Wentworth School Family News
2024-2025 School Year
Mark your calendars
Wednesday, January 15 - Early Release at 1:45 PM
Monday, January 20 - No School: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Friday, January 31 - Spirit Day TBD (RESPECT Token voting)
Wednesday, February 5 - Wentworth PTA/PTO Meeting at 6:30 - Wentworth Learning Commons
Wednesday, February 12 - Early Release at 1:45 PM
February 17 - 21 - No School: Winter Break
Scarborough Public Schools has adopted GoGuardian Beacon services as part of our schools' broader suicide prevention program. GoGuardian Beacon is a monitoring software used on school issued devices. It now has a parent / guardian notification feature for parents to get instant alerts if their child’s online activity raises concerns. The alert will be to the email address listed in PowerSchool for the child’s parents or guardians. The target date to have this up and running is January 6, 2025.
GoGuardian Beacon helps notify our schools and parents if the system detects that a child searches, creates, views, or interacts with online content that could be related to suicide and active planning. Because of this, GoGuardian Beacon helps us detect and intervene when a child may be at risk of suicide or self-harm.
It is important to know that neither Scarborough Public Schools nor GoGuardian Beacon can possibly detect every situation when a child is suicidal. Click here for more information about GoGuardian/Beacon services and suicide prevention information.
Dear Families of Students in Fifth Grade:
The purpose of this letter is to inform you about upcoming health topics in fifth grade puberty education for your child. Our Puberty Education Instructors are one of our school nurses, Anne Ornstein, and one of our health and physical education teachers, Keith Kitchin. This letter will provide an overview of the schedule, curriculum, and plans for Puberty Classes this year.
Puberty Education takes place as part of the grade 5 PE/Health curriculum. Classes will begin January 28 and continue through February 26, 2025, students watch the video Always Changing and Growing Up | Co-Ed Puberty Education Video. We have linked it in this letter so you know exactly what your child will see and discuss. If you choose to begin the conversation at home, here are some additional resources you may find helpful.
In the second class, which will take place the week of February 3, Mrs. Ornstein and Mr. Kitchin will play a fun “Truth or Myth” game with the students, reviewing the important points from the video. Students will also have a lesson from the Safer, Smarter Kids curriculum titled Body Boundaries. We previously held an Information Night about this new curriculum, and you can access the presentation slides and a video from SARSSM here. You will also receive a Home-School connection letter, summarizing the lesson during the second week of Puberty Class.
Finally, in week three, the students split up into two groups based on sex assigned at birth. The female students work with Mrs. Ornstein and the male students work with Mr. Kitchin to discuss topics specific to their anatomy. Mrs. Ornstein introduces (or reviews) menstruation products and provides an opportunity for questions while Mr. Kitchin reviews key points of the male anatomy and body changes, answers questions and plays a review game with the males. If your child identifies differently on the gender spectrum, we can create a customized plan - please reach out to us to talk through what will work best for your child.
Thank you for your support as we move into the Puberty Education Unit for our fifth graders. Should you elect to have your child excluded from this three week program, please notify the Health Office at aornstein@scarboroughschools.org in advance so alternative arrangements can be made for your child. Likewise, if you have any questions please reach out to us. We appreciate your partnership in this important work.
Respectfully,
Kelli Crosby
Principal
Dear Scarborough Families,
Students are important partners as we work to improve our schools. Our focus on supporting our students with the life long skills necessary for success within and beyond our schools is referred to as social emotional learning or SEL for short. We have used the Panorama Survey tools to gather feedback over the past few years to inform school and district level changes for our students.
This winter we plan to survey grade 3-12 students on their perceptions of their skills and competencies. In the spring we plan to survey our students again on their perceptions of the supports and environments we provide within their schools. These are short online surveys that will take less than 30 minutes to complete. The winter survey will take place between January 27-February 7, 2025. The spring survey will take place May 5-16, 2025.
