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The Chameleon Connection: RISE
News for Families: Week 3: August 21-25 , 2023
A Message from GQES Administration
GREAT START for the 2023-2024 school year!!
Hello!
We completed our first full week of school! Thank you for sending your child to school, on time, and ready to learn! We are teaching our expectations and procedures to maintain safety, increase learning, build positive relationships, and enable our students to thrive every day at our school. By now, you hopefully have met your child's teacher and received communication from your child's teacher. Plenty of research supports when a child has a positive home-school communication/partnership, the child thrives as a learner!
You probably have heard your child talking about our positive behavior intervention system. Our habits that we want to teach students are summarized by BEING KIND. We teach smiling faces, listening ears, helpful hands, respecting boundaries, and being their best in any and all learning tasks. Each teacher has an acknowledgement system connected to our school wide habits. Please encourage your child to BE KIND daily at school.
A few housekeeping items:
- Dismissal is significantly better----thank you parents/guardians for working with us!
- Always inform our office of any dismissal changes, please.
- Parents are invited to each lunch with their children in our cafeteria after AFTER LABOR DAY on 9/5/23.
Always update emergency contacts, addresses, custody, and phone numbers as changes arise. If you have any questions, please call our school's main office at 540-662-3575. Thank you!
Joanie Hovatter
Principal, Garland R. Quarles Elementary School
(540) 662-3575 (Phone)
(540) 662-8449 (Fax)
A message from Transportation about Walk Zones
As our first full week of school comes to an end, we want to provide an update on Walk Zones. We hope the extra staff supporters located throughout the neighborhood this week have been helpful. Starting next week, our Crossing Guards will be the primary staff remaining in the neighborhood and will be stationed at the following locations:
-Loudoun & Southwerk
-Loudoun & E Whitlock
-Loudoun & Bellview
Please email walkzones@wps.k12.va.us with any questions or concerns.
Upcoming Dates: GQES
Academic Night #1 at GQES September 7, 2023 from 5:30-7:30pm
School Picture Day
General GQES Information
Important Forms
Student Expectations at GQES
Safe and Welcoming Information
Times:
School starts at 7:50 am
School ends at 2:20 pm
Students arrive every day, on time, and ready to learn!
Parent/Guardian Expectations:
Parents/guardians must provide proper identification(license) through our Identakid security system. Anytime parents/guardians enter GQES, they are expected to cooperate with all WPS and GQES staff members as well as follow all policies, procedures, and protocols.
Student Behavior Expectations:
Students and staff demonstrate:
SMILING faces,
LISTENING ears,
HELPING hands,
and RESPECTING boundaries.
All students will TRY THEIR BEST in all learning tasks by persevering, knowing they can do hard things, gaining confidence, and having fun!
IMPORTANT DETAILS: Anytime there is a change in a students’ address, emails, phone numbers, medical conditions, or custody situations, the main office must be provided with the necessary documentation.
Immunizations:
No student can begin at GQES unless their immunizations are up to date.
First 16 days: (Right before Labor Day):
We need all parents/guardians to help us help our students learn the expectations, routines, procedures to get settled into school and to learn, grow, and THRIVE!!!
Parents should be prepared to say goodbyes before the door.
Parents can call and then, come eat lunch in our cafeteria, after Labor Day after the first 16 days.
Arrival Procedures: (7:20-7:45 am)
AM CAR RIDERS:
- Cars may drop off students (one line of cars); two or more can drop off at a time SAFELY in our school’s main lot. Parents will unload their own children expediently and safely. GQES staff will welcome and supervise students safely onto our sidewalks and cross walks. We need for parents to arrive early and move safely through the process.
- Parents should be prepared to say goodbyes before the door. Parents have the right to park and walk their child up to the main walkway if desired. Students will be greeted by staff and our staff will help guide them to their destination. Again, we expect parents to always be vigilant and pay close attention to driving and moving pedestrians.
AM Bus Riders:
- Buses will unload students in the back of the school where GQES staff will welcome and supervise students. We teach children to walk on the right to maintain safety and order. Proper bus behavior is explicitly stated in the back to school packet given to every student and on the Winchester Public School website. Riding a bus is a privilege for students.
AM Walkers:
- When students walk to GQES, especially with the expanded walk zones, parents are expected to get their children safely to school. GQES staff will welcome and supervise students as they enter school property at the streets (Whitlock, South Loudoun, Southwerk, and Kent Streets).
Dismissal Procedures: (2:20-2:30pm)
- When school is over, students will be called over the public address system to exit as bus riders, SIGNED OUT: ON CAMPUS students, CHAMELEON CONVOY (walkers to designated street corners) and then, those students who go to Right At School, The Hive, or Kids' Club after school programs in an orderly way. Parents of SIGNED OUT: ON CAMPUS students may come stand in line at 2:20 pm under the main awning.
PM: SIGNED OUT: ON-CAMPUS:
- Students with the last name of A-L will go to the cafeteria where they will be welcomed and supervised.
- Students with the last name of M-Z will go to the gym where they will be welcomed and supervised.
- Parents must park, come into the building, provide a proper form of identification (driver’s license), await being allowed into the building and sign out their child(ren) in the main lobby. Parents and children will exit the building after the child is signed out. This is for safety.
- Buses will load students in the back of the school where GQES staff will welcome and supervise students. We teach children to walk on the right to maintain safety and order. Proper bus behavior is explicitly stated in the back to school packet given to every student and on the Winchester Public School website. Riding a bus is a privilege for students.
- As students walk from GQES, to one of the designated corner streets (Corner A: Southwerk/Kent; Corner B: South Loudoun/Southwerk; Corner C: Whitlock/South Loudoun) GQES staff will supervise students as they exit school property. It is the parents’ responsibility to make sure their child walks safely to home daily. We expect and ask for parents to work with the Winchester Public School’s new policy of extended walk zones.
Eating Lunch at GQES:
- Parents are welcome at GQES to eat lunch with their students AFTER THE FIRST 16 days of school where we are setting up routines, please. . All parents must follow the procedures. Notify our main office of the intent to join the student at lunch by phone. No pictures of other students may be taken. Parents are to sit at the parent table and interact with their child. Parents must exit the building via the office when the child leaves the cafeteria to return to class.
Questions:
Contact our main office at 540-662-3575.
THANK YOU!!!!