Middle School Matters

The Mission of Portsmouth Middle School is to create a strong and safe learning environment: promote social, emotional and physical well-being and to provide opportunities for each student, to the best of their ability, to meet high academic standards, develop responsibility, and achieve the positive social values and behaviors to become productive citizens.

There will be no school for students on Tuesday, April 2nd, 2024, due to a district Professional Development Day. We look forward to seeing students on Wednesday.

The end of the 3rd quarter is this Thursday, April 4th. Report cards will come out by April 12th.

This Thursday and Friday, we will be hosting RICAS assemblies for all grades. The purpose of the meetings will be to review testing procedures and expectations, and to celebrate students who made significant gains of 15 points or more on last year's RICAS test.

We will share the presentation with families on Friday afternoon. We will be taking the ELA sessions 1 and 2 next Tuesday, April 9th and Wednesday, April 10th in homeroom for most students. More information will follow.

Our students had a great time and performed extremely well at All State!

Our Anchor 4 Life team will be celebrating the Month of the Military Child with special recognition. More information will follow once we have the details.

Please see volume 2 of our very own Student Newspaper put out by the Creative Writing Club. Click here to read it.

Our theatre club has been hard at working preparing for their debut of Legally Blonde Jr. Tickets are now on sale for our three shows. Please click the link here for the ticket order form.

Starting tomorrow, students will be allowed to congregate in the school courtyard for drop off starting at 7:40 A.M. This measure is being taken to attempt to help families during drop off. We are looking to have all of our students in homeroom by 7:58 A.M. This provides 18 minutes for drop off in the morning. Please remember that as soon as your vehicle pulls to a stop along the front sidewalk of the school, your child may exit the car. This will help keep the line moving. We will have our admin team out front to assist with the movement of cars. Thank you for your cooperation.

All students participated in a school-wide lesson with a focus on Electronic Expectations on Monday, March 25. The lesson focused on our core values of Being Responsible, Being Respectful, and Being Safe.

The following were reviewed with students and we would appreciate your support at reviewing and reinforcing these expectations at home:

• Electronic devices should be off and away in backpacks/lockers while at school
• If a student is not feeling well, they should see the nurse for support.
• Chromebooks should come to school daily fully charged
• Please help us at home by reminding your child to plug in their device and charge it every night.
• Anonymous Reporting Link
• On the PSD website, a link to report suspected bullying or concerns is available
• Digital Footprint
• Remember all that is posted on the Internet is part of your digital footprint. Be proud of the footprint you are creating.

Bradley Hospital, the nation’s first psychiatric hospital for children, and Lifespan Community Health Institute present the 33rd Parenting Matters conference as a virtual event, via Zoom. This half-day event offers parents, childcare providers, social workers and teachers a unique opportunity to learn from top child development and behavior professionals in a casual setting. Parenting Matters Flyer

Portsmouth High School's Green Club is committed to promoting environmental conservation through the teaching of students with multiple events and projects within the school system and beyond. As part of this goal, the club is hosting a community-wide tree-planting event to offset the school's annual energy consumption. Our goal is to give out 350 saplings to the residents of Portsmouth and surrounding towns, which would offset the amount of carbon our school emitted from electricity and gas last year. Our event will be held on May 4th, 2024. Residents can support our mission by ordering saplings for $5 or donating to make saplings free for others. Residents can choose from Eastern Rebund, Red Maple, and Yellow Poplar saplings. All of these saplings will thrive in our New England climate. We look forward to making our community more sustainable! Please check out our website.

KADC Dance Team fundraiser

Please see the link here if you would like to support the KADC Dance Team fundraiser.

We would like to celebrate that our average daily attendance is 94%. If we learned one thing from the pandemic, it is how much our students learn better from being present in school. We have taken the last few weeks to highlight some reminders in our newsletter and this week we are resharing the school committee policies regarding attendance. As a reminder, anytime a student is absent unexcused for 5/10/15 days, a letter is auto generated and sent home. Families whose children reach 10 days of unexcused absence will receive a call from their school counselor to check in and see if there are any resources that families may need. Fifteen days of unexcused absences may trigger truancy proceedings. Linked is the attendance policy. Student Attendance and Truancy Policy

We are finding that students are using the bathrooms to check their phones and text friends or home. Cell phones are not to be used in school, per RI law. If students do not feel well, we have a certified school nurse who can assess and assist immediately with most medical needs. Ms. Joncas will also call home in the event that a student does not feel good so that parents can be a part of the team decision process on how to move forward.

