WJHS Highlights

Dear WJHS Families,

We hope that you have some fun planned for spring break and are able to rest and relax!

After spring break I will be hosting a few focus groups between now and the end of the school year. This work will begin with eighth graders and consist of a randomly selected group of students for me to meet with and gather feedback about their WJHS experience. We are always looking to reflect, improve, and grow, and our students' voice is critical in us knowing what we are doing well and where we can focus on some improvement. I will meet with students during their elective classes. Please let me know if you would prefer that I not speak with your child about their experience at WJHS.

Today at school we celebrated World Down Syndrome Day by wearing fun and colorful socks! People with Down Syndrome have three copies of the 21st chromosome, and so we celebrate them on the 21st day of the third month: March 21st. Check out some photos below!

If you are headed off somewhere on vacation, safe travels! We will see your children back at school on April 1.

Warm regards,

Kate, Eric and Nicole

On March 9th, the D39 MathCounts team finished 19 out of 37 teams at the MathCounts Competition. The team of Albert, Joseph, Eric, Ava and Sophia all helped WJHS move from the district to state competition. There were about 216 competitors overall, so we are very proud of all of them! Congratulations to the students and their coach Mrs. Radcliffe!

The High Five Junior Choir Demonstration and the Youth Treble Honor Choir performed at the 2024 Organization of American Kodály Educators conference. These students represented D39 so well! Many music teachers shared with Jana Martin, Director, how much they enjoyed the High Five demo (in the Grand Ballroom), and a few said it was the highlight of the whole conference! They did an amazing job! The honor choirs sounded beautiful at the CSO and they worked so hard on their challenging repertoire!

We had a great parent education event this past week discussing attendance and promoting positive attendance. As we get closer to spring break, we know the disruption in routine can be difficult for our students, and can often create stress as they return to school after a break like this. See below for a couple of helpful ideas to ease that transition back to the school routine and support positive attendance habits after a long break.

• While on break, try to keep your child’s AM routines as close to normal as possible. This is especially important in the couple of days leading up to the return. Have your child get up at their regular school-day time, eat breakfast and get ready for the day, and maybe even plan an activity to take place at the same time as their start day.

• It is important to also encourage your child to get back into their nightly routine and school-day bedtimes in the 2-3 days preceding the return. This will help to ensure they are caught up on sleep and ready to go the first morning back.

• If possible, keep some connection to the school while school is not in session. This might be by having a play date or connecting your child with friends from school over break, or going to play at the playground during the break.

Have a wonderful Spring Break, and enjoy the time away! We can’t wait to see you in April!

We have updated our WJHS Winter Clubs. We have linked the lists below:

7th grade clubs (period 5)

8th grade clubs (period 6)

*After school clubs are open to students in both grades.

8th grade graduation will take place on Wednesday, June 5 at 5:30pm in the new Winnetka Main Gym, at the Winnetka Campus of New Trier High School on Wednesday, June 5, 2023. We are excited to offer one graduation ceremony this year for the entire 8th grade class, set to take place at 5:30 pm. Due to space in the gym, each student will be offered four tickets for family.

District 39 uses a content filtering system to keep our students safe while using digital tools. Along with the content filtering, communication through school accounts is also monitored. Students can communicate with others through their Google Apps, such as Google Docs, Schoology Discussion, Email and many other ways to collaborate, work together, get support and ask questions. These communication tools are monitored for appropriate use, such as language, where they will get flagged if anything inappropriate is happening. If they are sent messages with inappropriate language or content, they will also get flagged. We teach, model and guide students to use appropriate language and communicate respectfully when using these tools. We also remind them that they should be doing this in their daily life, whether digitally or face to face. Please partner with us to help remind them to be mindful of how they communicate.

Email: office-wjhs@wilmette39.org
Website: http://wjhs.wilmette39.org/
Location: 620 Locust Rd, Wilmette, IL, USA
Phone: 847-512-6600
Instagram: @hawkwolf39
Twitter: @hawkwolf39