The latest announcements from the Principal, PTSO, and NPS...

NSHS HOSA Town Hall with Director of Admissions, Harvard Medical School

Posted on November 8, 2020 by Aparna Singamsetty in From the PTSO

The Newton South High School Chapter of the national health professions society, HOSA – Future Health Professionals, is proud to present a unique Town Hall meeting with Ms. Melissa Friedman, Director of Admissions at Harvard Medical School.

The Session- “So you think you want to be a doctor? Early tips for Medical School”- will occur on Wednesday November 18th at 8 pm. The Town Hall is open to all HOSA members and their families.

If you have any questions about HOSA or if you want to register for the Event and submit questions for Ms. Friedman, please email Hunter Tsao at [email protected] before November 13.  

Senior Outdoor Cooperative

Posted on November 8, 2020 by Aparna Singamsetty in For Seniors, From the PTSO

Dear Newton South Senior Parents/Guardians,

PTSO wanted to let you know of a new program created by our Newton South teachers to support our Seniors.

Newton South Teachers Eliza Tyack, Alan Reinstein and Dave Weintraub have organized a new program called the Senior Outdoor Cooperative, which aims to bring together Newton South faculty and seniors outdoors in ways that are safely socially distanced and yet still provide opportunities for meaningful connection, discovery, and togetherness during a remote school year.  About 200 hundred seniors have signed up to participate at some point.

As of Sunday, November 8th, the Cooperative has led the first batch of five expeditions ranging from affinity group meet-ups at Chestnut Hill Reservoir to ambitious hikes to Mt. Monadnock hike with about twenty other seniors.

December 12 ACT at Newton North

Posted on November 8, 2020 by Aparna Singamsetty in For Juniors, For Seniors, From the PTSO

Dear Seniors & Juniors and Families,

We have recently confirmed an additional “unlisted” ACT administration at Newton North on 12/12/2020 with capacity for 360 test takers.

This test administration is private to only Newton High School students and therefore it will not be listed on the ACT website. To register for this test, will need to use the test center code provided below, which will not be viewable to the general public. The ACT registration system defaults to search by zip code, then the students will need to click on change location and enter the test center code in the box on the right to view the site for the 12/12/20 date.

The test center code is 235020

To assist you with your registration, please watch this screencastify: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ydKhQzR3-sR_2CEGuHGFYYeXLrUeOf9F/view

When creating your ACT profile, please be sure to enter the NSHS school code of 221-548 so that the ACT coordinator at Newton North can confirm that you are an NPS student.

Additional spring 2021 testing opportunities at Newton South (SAT) and Newton North (ACT) can be found at www.collegeboard.org or www.act.org respectively

Regular registration for the 2021 AP exams ends November 13, 2020

Posted on November 8, 2020 by Aparna Singamsetty in For Juniors, For Seniors, From the PTSO

Regular registration for the 2021 AP exams ends November 13, 2020. The order will be submitted that day for students who have registered with the College Board and Total Registration and paid for their exams through Total Registration. Directions for registration can be found on the Newton South homepage under the Announcements column.

The College Board is adding a late fee of $40 per exam starting November 14, 2020.

Email Mary Ann Price, NSHS AP Coordinator, with any questions at [email protected].

 

Early Applications Submitted, Now What?

Posted on November 8, 2020 by Aparna Singamsetty in For Seniors

If you are a senior and you have submitted early college applications, congratulations! You have been juggling so much between remote learning in a global pandemic. You may be wondering what’s next…

I will try and keep this simple:

  1. You may be sent an email from your college(s) with information about an “applicant portal” with login information and even a Applicant ID. This is very important to open. Save the login information and refer to the portal on a regular basis. Additional requirements for your application may be posted there and this is likely where you will learn of your admissions decision. 
  2. You may be checking your status in the portal or on Common Application and not see a document such as a transcript, teacher or counselor recommendation. Don’t Panic! If you recently applied (within a week of the deadline) it is likely that the materials have been sent but there is often a lag in the time from submission on the college’s part to uploading it into their system. If it has been over a week and you still have this message, please contact me and I will look into it.

Colleges will also send out bulk emails reminding students to submit documents as a sweep of getting documents which have not been sent. This is sent to all applicants. So give it a week for the materials to be noted with the university.

  1. Send a thank you note to your teachers and counselor for doing their part to support you. Also, keep in touch with them and share your admissions news! 
  2. Continue to research or begin applications for additional schools on your list that have regular deadlines. There is a great temptation to relax after the November deadlines. However, in an effort to really enjoy the holidays between December and January, I encourage you to get those January applications completed before we leave for break.

Any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Take care,

Ms Sabet

High School Working Group Update

Posted on November 7, 2020 by PTSO CoPresident in Midweek From the PTSO 2021

Dear Newton North and South Parents/Guardians,

Thank you for responding to the High School Working Group survey. The response rate was very good across students, staff and parents.  The working group will further review and synthesize responses including student responses by grade. As communicated in the email from the NPS High School Working Group on Friday, you may view the preliminary survey report on the working group website.  The complete report will be added early this week.

The working group spent the bulk of the past week interviewing high school students, parents, teachers, and administrators in several districts to better understand their experiences with the hybrid/hyflex learning models. Comprehensive interviews were conducted with Staples High School CT, Port Washington NY, Concord-Carlisle High School and Lexington High School. With the help of parents in our community, working group members had the opportunity to speak with numerous families from additional districts to get their perspectives on their hybrid/hyflex experiences including Needham, Natick, Brookline, Westford Academy and Braintree. More outreach will occur this week to teachers and students with general and special education experience and feedback. 