We have seen an increase in unexpected behavior on the school bus. Although there have been consolidations as well as substitute drivers, we expect our students to behave as if they are in the classroom with their teachers. Dr. Masterson met with the bus company on the Friday before school vacation to review the common issues that have occurred over the previous two weeks. This list consists of bags in the aisle, students switching seats, and talking excessively loudly to name a few. Please review the following school department policies with your child. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to your child’s coordinator of student life or Dr. Masterson.

EEAC- School Bus Code

EE-Transportation Services

EEB-School Bus Operation

Currently, we are seeing deliberate damage taking place with Chromebooks (broken keys, pulled keyboard grid, cracked screens, etc). Due to these behaviors (not accidents), we now have a shortage of loaners. In the event a student caused deliberate damage to their Chromebook, they may not be guaranteed a loaner.

Patriot Pillars is built on a framework of creating a positive social culture for our students.

Our goal at PMS is to build a positive learning environment where all students feel safe and connected because we know this is how children learn best. As a staff we are focusing on making connections with our students.

Patriot Pillars is a system of reinforcing expected and positive behaviors, aligning student expectations to our school core values: Be Safe, Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Ready to Learn.

Ask your child if they have earned any Patriot Pillars this week.

The Friends’ of Rachel Club has started a clothing drive to support our Rachel's Closet. The closet is to help anyone who needs clothing for any season of the year. In order to be able to provide clothes year-round to our community, we need your help! We are in need of clothing for students grades 5 through 8, so please consider donating any new or gently used clothing items. Clothes can be dropped off in the bins labeled “clothing drive” which are located in the 6th and 8th grade hallways, as well as in the front lobby.

The Friends’ of Rachel Club also has a food pantry. We accept all donations of non-perishable foods that come in cans or packages. These donations can be placed in the bin labeled “food drive” located in the front lobby.

We have a Google Form, here, that has all of the up to date food and clothing that you may order. Please feel free to submit an order for our club to get packed up for you, or send questions to gonsalvesm@portsmouthschoolsri.org or bixbys@portsmouthschoolsri.org.

We have (2) openings for RBT's/paraprofessional (registered behavior technician). The job ID is 4487130 for schoolspring.com.

Families are invited to a PTO meeting this Wednesday at 6:00PM, where Dr. Kenworthy will be joining us. As part of our transition process, fourth grade families have also been invited to the meeting to experience a PMS PTO event.

Please see the linked fliers here and here regarding the PTO Dodgeball event to benefit Officer Holly. The PTO came to school today to hand out flyers and talk with students at lunch today. It was a lot of fun last year and this year's proceeds go towards Officer Holly's care.

Save and send in your Clement’s receipts in your child’s folder and sent to the main office. The PTO receives 1% of sales. There is no date too old. All Clements receipts will be taken as long as it shows Clements logo and pre-tax sales total.

If you would like to volunteer in school or help on a field trip, please use this form going forward to become VIS approved.

Dear PMS Parents/Guardians.

Per the PMS by-laws we are required to solicit nominations for the upcoming school year for all board positions. If you are interested in any of the board positions, please fill out the linked form and submit by April 3, 2024. Voting will be done at the May 1, 2024 meeting. Thank you. If you would like more information about the board's charter, please click here.

Please check out this flier for information regarding a tennis opportunity in the community.

Please see the link here to the PHS yard sale opportunity.

Please see the link here for Give Back Night from the GridIron Club.

Portsmouth School Department has opened up Kindergarten registration. Please see the flier linked here.

Please see the flier here for more information on the job opportunities within the district for our food service company, Chartwell

When students arrive at 7:45, they are meeting our core value of "Be Ready to Learn". Thank you for helping your child be a responsible Portsmouth Patriot!