We have five more days of school before the Winter Break. This is a fun time of year for our students, and we are planning to end the semester in a new and fun way (see PBIS Winter Wonderland below). We also know these five days are important for students and we want everyone to finish the semester strong. Please note that grades are not due until teachers return in January.

Please see below about movie policy and parent permission for the PBIS Winter Wonderland.

We have exciting news to share about the Milton Police School Liaison Officer. See below for more information about Officer Pannell. Make plans to join our PTO Meeting on Tuesday, January 9 at 9:30 am. We will be recognizing Officer Pannell as well as a few FCS School Police Officers who work to keep our students and staff safe everyday. Come meet our Law Enforcement partners and show your appreciation for their service.

I hope all our families enjoy their weekend. If you need anything, please don't hesitate to email me at petersonj1@fultonschools.org.

I can't wait to see our students again on Monday!

• December 8th & December 11th - 14th - Basketball Tryouts - 4:15pm
• December 11th - 15th - NMS 5 Days of Holiday Spirit (details below)
• December 14th - Rising 9th Grade Parent Meeting - 6:00pm
• December 16th - January 2nd - Winter Break
• January 3rd - 1st Day of 2nd Semester

Milton Police have been more present in schools over the past few weeks, including at Northwestern. Officer Pannell is the new School Liaison Officer for Milton Police. His position was approved by the City Council to work with school administration and increase the presence of Milton Police in local schools. Officer Pannell will consistently be in and around our school to assist however he is needed. If you see him around, please thank him for serving and supporting Wildcat Country!

A Rising 9th Grade Parent Meeting – The Middle School Perspective will be held Thursday, December 14th @ 6:00 PM in the cafeteria. This meeting is an overview of the steps taken at the middle school level regarding the high school transition process. This will be a live meeting with no recording. If you are unable to attend, meeting materials will be placed on the NMS website by the end of the day Friday, December 15th.

In an effort to deliver meaningful and informative transition information, please take a moment to provide questions or topics you would like to have covered using the link below.

Additionally, Rising 9th Grade transition meetings will be held 2nd semester at your student’s respective feeder high school.

A transition to high school lesson will be presented in early January to 8th grade students.

For questions, please contact Euodia Harris - harrise1@fultonschools.org

As part of the long standing gift tradition at our school, PTO will be collecting Gift Cards for our Staff again this year for the holidays. PTO will be providing a holiday lunch for our teachers and staff on December 13th. At this luncheon, faculty and staff will be able to select a gift card (or two) as our gift to them on behalf of all students and parents.

If you would like to purchase and donate a gift card please select a $10 or $20 denomination and drop off your donation by December 12th to the front desk and label it "PTO Staff Holiday Gift". Our staff especially enjoys gift cards from places like Publix, Kroger, Starbucks, Amazon, Chick-fil-A, Target and Walmart.

If you would like to provide a monetary donation, PTO will use all donated money to purchase gift cards on behalf of our Northwestern Middle School families for staff.

You may contribute here: https://northwesternpto.membershiptoolkit.com/form/m/216458

Join us for our annual week of Holiday Fun December 11th - 15th. Dress up days listed below. Please make sure all clothing items are school appropriate. Prizes will be awarded on "Ugly Sweater Day". We will end our week of fun with a school-wide Winter Wonderland PBIS Celebration. All students will be viewing "A Christmas Carol".

Students will watch a holiday movie during the last period of the school day on Friday, December 15. The movie most students will watch is Disney's A Christmas Carol. This movie is rated PG.

Here is the link to the movie's IMDb site - A Christmas Carol (2009) - IMDb.

If you do not give permission for your student to watch this movie, please email their homeroom teacher by Friday, December 15.

If your student's homeroom teacher intends to show a different PG rated holiday movie, they will email all parents the title of the movie and provide you with an opportunity to opt out your student.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Student Council has kicked off our annual Holiday Food Drive for North Fulton Community Charities. Items will be collected now through December 13th. See graphic below for requested items.

The homeroom in each grade level with the most donations will win a pizza party! Let' see if we can beat last year's donation of over 1000 items!

Thanks for your support!

Join the community at 3:15 on Wednesday, 12/13 to help send off the State Championship Bound Milton Eagles Football team! Bring your cowbells and signs to show your support for the boys as they head to Atlanta to play in Mercedes Benz Stadium against Walton HS @ 7:00pm.

