Kennedy Cougars
Your Weekly Update from Kennedy Middle School
Principal's Message
Week 11 of the school year ... and it's 70 degrees???
Dear Kennedy Families and Caregivers,
Kennedy Annual Veterans' Day Breakfast: In traditional Kennedy style, our student and school community honored our Natick Veterans today at our annual Veterans' day breakfast. During this special event, students sit, have breakfast, and ask questions about the experiences that these special veterans have had while serving our country. This is an event that we treasure here at Kennedy and this year did NOT disappoint. I have shared some of the wonderful pictures below. Thank you to our 8th grade social studies team teachers, Jeff Raider, Brian Miller, and Chris Forest, for putting this special event together. We are so grateful to you for putting this special and momentous event together. A big shout out to our 8th grade students for chatting with the veterans and asking them about their service for our country.
Parent /Teacher Conferences: As you are aware, parent/teacher conferences filled up much faster than we anticipated. Please remember that we will be offering more conferences during team time, as we have always done in the past. If you are in need of a conference, feel free to reach out to your team leader and they will accommodate you. Thank you for your understanding as we navigate this new system into our middle schools across the district and stay tuned for details of our further implementation going forward.
Coat Donations for the Interact Club: The Kennedy Interact Club is hosting a coat drive! Bring in any new or used coats to donate. The club is also accepting boots, gloves, and any other winter gear. The coat drive is from November seventh until the thirtieth. There is a donation box stationed at the front entrance of the school so come and donate to people in need!
Kennedy sports update - Registration for winter sports is happening now. See below for directions.
Warm regards,
Jodie Cohen, Principal
"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear."
~ Mark Twain
Twitter - @KennedyMSNatick
Instagram - @KennedyMSNatick
Pictures from Veterans' Day event at Kennedy...
SIX Things You Need to Know
1 - Middle School Tutoring Program at NHS
We are happy to announce that KMS is continuing our collaboration with the high school and running a tutoring program for middle school students at Kennedy and Wilson. There are members of the National Honor Society at the high school who are volunteering to tutor middle school students. Our hope is to create tutoring partnerships that will primarily meet in person at the high school library between 2:30-5 p.m. as it will be monitored by a staff member. Occasionally, sessions can be held via Google Meet as a virtual option. Families will primarily be responsible for transporting their students to the high school for their tutoring sessions. We are providing training for the tutors on best practices for working with middle school students.
If you are interested in signing your student up for tutoring, please fill out this form. The hope is to get students matched with tutors by the end of November.
2 - Kennedy Middle School Winter Athletic Teams
Winter Sports Offerings:
Boys Basketball (Grades 7 & 8)
Girls Basketball (Grades 7 & 8)
Boys & Girls Wrestling (Grades 5-8)
Winter Athletics Virtual Informational Meetings
To Register for Kennedy Athletics
- Registration for Kennedy Athletics can be done completely online via FamilyID.com (Online Registration Instruction Sheet). Choose "Natick Public School Athletic" and the correct Program (Kennedy Winter 2022-2023 Registration for 7th & 8th Graders or Kennedy Winter 2022-2023 Registration for 5th & 6th Graders).
- Please upload your child's medical physical* on FamilyID. The medical physical date must be within 13 months of the start of the season in order to participate in athletics. If you need a new physical and cannot get an appointment with your child's physician, you may want to consider going to an Urgent Care or Minute Clinic or have your doctor write a note stating the date of your child's upcoming physical and that your child is "healthy and able to participate in sports. If you would rather bring a printed copy of the physical, please turn into Mr. Lyth.
- The preferred payment method for athletics at Natick is online at UniPay (Natick Public Schools - Kennedy Middle School). The athletic fee is $225. You can also pay by check if you prefer with the check made out to "NHS Athletics" and given to Mr. Lyth. All athletes need to pay before tryouts/first wrestling practice. Students who do not make the basketballs teams will be refunded. The deadline to complete registration is 11/22/22. Student-athletes cannot participate in athletics until this registration process is done! Vaccination & testing requirements are no longer required for participation in athletics in Natick.
