The Topsail Times

Dear Topsail Middle School Families,

As we approach the Thanksgiving break, we wanted to share that this will be our final edition of the Topsail Times until we return from the holiday. We hope you and your family enjoy a well-deserved, relaxing Thanksgiving filled with gratitude, fun, and quality time with family and friends.

We look forward to welcoming everyone back as we begin the month of December together, ready to finish the year strong!

Important Dates This Week:

• 11/17-11/21: Scholastic Book Fair - Purchase Days
• 11/17: Boys Basketball/Girls Soccer vs WPMS @ TMS
• 11/20: Flu shot clinic @ 10:00am
• 11/20: Boys Basketball/Girls Soccer vs PLE @ TMS

• 11/24: Parent Thanksgiving in the Cafeteria
• 8th grade: 11:20-11:50
• 7th grade: 11:52-12:22
• 5th grade: 12:26-12:56
• 6th grade: 12:58-1:28
• 11/24: Boys Basketball/Girls Soccer vs CFMS @ TMS
• 11/25: Boys Basketball/Girls Soccer vs BMS @ BMS
• 11/26-11/28: Thanksgiving Break - NO SCHOOL

Upcoming Events:

• AUTHOR VISIT: Dusti Bowling December 3rd

Parents, in order to help improve traffic flow on Hwy 17, we are making a change to our traffic pattern. We are asking that all parents that are dropping off or picking up their student, follow the map that is below. Students will be able to exit their vehicle in the same location as before. Also, please try to avoid stopping in the traffic circle on campus. As you can see from the map, this is a potential bottleneck. We are hopeful that this change will help alleviate our traffic backing up out onto Hwy 17 in the morning and afternoon.

Over the next couple of weeks, students enrolled in CTE courses will be participating in a short CTE Course Evaluation Survey during class. The survey is completely anonymous and will not collect any personal information from students. The purpose of this survey is to gather valuable student feedback to help us improve instructional strategies, classroom experiences, and CTE programming across the district. If you prefer for your child not to participate in the survey, please notify your child’s CTE teacher to opt out or click on THIS SURVEY. Thank you for your continued support of Career and Technical Education in Pender County Schools.

Pender County Schools has partnered with researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill to answer questions regarding the impacts of student tech use on mental health and academic outcomes. This study will provide our school with critical feedback on our students’ digital literacy needs, how our policies are working, and the impacts of tech on our students, while also guiding future state policy regarding tech use in school.

For more information on this study, visit https://winstoncenter.unc.edu/ncpts_parents/ or you can contact ncphonestudy@office.unc.edu.

Please complete this Consent Form now! We need ALL parents to please either grant or deny consent for their children to participate.

You will receive a $5 gift card for completing this form.

Be sure to continue through each page of this form until it states "Your response has been recorded" to ensure your submission has been received.

Topsail Middle School has partnered with researchers at UNC Chapel Hill to answer questions regarding the impacts of student tech use on mental health and academic outcomes. This study will provide our school with critical feedback on our students’ digital literacy needs, how our policies are working, and the impacts of tech on our students, while also guiding future state policy regarding tech use in school.

For more information on this study, visit https://winstoncenter.unc.edu/ncpts_parents/ or you can contact ncphonestudy@office.unc.edu.

We do have an urgent timeline to complete this process and administer the survey. Please send your first message ASAP and we recommend 2-3 messages over the next week.

We greatly appreciate your support! Please let us know how we can help and if you have any questions

Cape Fear Community College has scheduled three information nights at each high school to provide students and families an opportunity to learn more about the CAP Program.

Please note to parents, this is a repeat of the session held in September:

• PHS – Tuesday, 11/18 at 5:30 PM in the Media Center
  

• THS – Wednesday, 11/19 at 5:30 PM in the Media Center
  

• HTHS – Thursday, 11/20 at 5:30 PM in the Media Center

Our TMS Book Fair is just around the corner. Click THIS LINK to preview and sign up for e-wallet, which is an electronic way families can add money for students to spend at the book fair.

We’re grateful to be on a team with you as we work to support your child’s mental health needs. Middle school is often a challenging time in a student’s life and their needs are growing and changing as they get older. Please CLICK HERE for a few ideas and resources to help navigate these changing needs.

Freshman applications are available online at https://www.pender.k12.nc.us/o/pechs/page/admission.

Applications are due to Ms. Wood (TMS school counselor) no later than Friday, January 16th.

Pender County Schools is partnering once again with the Pender County Health Department to provide flu shots for students this fall. This initiative will be available to all students across the district, with vaccines administered by health department nurses. To participate, students must be eligible to receive the flu vaccine and have written parental consent. For children without insurance, state-supplied vaccine will be available at no cost.

Our TMS Flu Clinic is scheduled for 11:00am on Thursday November 20th.

Paper forms are available in office.

