5. What are your goals for next quarter? 

Thank you, as always, for being the best school community! 

Rob Carey

• Attend our next in-person session on November 7 (parent-teacher conference day) from 11:30-12:30 in Room 111 at Henderson (back of the cafeteria) All teachers will be on their lunch break at this time
• Watch this quick video on how to navigate PowerSchool with the accompanying slides
• View the full recording of "The ABCs of MYP & SBL&G" here, as well as the slides from the presentation

Dear Meridian families, 

It’s the end of the quarter…as we know it…and we feel fine! 

Ok, that was bad. 

High school can feel stressful - especially this time of the year. There are college apps to finish, SATs and ACTs to prep for, state tournament games to strategize for (let’s go MUSTANGS!)… Not to mention the day-to-day academic work of a school year. 

This school year - any school year - is about growth. And our students are making HUGE strides! We see it daily and it fills us with pride. 

We bring up growth because we want to remind all our families that this is a marathon not a sprint. The “quarter” is simply a marker in time - a line in the sand - and not the end of the road. Historically speaking, at this school and at many others, a student’s final grade is often determined by averaging the course grade from all 4 quarters of the year. A reminder that at Meridian, a student’s grade is not the average of four quarters, but reflective of achievement across the year. 

We hope to see many of you at our parent-teacher conference drop-ins on Monday, November 7. This is a great opportunity to reflect on growth and learning so far this year. Details about conferences have been individually emailed to all families, but you can also find them broadly below. 

Please take some time to rest, reflect, and refresh this long weekend.

Peter Laub
Assistant Principal

Sustainability in Action
This week, students were introduced to the requirements for Sustainability in Action recognition at MHS. Our goal as a school is that this recognition helps to highlight and celebrate the work that our students are doing in regard to sustainability through the lens of their academic, enrichment, and service experiences–you may review the requirements HERE. 

Students were asked to complete THIS FORM if interested in learning more about the process to receive this recognition. Please encourage your student to fill out this form if they have not already done so. If you have any questions, please reach out to Nicole Jones at jonesn@fccps.org.

Additionally, HERE is a quick video capturing what stable groups identified to be the most important United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) to our school community!

Personal Project
The 10th grade MYP Personal Project is Monday, March 13, 2023.  This week the entire 10th grade met to hear from 11th graders about their projects from last year and about the next steps.  Students are working on their learning and product goals and applying approaches to learning (ATL) skills in their project.

Our next Partners for Safe Teen Driving Meeting for current students enrolled in PE10/Drivers Education class will be held on Thursday, November 15th 5:30pm-7:00pm on the Learning Stairs (3rd floor). Please arrive no later than 5:25pm so you have time to check in. 

Meeting Requirements:

• Student must attend with at least one parent
• Families will need to stay for the entire presentation to receive credit 
• Please bring a black or blue pen

Note: If you already attended the meeting you do not have to attend a second one.

InnerView is a free resource where students record their service hours on their school computers with brief information and the advisor can track each student's hours and sustainable development goals (SDGs).  Students can also earn national service recognitions and it creates infographics to highlight school and/or club service successes.  As service learning is a critical component of the Middle Years Programme (MYP), this provides a simple and effective way to document and more importantly celebrate service students are completing.  To learn more about InnerView, please visit this site.  Students will be learning about InnerView during their Stable Groups.

Parents/legal guardians are the only ones authorized to report attendance issues.

If your student will be absent, tardy, or needs to leave school before the school day ends, you may send an email to attendancemhs@fccps.org or leave a voicemail message on the Attendance 24/7 line, 703-248-5501. 

Please make sure you include your name, your student's name, the reason for the absence and all symptoms if the student is ill.

Please let us know in advance if you need to pick up your student early. We can then inform the teachers through PowerSchool. We do not call the teacher's classrooms unless it is an emergency.

College and Career Center Newsletter - Friday, November 4

Applications are being accepted this month for the Steamfitters Local 602 Apprenticeship.

MHS seniors can apply to the University of Mary Washington by Friday, November 11th and learn their admission decisions on Friday, November 18th.

College fairs are winding down for the season; there are two virtual fairs next week.

Details about these programs, and more, are included in the newsletter.