For each district there are pros and cons of their hybrid/hyFlex learning model. These interviews have helped us to assess how different models, experiences and learnings may apply to Newton high schools for our recommendation.  

In this coming week, the working group will continue our outreach to teachers in our schools, further analyze student survey responses by grade, and parents.  Early findings from districts about their hybrid model implementations reaffirm that there is no perfect learning model in a pandemic.  

  • Social distancing is necessary and will impact schedules, curriculum, teaching and learning.  
  • In-person offers pros and cons for students, teachers, parents and administrators. 
  • While many districts committed to the Spring course schedule, the full curriculum is impacted.  
  • Remote learning, even if 100% synchronous is challenging – students can easily disengage and turn their camera off.  
  • Teachers are continuing to adapt their lessons to find the best ways to engage both in-person and remote learners at the same time.  
  • Masks and health and safety protocols bring additional challenges for in-person support services for students with special needs and learning plans, and even more challenging when providing them remotely. 
  • In-person schedules provide support for extracurricular only remotely (except those doing Fall sports)

As mentioned in the HSWG email update on Friday, the next step is for the administration team members to develop options to review with the group at our meeting next week. The recommendations will prioritize student’s needs and concerns. The working group is focused on developing recommendations to expand in-person learning that will best support our 4000+ high school student population. We recognize the sense of urgency for expanding in-person opportunities.  And we look forward to sharing our initial recommendation on November 16th with our community and the School Committee.  

We encourage feedback on our work and continued discussion with our community.  Please don’t hesitate to contact us at [email protected] and visit our webpage for updates on all of our work.

The High School Working Group
~ May Chiu, Newton South Parent Representative (NSHS PTSO co-President)
~ Janna Lacatell, Newton North Parent Representative (NNHS PTSO co-Secretary, NNHS PTSO Representative – Academic Standards Committee)   

Term 1 Seniors

Posted on November 7, 2020 by PTSO CoPresident in For Seniors

Hello Senior Parents/Guardians,

Please find the email sent from Interim Vice Principal Chris Hardiman on Friday, Nov 6, 2020.  Thank you.

Dear Seniors and Families,

I wanted to clarify something that I know has been causing some confusion as it is a new procedure for this year to have senior grades close earlier than the rest of the school due to the late start to the school year and college deadlines for grades:

1. If you are in a class that is ending at the end of term 1, you should remain in that class until the official end of Term 1 for the rest of the school which is through 11/13. Your teachers are closing your grades today but term 2 does NOT begin for you on Monday, 11/9 in term-long classes so you should continue attending classes next week. Please check in with individual teachers about any other specific questions about this and they can clarify for you.

2. If you are in a semester long or year long class AND you ONLY have seniors in your class, your teacher will most likely be starting term 2 for everyone in your class as of Monday, 11/9.

If you are in a semester long or year long class AND you have UNDERCLASSMEN in the class, confirm with your teacher what the grading term timeline will be for term 2–i.e. different start timeline for seniors and underclassmen or the same timeline?

Also, to meet college deadlines for second term, we will be closing senior grades a week earlier than the rest of the school as well. Second term grades will be closing for seniors on Friday, January 22nd.

Finally, first term grades for seniors will be posted on Aspen NEXT Friday, 11/13 at 5:00pm.

Have a great weekend!
~ Mr. Hardiman, NSHS Interim Vice Principal

Outside of Class Work (OCW) Update

Posted on November 7, 2020 by PTSO CoPresident in From the Principal

Good Evening Students and Families,

Below you will find a link to a slide presentation on outside of class work (OCW) that was shared with our staff on Wednesday. Hopefully by viewing the slides you will gain an understanding of our thought process, guiding principles and expectations as we move forward with OCW.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xc18iUzgA-RabWb-W0vWoAp0Q67MAjKTZcAe8n1ig1s/edit?usp=sharing

Enjoy the sunshine,
~ Mark Aronson, NSHS Interim Principal

Fall Awards Day and Game Times

Posted on November 6, 2020 by Manisha Kasana in Athletics

Fall Awards Day

As with so many things this season, Fall Awards Day will be different this time. Yet will be able to celebrate your award recipients and that is good news!

Due to the current COVID restrictions, we had scheduled an event by time slots per team and few attendees n order to comply with health guidelines.

Awardees, their parents, and coaches are invited to come.  Each program will have 15 min to do their presentation (that includes all three levels).

At the end of the awards, Madalin Small and Olivia Dubin will SLI for their respective colleges.

The event will take place outdoors at the Stadium entrance on Veterans Day. Recipients will be notified by email to their NPS Gmail account.

Here is the schedule for the day.

Veterans Day, Nov, 11

Table set at stadium entrance:

 

1 PM: Boys XC,  Varsity and  JV

1:15 PM: Girls XC, Varsity and  JV

1;30 PM: Field Hockey, Varsity, JV A, and  JV B

1:45 PM Boys soccer, Varsity, JV A, and  JV

2;00 PM Golf, Varsity and  JV

2;15 PM Girls Soccer, Varsity, JV, and 9th-grade

2:30 PM  NLI signature ceremony: Madalin Small and Olivia Dubin

 

Rain date is Saturday, November 14

Boys Soccer

Posted on November 6, 2020 by Manisha Kasana in Athletics

The Boys soccer had a first-round game vs WA on Thursday evening. The lions competed strongly and defeated their opponent moving to the next round of the DCL cup to be played tonight at Concord Carlisle. The Kick off time is 5:30 PM. Good luck lions!