The link to purchase tickets to the game is below, if you would like to come to Mercedes Benz to cheer the Eagles on to victory!

We would like your feedback and input to help select our Teacher and Professional of the Month. Often times, parents and students have great interactions with teachers and staff that administration doesn't see or is not aware of. We would like to include you in our process to select our Teacher and Professional of the Month. Use the links below to make your nominations. Nomination window for November awards will be open until December 2nd.

Our school website is full of information! The calendar is constantly updated with events from PTO, Fine Arts, Athletics and other school activities. There is a staff directory where you can get the email address of any staff member. Information on carpool, attendance, student handbook, bell schedule and more are located on the website!

Under the Academics Tab, you will find a list of department chairs, a curriculum guide, as well as the assessment calendars for each grade. Take a look to see any upcoming test or quizzes for your student. A list of all study sessions available to students is provided, as well. Links for the website, Assessment Calendars, and Study Sessions are below.

At Northwestern Middle School, we believe effective and timely communication is essential to our mission. NMS staff, students, and parents/guardians should maintain open, honest, and respectful lines of communication. Working together is the best way to help each student achieve success!

From Co-Presidents Victoria Tucker & Tracy Lynn Drye

Thank you to everyone who came to our meeting on Tuesday. 12/5. The next PTO meeting will be January 9 at 9:30 in the Media Center. We will celebrate our FCS police officers and our Milton PD School Liaison Office on National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day. Our featured speaker will be from our school partner Pathways2Life who will focus on prevention education.

Volunteers Needed - Lunch/Recess Coverage Dec 13

Parents to are needed cover Lunch & Recess duty on December 13 for each grade while they attend the PTO Holiday Lunch together! You may volunteer for any grade level - it does not need to match your student’s grade.

Please check in at the front desk, then report to the cafeteria. An Assistant Principal and Counselor will be present to guide you. After lunch, you will be asked to catch/chase balls back into play, keep an eye on students while at play, etc. during recess.

6th 10:45am - 11:45am

https://northwesternpto.membershiptoolkit.com/volunteer/121938

7th 12:40pm - 1:40pm

https://northwesternpto.membershiptoolkit.com/volunteer/121945

8th 11:40am - 12:40pm

https://northwesternpto.membershiptoolkit.com/volunteer/121941

Volunteers Needed - Lost & Found Clean Up

This is an opportunity once a month for several people to clean out the lost & found closet. It should take less than an hour. Sign up link with the full instructions is below. Please reach out to Victoria Tucker (victoriabuter@comcast.net) with questions.

Sign Up: https://northwesternpto.membershiptoolkit.com/volunteer/117964

Volunteer Interest Form

Please complete this short survey to indicate your volunteer interests for this school year & we will reach out with opportunities.

https://northwesternpto.membershiptoolkit.com/volunteer/114130

Business Partners

PTO is currently recruiting new Business Partners for the 23-24 school year. Do you own/work for a small business and would like more exposure for your services while at the same time supporting your child’s school? This is also a great opportunity for real estate agents, lawyers, accountants, etc. to support our school in many meaningful ways and receive promotion for your business through multiple channels reaching NMS families. Please email northwesternmspto@gmail.com for more information on partnership levels & benefits or sign up here: https://northwesternpto.membershiptoolkit.com/form/m/237949

Looking to purchase a gift for your student's teachers? Want to know what things they like?

PTO has assembled a list of the staff's favorite things!

Don't see your teacher listed? Just means they haven't had a chance to complete their form. Keep checking back...PTO will be updating the document as lists are added.

Mark your calendars for SPIRIT NIGHT at Playa Bowls - Crabapple Market.

Thursday, 12/14 - 4:30 PM to 8:00 PM

Raise money for NMS & no cooking dinner stress for this busy time of year!

Hello NMS Families,

Looking for the perfect and safest Holiday Gift for your kiddos!! Look NO further than the NEWEST BARK PHONE!!

Plans start at just $29/month with no contract required.

We’re proud to announce we've joined the Bark Community Partners Program! As a Bark Community Partner, our parents have ongoing access to up-to-date digital parenting resources, top-tier subject matter experts, and free social media safety tools.

As an added bonus, our NMS PTO will receive $100 when a NMS family orders a Bark Phone.

Why families need the Bark Phone?

