Roger Williams Middle School 8TH Grade Assembly

PRESENTED BY DR. LARBI September 13th, 2013

Welcome to the 2013/2014 school year Expectations for the year Great job to some of you Review of goals for the year

Goals for 2013/2014 One of our goals for this year is to make the eighth grade experience the best you. In order to achieve this goal, there are some specific steps we have to take as a school –and steps for you to take as members of Roger Williams Learning Community. As a school, we want to provide a safe and nurturing environment for you.

Goals continued-Role of Students In order to ensure safety for you, we must know where you are at all times-you have to go to your classes as scheduled and you must not wonder around the school. School is serious business and you waste time by walking around-and your wondering becomes a safety issue. Also, in order for you to gain the best experience, you have to be in school everyday. Any day you miss school, you miss a lot of you school work and sometimes, it takes a lot of effort for you to catch up.

Role of Students-Discipline A review of our end of year report on students showed that majority of you had no respect for your teachers and other adults in the building. Therefore it’s very important that you are respectful and polite to your teachers, other adults and classmates.

Bullying Any sort of bullying will not be tolerated. Bullying can be verbal as well as physical Restroom vandalism will not be tolerated-any student involved in this will be sent to the Student Affairs Office. Have respect for the Learning Environment Behavior on the buses has to be positive!!!

Role of eighth Graders As eighth graders you are preparing to go to high schools , so it’s important you are in school everyday so that you don’t miss any school work. Teachers will be writing recommendations for various high schools –and poor behavior will be reflected when teachers write these letters. We also expect the 8th graders to be leaders.

Review of 5Ps in the classroom Be Prompt Be Prepared Be Productive Be Polite Be persistent

Wearing of Uniforms in School Roger Williams is a “uniform school,” so we expect students to wear their uniforms when they are in school. This improves the school culture because our students are better behaved when they are uniforms. The uniform culture helps us to quickly identify intruders.

Wearing of Uniforms & Promotional Exercises!!! There are requirements for participation in the grade 8 promotional exercises. In October, there will be a series of parent meetings and parents will be informed of the requirements. Requirements include academics, attendance, Uniform participation and behavior expectations.

Graduation Requirements While on the subject of graduation,-I would like you to know our that 70 of our 8th graders could not participate in graduation last year because they failed to follow the expectations. Our 8th grade teachers will outline those for you-but I know the uniform policy and your behavior could play a major role.

Student Attendance The mark of any good school is the number of students who attend school everyday. The State Department of Education as well Providence School District, do track the percentage of students in school everyday. We want to have above 95% of our students in school everyday-and we need your support to achieve that goal. Some of you give excuses not to be in school, so we encourage you to come everyday. There is award for perfect attendance.

Student Attendance It’s part of our school improvement plan to improve attendance and reduce tardiness. Your parents will receive notification when you are absent from school without an excuse. Your parents and family members need to notify the school when there are problems at home which could interfere with your schooling.

Students and Assessments Students have to take all their class test seriously -as well as the District STAR Reading & Math tests as well as the NECAP Tests. The STAR Testis a diagnostic test which helps us to determine the Math & Reading levels of our students. The NECAP Test is used to determine what you have been taught and what they have learned. The results are used to classify all public schools in Rhode Island.

Eighth Grade students and their grades It’s very important that our eighth graders continue to take their school seriously. Students who have been accepted to Classical for example, have to continue to get good grades so that they are dropped from their program. Same idea be applies to other high schools.

Wish you a great School Year Thank you!!!