We are asking that all of our students participate in the surveys, as their feedback provides invaluable insights into their experiences and how we can improve and adapt our district to their needs. If a student doesn’t feel like they have enough information to answer a question, they will be able to skip the item altogether. If a student is uncomfortable taking the survey, they do not need to take it. Only the principals, guidance counselors, social workers, and district leadership will have access to individual student responses. Individual responses may be shared with a child’s educational team, including their classroom teacher(s), as needed. In such cases, parents will also be informed. Only in partnership can we support each and every student.
We partner with a third-party vendor to support the administration of these surveys. To learn more go to Panorama Education. The winter survey content will ask students to self-reflect on their perceptions of their experiences at school. The survey topics include:
Self-Management: How well students manage their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in different situations.
Social Awareness: How well students consider the perspectives of others and empathize with them.
Self-Efficacy: How much students believe they can succeed in achieving academic outcomes.
Emotion Regulation: How well students regulate their emotions
Growth Mindset: Student perceptions of whether they have the potential to change those factors that are central to their performance in school.
Supportive Relationships: How supported students feel through their relationships with friends, family, and adults at school.
The spring survey content asks students to self-reflect on the following topics:
School Climate: Perceptions of the overall social and learning climate of the school.
Teacher-Student Relationships: How strong the social connection is between teachers and students within and beyond
Sense of Belonging: How much students feel that they are valued members of the school community.
School Safety: Perceptions of student physical and psychological safety while at school.
Engagement: How attentive and invested students are in school.
Rigorous Expectations: How much students feel that their teachers hold them to high expectations around effort, understanding, persistence, and performance in class.
These surveys are optional. If you do not wish your child to take part in either or both of the surveys, please let your teacher and principal know.
Scarborough Public Schools values our partnership with you as we work together to prepare our students for success beyond Scarborough Schools. We value input from our students – and we want to hear from your child or children! If you have any questions about the survey, please don’t hesitate to contact me or your child’s building administrator.
Sincerely,
Katie Vetro
Director of Curriculum and Assessment
Scarborough Public Schools
Calling all Wentworth Students!
You are invited to design a cover for the Wentworth School 2024-2025 Yearbook!
Entries for the contest must follow these guidelines:
● Use 81⁄2 x 11 inch white paper.
● Portrait layout (vertical orientation, like the image to the right).
● Include only your original artwork- no stickers, clip art, or
images that are not your own creation.
● Bright and colorful! Use crayon, marker, paint, or pastels. You
can create a digital design if you wish. Stand back from it and be
sure your designs and letters show up boldly!
● Fill in the page. Leave little to no blank space on the page. The bigger the design,
the better!
● Your cover design must include Wentworth School and 2024-2025 in a clear,
easy to see manner. “Growing as Learners” is this year’s theme.
● Make sure all spelling is correct.
● Do NOT write your name or teacher's name on the front or on the back of
the paper. See instructions below.
Turn in your cover design to the main office. Entries are due by Friday, January 17th, 2024
Students will vote on the best covers that meet the criteria above. Good Luck to all who enter!
Here is the link to the flyer or ask for a hard copy at school!
Your Wentworth PTA has the perfect "gift" to help families and friends in their holiday shopping and gift giving. Skip the lines and the hassle AND help us fundraise!
We are proud to partner with Raiseright for the 3rd year in a row to offer a custom gift card shopping experience that in turn helps us continue to help sponsor our year-long student and teacher events and activities.
Kicking off NOW until December 18th, you have the chance to purchase from 750+ top gift card brands! Please use the enrollment link or QR Code below so we get credit for your orders! Once you start adding gift card(s) to your cart and are ready to check out, you can choose to have them sent to you (mail or email). Please email us at wentworthpta@gmail.com with any questions.
Wentworth Enrollment Gift Card Link or scan this QR Code on the top of this information.
Contact Us
Email: kcrosby@scarboroughschools.org
Website: www.wentworth.scarboroughschools.org
Location: 20 Quentin Drive, Scarborough, ME, USA
Phone: (207)730-4600