Navigating the River

Each week, you will receive our newsletter containing important dates, events, and school news. Navigating the River is one of the best ways to stay up to date on what's happening at the River and ways to get involved to help make this school year the best yet! #RMSGoodAsGold

• October 12th - 6th Grade Band Concert
  
• October 13th - Last Day of the 1st 9-Weeks
• October 16th - Georgia Student Health Survey Administration
• October 18th - PTSO Spirit Night @ Chipotle
• October 19th - Progress Reports available on Parent Portal
• October 19th - Online Learning Day (Parent/Teacher Conferences)
• October 20th - Student Holiday
• October 23rd - 27th - Red Ribbon Week
• October 26th - 6th Grade Boo Bash
• October 30th - November 3rd - Scholastic Book Fair
• November 11th - Day of Caring (Open to the Community - see flyer below for more details)

**CTAE Pathway Nights for each high school will occur during the months of October and November. Please see the infographic below for more information!

PTSO is looking for a few parent volunteers to help with PBIS rewards distribution on Friday 10/13. If you are interested in this fun event, please click HERE for details and to sign up.

Interested in signing up to help during the 6th Grade Boo Bash?

Sign up here!

PTSO is looking for parent volunteers to help out with the Book Fair, starting with set up on 10/26. For more details about dates and shifts, please click HERE.

Input Wanted for draft 25-26 Student Calendar (Ends 10/27)

Thank you for taking the time to review the calendar timeline and draft, and for providing feedback!

• Review the Calendar Timeline
• Review the Draft 25-26 Student Calendar
• Provide Input on the Draft Calendar (Ends 10/27)
• 23-24 and 24-25 Approved Student Calendars

Curious to see what's happening at RMS from the student view? Check out the RMS Panther News!

RMS Panther News

Things end but memories last forever...with your yearbook! Purchase your yearbook now!

• Go to www.YearbookOrderCenter.com
• Enter Order Number 1287 or search for Riverwatch Middle School
• Click on the icon labeled Yearbook & Ads
• Follow the instructions on the website

If you have any questions about your yearbook order, please call

Herff Jones at 1-800-837-4235!

Know a teacher or staff member that goes above and beyond? Nominate them for Teacher/Staff Member of the Month!

Nomination Form

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 2 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. The GA DOE also encourages parents to participate in the Georgia Parent Survey because schools with less than 15 parents participating in the Parent Survey will see a negative impact on their School Climate Star Rating for 2024-2025. All Forsyth County School students will participate in this survey starting on October 16, 2023 unless their parent opts them out.

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 your student's principal requesting that your student not participate in Georgia Health Survey prior to October 16, 2023.

For links to preview the student surveys, click on the links below.

Georgia Student Health Survey - Elementary School (grades 3-5)

English - click here

Spanish - click here

Georgia Student Health Survey - Middle & High School (grades 6-12)

English - click here

Spanish - click here

To complete the parent survey, please click on the link below.

https://gshs.gadoe.org/Pages/parent.aspx

Thank you,

FCS

Riverwatch Middle School 6th grader, Scott Lee of Suwanee, won an Honorable Mention Award in the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest for his film "Lost But Not Forgotten." The Global Awards Celebration occurred Sept. 17, at the Gene Siskel Film Center, in Chicago, Illinois.

Using stop-motion paper cutouts, Scott created a heartfelt story in his 4-minute film “Lost but Not Forgotten.” A sea turtle hatchling emerges from its egg mutated by pollution, with two heads instead of one. After navigating through an ocean full of bottle caps and plastic bags, this unusual hatchling is captured by marine biologists who perform surgery. Scott’s compelling narrative uses original dialogue, dramatic sound effects, and effective backgrounds, prompting viewers to think more about what we can do to curtail ocean waste.

In his contest submission, Scott wrote: “I made this animation inspired by the idea to give a message to stop sea pollution.”

Since its inception in 2013, the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest has grown from a local Illinois project to a highly competitive international competition garnering 403 submissions. Countries such as Brazil, Australia and Mexico and states such as California, Georgia and Indiana will be represented among this year’s winners at the Global Awards Celebration.

“This year our awards event will include a sneak peek of our Honorable Mention winners. We will be screening a compilation of these 12 films. This is the first time we will be recognizing the Honorable Mention winners at our main event, side by side with our top 10 winners. It’s all very exciting,” explained Contest Founding Director Sue Crothers. A full screening of the Honorable Mention winners will occur in November online.

“The secret ingredient to our success is youth. They have opinions, ideas and viewpoints about the climate emergency,” continued Sue. “It’s hard for people to deny what’s happening when they’re living through extreme floods, fires, and tornadoes. And the younger generations have something to say about the mess our generation has made.”

The Young Filmmakers Contest asks students from age 8 to 25 to create a 3- to 8-minute environmental film that inspires change or action. Animated or stop-motion films can be a minimum of 45 seconds long. A jury of 32 film and sustainability experts evaluated this year's films.

Thank you to all of our generous families that have already joined PTSO! If you would like to support the RMS PTSO in its mission to support teachers and students, we are still accepting donations. If you have not had a chance to join yet, we are still trying to reach our budget goal of $9,500 in membership funds.

Why join RMS PTSO? PTSO depends primarily on donations from our RMS families to finance initiatives to support teachers and students. All funds raised go directly back to RMS. Your membership fee is your donation to the PTSO, and because we are a 501c3, your donation is tax deductible and eligible for corporate matching if your employer offers that benefit.

What if I don't have time to volunteer? That's ok! We will happily accept financial donations without any obligation to volunteer.

How will you use my donations? PTSO funds a variety of initiatives to support teachers and students. Our three big commitments this year are:

1) 22 new Chromebooks and a cart for student usage;

2) Teacher grants for educational supplies, club support, and school improvements;

3) Funding to support the PBIS rewards program.

To see a more detailed breakdown of how PTSO spends funds, you can view the 23/24 budget HERE.

How can I join? If you would like to support RMS PTSO, please click HERE.

Forsyth County Schools How-To Guides

• No check outs will be processed after 3:30 PM.
• Students will only be released to a parent or adult listed in Infinite Campus. No student will be released to anyone under the age of 18.
• A government-issued identification is required to check out a student. We cannot accept a photograph of an identification in lieu of the identification itself. Parents/guardians will be asked to return with their official identification or make alternate arrangements for checking out the student.

Please remember to email Ms. Hayworth at f41677@forsyth.k12.ga.us if your student is absent for any reason! Absence letters/emails must be received within 5 days of your student's absence.

The front office staff is not permitted to relay transportation messages to students. Transportation changes are not permitted during the school day.

Students are assigned one bus stop, morning and afternoon. FCS Transportation does not authorize bus stop changes where students can go home with friends or relatives or get off the bus at a bus stop other than their designated bus stop assigned to them and their home address. The only exception is in court-ordered joint custody scenarios where an additional address has been updated and verified in their IC profile.