Steere Farm Elementary School
From the Desk of Mrs. Francis:
I hope everyone had a nice February break! Spring is almost upon us despite the recent snow day!
Our state testing window for RICAS (RI Comprehensive Assessment System) and NGSA (RI Next Generation Science Assessment) begins in April. Students in grades 3-5 will take an ELA and math assessment and students in grade 5 will take the NGSA. More information will be sent home to families prior to testing. Please note the following testing dates have been scheduled:
ELA: April 20-21
Math: May 11-12
NGSA (Gr. 5 only): May 22-23
Lastly, our staff would like to take the opportunity to stress the importance of reading at home. The reasoning is simple; the more students read, the more they achieve. In “one of the most extensive studies of independent reading yet conducted,” Anderson, Wilson, and Fielding (1988) traced reading growth to independent reading and reading volume. They found that the amount of time students spent in independent reading outside of school was the best predictor of reading achievement. I hope the article below is helpful to support at home reading!
Thank you for your ongoing support.
Warm regards,
Courtney Francis
francisc@bsd-ri.net
(401)-568-1350
Safety is a Top Priority! Steere Farm will continue to stay vigilant with regards to school safety each and every day. We will continue our fire and lockdown drills, we will continue to check identification of all who enter our school.
The Importance of Attendance School attendance is super important to the academic achievement of our students. The school year is 180 days, and if a student is absent 18 days, he or she has missed 10% of the school year! That's a lot of time! That's 18 days of missed instruction, hands-on experience, and important discussion about learning. Absences should be used for illnesses, which are inevitable. While family vacations are great fun, missing school immediately puts students behind. Please plan vacations for times when school is not in session - this will help our kiddos to stay on track!
Wright's Farm Wright's Farm has been our business partner for 23 years, and we are so grateful and appreciative for all they do for our students and staff! Our greatest thanks to Wright's Farm for so many years of support!
What do we mean by Respectful, Responsible, and Ready to Learn? These are our school rules. We are a Positive Behaviors and Instructional Supports (PBIS) school, and we work to highlight positive behaviors in order to change negative behaviors. Our students earn SuperStar tickets throughout the various areas of the school, and they can use those tickets to "purchase" small items or activities each week. There is a home matrix as well, so that our families can use these same structures in the home.