THE BEST

November 20-24 -Thanksgiving Holiday Break

December 1 - Career Day

December 5 - Runoff Elections

December 8 - All Pro Dad

December 12 - Chorus Concert

December 14 - FCS Board Meeting

December 15 - Reading is a Gift Day

December 18 - January 2 - Winter Break

Rounding out the week before the Thanksgiving holiday break was made brighter by getting to see so many families on Wednesday and Thursday for the Thanksgiving feasts. Celebrating together as our Northwood family leads beautifully into everyone celebrating Thanksgiving with their own family and friends next week. Thank you to our Cafeteria Manager, Bethany Lopez and her café team, for preparing such wonderful meals. The team served over 1000 people over the two days.

I have two favors to ask of our Explorer families. The first is to ask just a few moments of your time to complete the Georgia Department of Education Parent Survey. The feedback is reviewed at the state, district, and local levels and directly impacts our CCRPI score. Northwood is truly a special elementary campus, and we would love for our families to participate in the survey. You can find additional details in the graphic below, but you can also access the link here.

The second favor also asks just a moment of your time to click the link below (or here) for the Northwood Nice Note. The nice notes from families get shared with the staff via our staff newsletter and the words of appreciation are so well received!

I have just received word that Northwood will serve as a polling place for the runoff elections on Tuesday, December 5th. It is NOT a remote day. The district will provide police presence for the day and voters will have direct access to the media center while the other halls remain closed.

I know next week will go by quickly for each of us. Treasure the time with family and friends; don’t forget to curl up with a good book too.

With much gratitude,

Heather Rucker

Principal

Fourth graders are eagerly working on projects in Social Studies! Students are working in groups focused on the different impacts of Westward Expansion. It is exciting learning about the rich history of our county and important historical figures. With this project, students are growing in their research and presentation skills. We are so excited to present our final products!

Fifth Grade & Centennial High School Student - Leadership: We are currently enjoying visits from Centennial High School student leaders. Over the course of four weeks, they are working with each of our classes in turn to discuss and practice leadership skills. After a brief talk about what good leadership looks like the 5th grade students were set a challenge of working together to build spaghetti and marshmallow towers. The Centennial students, some of them former Northwood students, were also able to speak of how the skills they learned at an elementary level have helped them through middle and into high school. We enjoyed speaking and learning with them, and wish them luck in their future endeavors.

The Georgia Department of Education (GA DOE) requires all public schools to participate in their Georgia Student Health Survey. To see the GA DOE informational website click here. The survey has two parts: one for parents and one for students in grades 3 -12. Each school must have a 75% participation rate on the student portion of the survey. Schools failing to meet the 75% student participation rate will score 0.00 points on the school's CCRPI survey calculation under the survey portion of the School Climate Star Rating.

Parent survey: Your opinion matters! Tell us about your experiences with the district and your school by filling out the College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) Georgia Parent Survey required by the Georgia Department of Education. This survey provides a foundation for your school’s Climate Star rating score and is part of the CCRPI. These climate scores are an important indicator of culture and climate within each school in the district. Each school will receive a 1-5 star rating, with five stars representing an excellent school climate, and one star representing a school climate most in need of improvement. The surveys are anonymous and confidential and will remain open through Friday, December 15. To access the CCRPI survey, click here.

All students will participate in this survey starting the week of November 13th.

This GA DOE developed survey asks questions that are covered by the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA). For more information about PPRA, click here. PPRA requires that schools provide parents/guardians with advanced notice of student participation, the option to preview the student survey, and the ability for parents/guardians to opt their students out of any surveys that include PPRA protected areas. If you would like to opt your student out of participation in this survey, please email Heather Rucker {ruckerh@fultonschools.org}requesting that your student not participate in Georgia Health Survey prior to 7:00 am on November 13th].

All Pro Dad - November News: We had a very well attended November All Pro Dads breakfast last week. Families had great conversations about what 'contentment' looks like, paid respects to our veterans, enjoyed the prize draw supported by the PTA and donated many items to our food drive for the North Fulton Charities Food Bank. Mr. Chaffer was able to drop off 10 boxes filled with much needed donated food items.

We look forward to seeing everyone back for our last breakfast of 2023 on Friday December 8th.

The Infinite Campus Parent Portal provides quick and easy access to information for all enrolled students in their household. Find grades, attendance, assignments, schedules, ID numbers, school announcements and more. If you haven't already joined, please do so today as Fulton County Schools is transitioning to managing everything via the portal.

For more information, access the Parent Portal Booklet for Infinite Campus here.

Parents, please encourage your students to check regularly for lost items in the Lost and Found. Please mark all student belongings clearly with the child’s name so that it can be identified. Unclaimed items are donated to local charities after the last school day of every month. November’s date is Thursday, November 30th.

Help spread holiday joy to local families in need. Bring a new, unwrapped toy to the school lobby and put it in the marked boxes starting Tuesday, November 28th. Last day to donate is Tuesday, December 12th. All toys will be donated to North Fulton Community Charities (NFCC).

We were overwhelmed with our Northwood community last year. Let’s do even more this year and spread a little cheer! For more information click here: Toyland Shop – NFCC

• You can pre-order for $38 at https://www.balfour.com/.../northwood-elementary-school. The price goes up January 1st and we highly recommend you pre-order because we SOLD OUT last year!
• Also, the yearbook committee would like your child to share their SWEETEST memory (this doesn't have to be a Northwood specific memory). As a bonus, we would love them to share a sweet themed joke. https://forms.gle/4yGSyp5H6RZRU5fk9
• Fifth Graders - don't forget to buy a 5th Grade Dedication AD ($20) by January 20th! One AD per student and must be designed by February 1st.

Heather Q. Rucker, Principal

Michelle Levine, Assistant Principal

Together We SHINE!

Email: NorthwoodAttendance@fultonschools.org
Website: https://www.fultonschools.org/northwoodes
Location: 10200 Wooten Road, Roswell, GA, USA
Phone: 470-254-6390
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NorthwoodElementaryPTA/
Twitter: @FCS_NWES