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.

Pictured here with Dr. Masterson are our Students of the Month for October: Atiba Brown, Ryleigh Clarke, Anna (AK) Inman, Adam O'Brien, Kylie Salveson, Max Sarkady, Eoin Soler, Kyla Walton, and AJ Weldon (missing from photo is Eoin Soler).

Our 7th grade teams are beginning to roll out lockers this week, followed by our 8th grade teams next week. We will start by practicing how to use the locks, reviewing locker expectations and times for locker breaks, and finally students will be assigned their locker.

This week, Mrs. Pritchard and I met with our elementary principals, Mrs. Little and Mrs. Laurie to begin discussions for the transition process for our future 4th grade students. After the meeting, we had an opportunity to visit classrooms and meet with some of our future PMS students. The students were excited for our impromptu visit and shared their excitement about the future, while also allowing us to answer questions.

We are preparing a survey, as we would love to hear any feedback about your experience with the transition process to PMS. We are taking an interest in ensuring that the transition for our 4th grade students is thoughtful, deliberate, and purposeful. We will continue to solicit feedback from faculty/staff and families throughout the coming months.

Portsmouth Middle School hosted our first chess tournament! We had 35 players total, 17 of the participants were Portsmouth Middle School students! With the help of the South East New England Chess Association, SENECA, we were able to run an official tournament to showcase our talented chess enthusiasts. As a result, Charlie Billings finished in first place, Patrick Schlesinger finished in 2nd place, and five other PMS students finished in the top 10, respectively. We look forward to competing in the Rhode Island Chess League, with the goal of competing in the RI Chess State Championship.

A huge thank you to Mr. DiGangi for organizing the tournament!

This weekend, Ms. Medeiros and members of PMS Robotics Team taught Hathaway students some new coding skills at Hullabaloo this weekend.

There's a PTO meeting on Wednesday, December 6th at 6:00 P.M. in the library.

Tickets go on sale Monday during lunch for the PTO movie night this Friday, December 8th at 6:00 P.M.. The movie that is being shown is the Grinch. Tickets will be $10, which includes two bags of popcorn and a drink. Please see the link here for a flier.

Please see the linked flier for details about the annual Fill The Cruiser event put on by the Portsmouth PD.

Chorus concert will be held on Wednesday December 6th at 6pm. Student report time will be 5:40 for all grades. Students should wear a white top with black pants and black shoes. We are also looking for bake sale donations for the concert, you may drop off baked goods the day of the concert or when you arrive at the concert. Thank you!

Please see the link here for the sign up/information regarding Gingerneering.

Please see the link here for the Candy Cane O’grams

This Tuesday, the Portsmouth Fire Department will provide an annual presentation on fire prevention. Grades 5 and 6 will attend alone and grade 7 and 8 will attend together.

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

Our Newport Career & tech field trip was held Thursday of last week. For students and parents interested, Newport career and tech will be holding an information night on Wednesday December 13 from 6:00-7:30. Attached is a flyer with more details. Thank you

We will be holding a Winter Clothing Drive in the month of December to help support families within our community. We have dedicated boxes set up in each grade wing for items such as gloves, hats, scarfs, sweaters, jackets, etc. If you have any clothing items you would like to donate please have your child bring them into school and they can drop them off in one of the 4 bins we have placed in each grade wing. Thank you!

Yearbooks are on sale for all families. If you would like to purchase one, you can do so by clicking the link here. Sales will end on December 31st.

Thank you so much to everyone who registered, donated and rallied their friends and family to donate to the 1st PMS Booster Bash.

We are thrilled to announce that we have reached our goal of $8000 with 19% of our students participating!

Can you help us get to 50% participation? We can accept donations through next Thursday, December 7th.

Every $$$$ counts! If each student that hasn’t yet raised funds joins the cause we can exceed our goal even more!

$5 per a student = an additional $1332.50

$10 per a student = an additional $2665

$20 per a student = an additional $5330!

The PMS students had a blast yesterday dancing and playing games at the Booster Bash, be sure to ask them about it if you haven’t already.

We have already had one student win a Nike gift card and there are more prizes to be had!

Thank you again to everyone who has supported us so far, especially the local businesses that sponsored our Booster Bash t-shirts.

With Gratitude,

The Portsmouth Middle School PTO

At MYBOOSTER.COM, it’s easy to let family and friends know how they can help our school. By sharing, you can help our school raise funds, earn cool rewards for your student, and earn entries to the daily prize giveaway. 🎉

That means more funds for our school with the simple click of a button. ☝️Remember, any funds raised DIRECTLY impact students and staff! Thanks so much!

Our Booster Celebration this week

Please fill out this form if your child is interested in trying out for girls or boys basketball.

Come and join the PBruins for Portsmouth MIddle School night! There is a link to the flyer here. There will be a God Bless America Performance by the members of our very own Portsmouth Middle Schools Tri-M National Music Honor Society & Chorus Members chorus on Sunday, December 17th at 4:05pm! Group rate tickets are $25 and all kids receive a FREE P-Bruins Hat!

www.providencebruins.com/Portsmouthmiddle

Please see the letter linked here from the PTO regarding board openings for next school year.

Please click the link here from RI Student Assistance Services and the Portsmouth Prevention Coalition.

Please see the linked flier regarding a winter soccer program.

Please see the linked flier regarding winter basketball programming.

Fire drills occur on a regular basis. State law requires each school to conduct eleven fire drills, two lockdown drills and two evacuation drills each year. Shelter in Place drills are conducted throughout the school year. Children are given instruction on all procedures. Children are expected to behave in a calm, orderly manner during these exercises. Please review the importance of such exercises with your child and emphasize the need for appropriate behavior.

A lockdown is an alert to a school community that students and staff should not leave the classroom and should gather in one area of the room until provided with further direction.

An evacuation requires all students and staff to exit the building and meet at a designated safe place.

A shelter in place is an alert to a school community that movement outside of classrooms is being restricted for a brief period of time. It is typically used when a student or staff member is requiring some sort of attention (sometimes medical) and the school is trying to keep that area clear and/or protect that person’s privacy. If there were a serious safety concern the school would not issue a shelter in place.

We will send notification of lockdowns, evacuations, and shelter in place drills and events via email.

For access to your child's schedule and grades, please log in to the Aspen Portal.

If you are having issues accessing Aspen, please email familyportal@portsmouthschoolsri.org with your child's name, date of birth, grade level, and your name. The system administrators will be able to restore access to your account and make sure that you can login.

• Students should come to school with a charged Chromebook
• Students should come to school with a reusable water bottle.