- 7th & 8th grade student-athletes will need to complete three free NFHS courses (Implicit Bias course, Hazing Prevention for Students & Concussion for Students) 1X a calendar year. 5th & 6th grade student-athletes will need to complete the NFHS Concussion for Students course 1X a calendar year. These are required by MIAA schools and NPS student-athletes at the MS & HS levels. After completing a course, the student-athlete will earn a "completion course certificate." This should be uploaded in the appropriate and designated area during registration on FamilyID. The courses are linked in the registration on FamilyID but here are the links for the courses also: NFHS Implicit Bias Course, NFHS Hazing Prevention for Students & NFHS Concussion for Students. FYI...after visiting the page for the course you will need to order the free courses. You will also need to create an NFHS account (under student-athletes name) if you don't already have one setup.
If you have any questions please email Mr. Lyth, dlyth@natickps.org.
3 - KMS Fall Play 2022 "The Snow", by Finegan Kruckemeyer
When an epic snowfall imprisons the residents of the tiny village of Kishka, young Theodore Sutton proposes the villagers build a catapult to fling him and six of the village’s bravest and strongest out in search of a solution. The catapult hastily assembled, Theodore and the heroes are launched over the snow and into the grandest of adventures. Whimsical and humorous, dark and mysterious, heartfelt and sincere, this play weaves a fantastical Grimmsian tale for the entire family.
Performances will be:
- Friday November 18th at 7:00pm
- Saturday November 19th at 7:00pm
- Sunday November 20th at 2:00pm
Tickets are $10, available at the door, and in the Kennedy front office the week prior to the show
4 - Picture Retakes, Wednesday, December 7th
For any student who was not in school on our last picture day (October 20th) or for anyone who would like a retake, the photographers will be returning to Kennedy for retakes. The original prints will be sent home before this date for review. You may still order prints on www.coffeepond.com.
5 - Yearbook Orders
The full-color, 64+ page, hard-cover yearbook that chronicles the highlights of the 2022-23 school year is on sale now! We are discounting the book until November 14th. If you reserve your copy before 11/14 the price is only $30. After the 14th, the cost increases to $35. All orders must be placed by January 10, 2023, to be guaranteed a book! Any orders placed after January 10th will cost $40 and are subject to availability. Order your book today! 8th-grade students who qualify for financial aid should speak to their guidance counselor about seeing if they qualify for a free book.
6 - UPCOMING SCHOOL EVENTS for your calendar
- Wednesday, November 16: Release Day - Parent teacher conferences
- Wednesday, November 23: Release Day
- Thursday, November 24: Thanksgiving holiday - NO SCHOOL
- Friday, November 25: NO SCHOOL
- Monday, November 28: NILS Teacher Professional Development Day - NO SCHOOL
Paper - On-Demand Tutoring
Natick Public Schools is excited to announce our partnership with Paper for on-demand tutoring for NHS students. Paper is a secure, online tutoring service that provides students with unlimited, 24/7 academic support. Whether they’re stuck on homework, studying for a test, or need someone to read and make suggestions to their essays, there will always be experts available online to assist students in over 200 subjects and more than 4 languages.
Paper tutors have been specially trained to conduct expert, academic support in a secure, chat-based platform. With a commitment to helping students learn, they’ll never give students answers, but rather interact with them in an encouraging tone to lead them forward.
This is a free service that we’re providing, so students are encouraged to use it as much as they need, whenever they need. Our teachers also have accounts and will be able to review all student activity to see what they’re working on and provide more targeted instruction as needed.
If you’d like to learn more about Paper you can sign up for a Paper hosted Parent Info Session, available in both English and Spanish.
To see Paper and the help it offers firsthand, we encourage you to login with your students. To get started, simply visit PAPER’s student login page, type your school’s name, and log in via Google using your school credentials
We’re thrilled to offer our students the unlimited, 24/7 support that Paper provides and we can’t wait to see what we’re able to accomplish together.
Our Kennedy Middle School PTO works hard behind the scenes to support our school in a variety of ways. They are working diligently to bring great activities to our school community. Please check out their website for more information.
Quick Links
Speak Up, Natick!
Send us your questions or ideas via Speak Up, Natick!
Bullying Incident Report
Use this form to report a bullying incident.
PowerSchool Support
Technology Support
COVID-19 Updates
View the latest COVID-19 updates from NPS.
- Title I: Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990Title II
- Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990Title VI
- Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964Title IX
- Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972
- MGL, Ch.76, Section 5: Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 76, Section 5