Off-the-shelf Androids and iPhones aren’t built for kids — and there are tons of ways that they could encounter digital dangers and inappropriate content. The Bark Phone was built by parents, for parents, and it lets you control nearly everything your child can do, from contact requests to when they can open up YouTube.

What makes the Bark Phone safer than other kid’s phones:

●GPS location tracking

●Texts can’t be deleted

●Monitoring of messages and social media

●Alerts for potential dangers

●Screen time schedules

●Website & app blocking

●Tamper-proof settings

Learn More and purchase NOW using the link below!!

Tom's Place: Our Wildcat Serving Food and Clothing Pantry helps our very own Wildcats in need.

WINTER COATS AND WARM WEATHER ITEMS DRIVE NOV 15th-DEC 15th:

It's getting cold outside. If you clear out your closets, keep in mind, we need winter coats and cold weather items for middle school students. Please send in gently used or new coats and winter wear including: Hats, scarves, gloves, coats needed. New underwear and socks are needed for both girls and boys too.

PANTRY ITEMS NEEDED:

Please consider stocking the pantry to fulfil the needs and necessities aiding students in our community. Single serve food items and microwavable single serves are appreciated. Signup for specific items needed here: https://northwesternpto.membershiptoolkit.com/volunteer/117111

Purchased and donated items may be dropped off to the front office. Please label or tell them it's for Tom's Place.

If you would prefer to make a monetary donation to this cause you can do so through the Wildcat Cares Fund:

https://northwesternpto.membershiptoolkit.com/form/m/232683

Thank you in advance for supporting this effort. Should we have excess winter coat and warm item donations this season we will donate additional items to local charities that also support students in need in our area.

The front office likes to have a stash of chocolate and candy (non chocolate) for the staff to access and get them through the day. Please help us keep their stash stocked. After all, most of us can relate to stress eating! Sign up here: https://northwesternpto.membershiptoolkit.com/volunteer/111882

**** What’s your FAVORITE PIE this Thanksgiving****

Our partner Southern Baked Pie is providing great options and flavors for us to pre order for Thanksgiving!!! A wonderful way to support our partners this holiday season, sit back and enjoy some delicious pie!

Happy Thanksgiving Holidays to everyone from Aurora Cineplex!

Movies and Mini Golf OPEN Extended Hours during the holiday break—

OPEN Thanksgiving Day

10am-10pm—Friday Nov 17th—Sat Nov 25th

10am-8pm Sun Nov 26th

Playing New Movies—

The Marvels, The Hunger Games, Next Goal Wins, Hunger Games, Napoleon and more!

Located at -Aurora Cineplex—5100 Commerce Parkway, Roswell, GA 30076 Ph-770-518-0977

Northwestern will offer many clubs and student activities for our students during the 2023-24 school year. Check back often for more information!

If you have a question about starting a new school club, please email Beth Wylie at wyliee@fultonschools.org.

The NMS Student Garden was established in 2011 as a permaculture and wildlife garden. It has gone through many iterations. Its most recent additions (2023) are a no-till section (which is affiliated with the Rodale Institute for Organic Research) and five new fruit trees (planted in celebration of Earth Day). If you would like to contribute (monetarily) to the maintenance of this site and its research, then you can use the link below. If you have any other questions about the site, please free to contact Dr. Bartlett at: bartlettj@fultonschools.org. Thank you for your continued support of Northwestern MS 🙂

Our School Governance Council has discussed the need to do more as a school community to better understand our student's use of social media and cell phones, and provide education for students and families around this issue. This school year, our students will engage in more discussions with staff around safe and responsible use of cell phones.

Representatives from Bark presented at one of our previous PTO meetings. As a company, Bark provides monitoring service and resources for families. I will be sharing information from Bark and other sources weekly in our newsletter.

There is also a Facebook group that is a great resource: Parenting in a Tech World

Parenting in a Tech World | Facebook

Home of the Wildcats!

Email: nmsfrontdesk@fultonschools.org
Website: https://www.fultonschools.org/northwesternms
Location: 12805 Birmingham Highway, Milton, GA, USA
Phone: (470) 254-2870
Twitter: @TheNMSWildcats

Thank you for your continued support of Northwestern Middle School!

Sincerely,

Joel - Principal

Northwestern Middle School: Teach Hard, Love Harder - The Wildcat Way!