TL;DR: We need individuals to fill out a survey for the National PTA School of Excellence Program. The PTA has worked hard this year to implement national standards of best practices with our focus being on transitions into and out of North Beach Elementary. We are looking for improvement to Question 8: Our school involves parents in planning for student transitions.
The classroom with the most participation will win a $100 class grant!
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Hello North Beach Families,
Please note, this letter is long, but can have big implications for our school. Please take 10 minutes out of your day to read this and complete our survey.
The classroom with the most participation will win a $100 class grant!
What is the National PTA School of Excellence Program?
From the National PTA website:
The National PTA School of Excellence recognition program opens the lines of communication and critical thinking within school communities to make data-driven decisions that yield positive, long-term results. School of Excellence schools are committed to supporting the partnerships between local PTAs and schools to enrich the educational experience and overall well-being for all students.
In other words this is a nationally recognized program to help our school recognize and implement best practices for our students!
What areas did North Beach choose to focus on?
Our survey results from the beginning of the year were mostly positive, however we noticed that there were a lot of “unknown” responses to the question, “Our school involves parents in planning for student transitions”. We chose to focus our attention on transitions into North Beach and leaving North Beach.
What programs/communications did the NBPTA implement to support our focus?
The NBPTA used a two pronged approach to implement our plan of action:
- Focus on the transition from 5th grade to middle school:
- We partnered with the Whitman Middle School (our feeder school) PTA to implement a transition information night for 5th grade families (2/13).
- We sent out all school communications highlighting important information regarding the transition to middle school:
- Middle School Open Houses (Salmon Bay, Whitman, and Licton Springs)
- Whitman Middle School Open House
- Elective Course Registration Information
- We created a robust fundraising program for 5th grade camp
- Ensures every student can attend camp
- Ensures students have the opportunities to create new and lasting friendships during the transition to middle school.
- Focus on the transition to kindergarten:
- We implemented a survey to existing kindergarten families identifying successes and opportunities for growth for the Kindergarten Ambassador program.
- We will utilize these results as we create a robust Kindergarten Ambassador program this summer.
- Varied times for summer playdates
- The inclusion of readiness skills and transition strategies in the Kindergarten Ambassador communications.
- We prioritized the summer Jump Start program for our incoming kindergarteners. This program’s funding was cut by the district this year and the PTA will fund it for the 23-24 academic year.
- We implemented a survey to existing kindergarten families identifying successes and opportunities for growth for the Kindergarten Ambassador program.
Please fill out the survey (and encourage others!) by Friday, 5/26
How award winners will be identified:
Award winners are selected off of a variety of points including:
- Increase in the total number of survey responses
- Improvement in survey response results (ie getting those “unknown” responses to “”frequently” or “always”)
- An essay written by the PTA outlining our improvement plan, how goals were achieved, and how the National PTA Standards for Family and School Partnerships.
How you can help:
Please fill out the survey (and encourage others!) by Friday, 5/26
- We need our entire school community to participate in the final survey by Friday, 5/26! Not one per family, but one per person (teachers and staff too!)
- Answer the questions honestly! We want to make sure we are implementing the best practices from the program.
- Some questions (based on the 1st survey results) received a lot of “unknown” responses. Here some additional information regarding those questions:
- Question 2: Our school translates communications and provides interpreters as needed.
- All Beachcomber and Konstella messages are able to be translated into a variety of languages.
- Question 8: Our school involves parents in planning for student transitions
- This was our focus for this year. Please see the above “What programs/communications did we implement to support our focus?” for information.
- Question 14: Our school provides information on family rights and responsibilities under federal and state laws.
- North Beach Elementary PTA does! This information is included every year in the beginning of the year packets/information. This information is also available in multiple languages here.
- Question 17: Our school provides families with information on our school improvement plan.
- This information is always available on the North Beach Elementary website.
- Question 19: Our school has partnerships with local businesses, community organizations and service groups to advance student learning, or assist the school or families.
- Yes! North Beach Elementary PTA partners with local businesses to provide a variety of Enrichment Classes (financial aid available).
- Our school works with community partners like the Ballard Food Bank to provide assistance to families who need it.
- The PTA is partnering with other local and city wide PTAs to advocate for our students and create opportunities for PTA collaborations.
If you made it down this far, thank you for being a super advocate for our school!
Please fill out the survey (and encourage others!) by Friday, 5/26