Peterborough Elementary School

May 3, 2024

Dear PES Families,

I hope everyone had a great April break. It is always good for students and staff to get away from school for a few days. I am now looking forward to a great spring. My experience tells me that the rest of the year will fly by; it always does! Be on the lookout for information specific to your child's class with regard to field trips, assessments, and other end of year events and activities.

This time of year, I may be sending out more notices, emails, reminders, etc., because a lot of things happen in May and June, and I want to keep everyone updated. Below you will see an updated calendar on events occurring over the next 6 weeks.

Next week is Teacher Appreciation Week. I am so grateful to and for the PES staff. They genuinely care about each child, this school, and the greater PES community. We are lucky to have them.

Have a great weekend,

Larry Pimental

Spring Calendar

May 6-10- Teacher Appreciation Week

May 9- Spring Pictures- (optional)

May 13- Fourth Graders visit to the State Capitol

May 13-17- NHSAS for 3rd and 4th Graders

May 15-17- PES PTO Book Fair

May 18- Children and the Arts (not a Conval/school event)

May 24- No School- Professional Development Day

May 27- No School- Memorial Day

June 7- Field Day- 9:15-11:30

June 13- 4th Grader Celebration (1:00).

June 14- Last day of school- Dismissal 12:15

Marty Kelley's Author Residency

It was a great week with author and illustrator Marty Kelley spending three days with our students. On Tuesday, Marty presented to all students in grades K-4 about his writing and illustrating process, and gave advice on how to be awesome at anything. He was engaging, funny, and really interesting. Students used words like, "inspiring", "great", "fun", and "awesome" when asked how they liked meeting him. Marty then spent the next 2 days working with 2nd-4th graders on plot development and visual storytelling. And on Thursday evening, he presented to families and students about his creative process. A book order form of Marty's books did go home with students for families interested in purchasing a book.

Marty's residency was funded by our Title One grant to support literacy and family engagement.

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Cornucopia Project

With the arrival of spring weather, our partners from the Cornucopia Project returned this week to work with our first graders in the raised gardens. Students will learn about plants, bugs, soil, and more.

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Morning Recess is Back

Starting Monday, May 6th, we will once again start our day outside for an all-school morning recess. Students being dropped off by the bus will go straight to the playground; students being dropped off by parents will walk into the school to get to the playground. As a reminder, the playground grass is wet in the morning. Students' shoes (and feet) will get wet. Please plan accordingly (extra socks and shoes, or waterproof shoes/boots).

NHSAS- 3rd and 4th Graders

Dear Parent/Guardian,

Each year, New Hampshire public and charter schools are required by state law (RSA 193-C) and federal accountability laws (Every Student Succeeds Act) to assess students using a standardized assessment. We utilize several assessments in order to comply with these requirements. The U.S. Department of Education is requiring states to administer a state assessment for all third and fourth grade students. Students will take the NHSAS in their classroom between May 13th and May 23th (3rd graders May 14th and 16th; 4th graders May 15th and 17th).

Statewide assessments are an important part of a student’s core educational program:

Provide an evaluation of student mastery of grade-level content and skills in the academic areas of reading, writing, and math
Serve as one tool for measuring the degree to which students are on track to graduate high school and be college- and career-ready
Help inform future instruction in the classroom

Along with student work on classroom assignments, projects, essays, and local formative and summative assessments, statewide summative assessment results provide teachers and parents with important information about where students are on their path toward academic success.

Exemption

Parents are allowed to exempt their child from participation in the statewide assessments (permitted in NH RSA 193-C:6). Parents must complete and submit an exemption form that is provided by the school or district. Please contact the school to receive a copy of the exemption form. Please understand that if you choose to exempt your child from the assessment, no scores or summary of individual student performance, based on the statewide assessment, will be provided for your child.

Note: Federal law requires 95 percent of students (and 95 percent of all students within subgroups) participate in the annual statewide assessment. If a school has less than 95 percent participation, the number of students under 95 percent will be calculated as zeros in the school’s achievement and growth indicators. While the zeros will be included in the calculation, no one particular student will be identified with those zeros.

Results

Student results for the NHSAS are generally available immediately upon the student completing the test. The school will send a student’s Individual Score Report (ISR) home before the end of the school year. If you prefer to see the results once your child has completed the NHSAS, please contact your child’s teacher.

Average Testing Times

English Language Arts/Reading: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Mathematics: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Please reach out to me with any questions.

Scholastic Book Fair

The PES PTO is hosting the annual spring Scholastic Book Fair May 15-17.

Kindergarten Information Night

If you have a child entering kindergarten in the fall of 2024, PES is holding an information event Thursday, May 30th at 5:30pm in the PES library. This is a great opportunity for new families, parents and students, to meet our kindergarten team, school administrators, the main office staff, and learn about a day in the life of kindergarten students. We hope you can join us.

Spring School Photos- May 9th (Optional)

It Is Time To Sign Up For Summer Learning!

It is time to register your child for our free Summer Learning. Please use the following link to sign your elementary child(dren) up. An early registration will ensure that we have the staff and resources to host a robust summer learning program. A separate email will be sent later in the month to register middle and high school students for Summer Academy.

Explore and Expand (all schools) and Title 1 (for AES, PES, Pierce and GES) will begin on July 9th and run through August 1st. The daily schedule for each program is 9 - 12 Tuesday through Thursday. Middle School Summer Academy (for all rising 5th graders) begins on July 8th and runs through August 1st. MS Summer Academy is four days a week from 8am - 12:15pm.

A more detailed description of summer learning opportunities can be found in the registration.

If you have questions, please reach out to:

Title 1: Kathie Morrocco kmorrocco@conval.edu

Explore and Expand & Summer Academy: Amy Janoch ajanoch@conval.edu

Student Directory

PES has created a student directory. It includes class lists, student and parent/guardian names, and parent/guardian email information. If you are interested in getting one, please let us know by emailing cbell@conval.edu.