Flu Vaccine Consent Forms:

Staff Consent Form - https://form.jotform.com/252656140740150

Student Consent Form - https://form.jotform.com/252656216931156

Formulario de Consentimiento del Estudiante - https://form.jotform.com/252656755627166

5th and 7th grade mass vision screening will take place in the morning, on Tuesday, December 2nd. Please email or call Nurse Chewning with any questions or if you do not want your student to participate. If your students currently have a prescription for glasses or contacts, please make sure they are wearing them daily. You will only be notified if there are any concerns with your child's vision. For students in all grades, if you are in need of help with an eye appointment or need assistance with eyeglasses, please reach out to Nurse Chewning.

Please double check that your student is bringing a clean, reusable water bottle that they can refill during the school day. It helps to send them with healthy snack(s) as well! As we enter the cold and flu season, also remind them about cough etiquette and good handwashing (and not sharing water bottles with friends).

At Topsail Middle School, we offer a confidential program called MUNCH (Meals Until No Child Hungers).

In this program, a backpack/gym bag of food is sent home with the child each week on Friday.

CLICK HERE if you would like to participate!

Please CLICK HERE for this November's cafeteria menu.

Topsail Middle School is looking for parent volunteers to join our SIT Team.

The School Improvement Team (SIT) plays a key role in shaping our school’s direction by fostering continuous improvement. Each SIT is composed of the principal, assistant principals, teachers, instructional support staff, and parent representatives.

If you are interested in joining the team, please reach out to our SIT chair, Laura Schlegel at laura_schlegel@pender.k12.nc.us

• Our next Spirit Night will be on Tuesday, November 18th at Burrito Shak. We hope to see you there!
• Spirit wear (t-shirts and pura vida bracelets) will remain available to purchase throughout the remainder of the school year. T-shirts & bracelets are fully stocked and orders will be delivered to your students classroom twice a month through April. Our spirit wear order form can be found HERE. If you have any questions, please contact TMS PTO at pto4tms@gmail.com
• Reservations are open for this year’s “Paint the Rock”. Please sign up to reserve your date or dates now using the sign up below! Scan the QR code below to make your payment. Other payment options coming soon.
• https://signup.com/mobileweb/2.0/vspot.html?activitykey=351517720099#choose_event_page
• Please consider joining PTO this year! TMS PTO strive to support every student and staff member throughout the year! Your membership is important! CLICK HERE to join today!

Topsail Middle School is currently in second place for overall minutes read for middle schools with 20,291 minutes (CFMS is in 1st place)!

We are in 3rd place for the average number of minutes per student (23.9) behind CFMS and WPMS.

Congratulations to Corrina Golden in 7th grade for having the most minutes read in the school!

1. Read anytime, anywhere out of school
2. Keep track of your minutes and contribute to the school and district total
3. Every minute matters - together we can meet our goal

Join us in reaching ONE MILLION MINUTES reading by the end of the school year.

Reading builds knowledge, imagination, and lifelong learning skills. By working together, Pender County Schools will reach this incredible goal. Let’s grow our love for reading — one page at a time!

Tracking form will be provided by the school.

October 1 - May 31

Topsail Middle School would like to remind our families and students of a few important reminders:

• Sick/late notes must be received within 3 days of absence/tardy.
• Our final check out time at TMS is 3pm.
• Please, no outside food/drink in cafeteria, and only water bottles in classrooms (i.e.: no Starbucks, Dunkin drinks, fast food drinks, sodas, energy drinks, etc.).
• To parents who are dropping off their students in the parking lot in the morning, please do not let your child out of the car before the bell at 8:10am. We do not have staff out there before that time and several parents have been dropping off before the bell, which is causing a major safety issue.

• Please remind your children that they may only use their own lunch accounts. They are not permitted to use accounts belonging to siblings, relatives, or friends. Unfortunately, we have had to turn several students away this week because of this issue.

  
  

We have a few important systems that will help our school year run smoothly. Please take a moment to make sure you have access to each one:

Infinite Campus

• What it does: Lets you view your child’s grades and attendance, and submit excuse notes.
• Step 1: Get your student’s activation code here: Lookup Activation Code
• Step 2: Use your code to create your account here: Infinite Campus Login
• WE ARE ALSO IN S DISTRICT COMPETITION TO HAVE THE MOST FAMILIES SIGN UP, SO PLEASE HELP TMS WIN!

Here Comes the Bus

• What it does: Allows you to see your child’s bus location, receive alerts when the bus is near, and have peace of mind about arrival times.
• What you need: Your child’s Student ID number
  • If you do not know it, email jeremy_mortensen@pernder.k12.nc.us and he will send it to you.
• District Code: 29081
• Sign Up Here: Here Comes the Bus

Rooms

• What it does: Our county-wide communication system for messaging between teachers and parents.
• Set up your account here: Rooms Information

Thank you for taking the time to set up these systems. Having access will make communication and daily routines much smoother for you and your child! We greatly appreciate the tremendous partnership we have with our TMS families!

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