Dear Walsh Families,

Welcome back! We hope you had a relaxing and joyful winter break. We are excited to see our students return to school and begin the second half of the school year.

As we start this new year, we look forward to continuing to support and inspire our students to grow, learn, and achieve. Whether in the classroom or during fun school events, we are eager to see the continued progress and positive energy that our students bring each day.

Thank you for your ongoing partnership and support. Let’s make 2025 another amazing year for our students at Walsh School!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Megan Urban

As the weather gets colder, we want to ensure all of our students are prepared to participate in outdoor recess. Please ensure your child comes to school with warm winter gear, including a coat, hat, gloves, boots, and snow pants as needed. Our students will go outside for recess as long as the "feels-like" temperature is 20 degrees or above.

To help your child be successful and comfortable during this time, we encourage them to practice putting on and taking off their winter gear independently or with minimal assistance. Developing this skill not only supports their independence but also allows for smoother transitions during the school day.

Thank you for your continued support in keeping our Bulldogs warm and ready to enjoy outdoor recess!

During the week of January 13th, all kindergarten and first grade students will complete their winter FastBridge benchmarking assessments. Please encourage your child to get a good night's sleep and eat a healthy breakfast before coming to school on these testing days.

We are excited to celebrate all of our students' accomplishments and growth since the beginning of the year. After the testing window concludes, our classroom teachers and support service providers will meet to ensure that all students are receiving the appropriate instruction and supports here at school. FastBridge Parent Reports will be made available to families once testing is complete.

This month, our Walsh EL teacher, Mrs. Clark, will be administering this year’s ACCESS test to all of Walsh’s EL students. The results from the ACCESS test will help guide our staff in making decisions about how to best support our students' English academic language development. Students' scores will reflect proficiency levels ranging from Level 1 (Entering) to Level 6 (Reaching).

Test scores can be used for a variety of purposes:

1. As benchmarks against which educators can measure future performance.
2. For accountability purposes.
3. As a measure to make reclassification decisions about whether a student can exit English language support services.
4. To support decisions about placing students into appropriate classes or groups for instruction and instructional planning.
5. To show the progress students have made.

If your child receives EL services and you have any questions about the ACCESS test, the results, or the score reports (when available), please don’t hesitate to reach out to Mrs. Clark.

Don't miss out on your opportunity to order this year's Will County School District 92 2024-2025 Yearbook! The deadline for purchase is April 4th, 2025.

If you have a Walsh School staff member you would like to celebrate for all they do, please fill out the form below to share in recognizing their efforts! Your response will be given to the staff member to acknowledge the fantastic work they do and the difference they make! You can find this link posted in every monthly newsletter.