September Monthly Message from the Principal

September Monthly Message from the Principal

"Wake me up when September ends."

Clearly the writers of that song lyric never worked in a school before.  I have to be awake for September, for it is one of the busiest months in education for many obvious reasons.

But for us here at the John T. Nichols, all we can say is that this has been an amazing month; one I would have never wanted to sleep through or miss.  It has been an incredibly smooth opening and the faculty, staff, and students of the Nichols Middle School should be acknowledged for their extraordinary work during this time.  The 6^thgraders have made their transition look as though they have been coming to NMS for years, and the 7^th and 8^th graders are taking the mantel of school leaders to a new level, a great opening in deed.

During the first day of school, Mr. McLaughlin and I were able to meet with the classes as a full grade in the auditorium.  There we explained to them our school’s mission and where we see us taking the students not only during this school year but during their whole time with us.  In essence, our mission is to make them the best students they can be.  Everything we do is geared towards this mission of making them successful.  When I spoke with the classes, I talked about how for many years the emphasis in schools has been on the "3 R’s" of Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic.  We certainly will continue to recognize the importance of this academic foundation by increasing students’ understanding of and interest in math, science, literature and language arts, social studies, health, wellness and physical education, computer technology and the fine and applied arts.  But we stressed to them that we were going to focus on “3 other R’s.”  Today, learners also need to master the "3 R’s" of Responsibility, Respect, and Reputation in order to be successful life long learners.  It is these 3 R’s which will enable them to have access to our mission to make them the best students they can be in school and in life.

In relation to our mission, I have begun to tell the students during our morning announcements for them to “Do the best you can in everything you do today.”  If they do their part in doing their best, and we as a school do our best, only great things can and will happen.

On Friday, September 28, I made an Alert-Now message to inform parents that the Spring 2012 MCAS Score Reports will be mailed home on Monday, October 1.  As you may be aware, last spring’s MCAS results were just received, and we can now release these scores to you.  We will be mailing these score reports to all of our students in grades 6 through 8, on Monday, October 1.

Improvement of our MCAS scores is something that we as a school community know and understand that we need to do; for success to us will only be when we have 100% of our students in the Advanced and Proficient range.

In that message, I also relayed a message of reminder from our PTSA:  Please have all money, orders, and books from the KidStuff Coupon Book sales back in to Homerooms on Monday, October 1.  Homeroom teachers will be collecting them, and the PTSA will be coming around to finish the ordering process for the Coupon books.

I also hope that you have received an email telling you that I have updated the website, but if you haven’t done so yet, please enter your email (to the right) so you can receive updates on any and all important information about the school.

It has unquestionably been a wonderful opening for all of us here at NMS.  Mr. McLaughlin and I could not be happier with how things are progressing or how we have been welcomed into the Nichols family.  We see many changes afoot, but we are taking things one step a time. 

Please remember to check out the calendar at the end of this site, as well as the Attachment of Important Dates. 

Please continue to visit the website, for I will be updating it as often as I can with events, news, and other school proceedings.

Sincerely,

M. R. Geoghegan

Mr. Geoghegan