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Achieving Dreams
On October 10th, all WCS juniors took the PSAT. The PSAT is given as a practice SAT exam, along with the NMSQT – The National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
Did you know that in just the last ten years, WCS has had two National Merit Scholarship qualifiers and finalists? And why is that so impressive? Over 4 million students take the PSAT every school year, and The National Merit Scholarship Corporation uses PSAT/NMSQT Selection Index scores as an initial screen of approximately 1.6 million of those students to enter the National Merit Scholarship program each year. Of those qualifying entrants, only about 16,000 of the high scorers, representing less than .5% of the nation’s high school graduating seniors, will qualify as National Merit Semifinalists. The list of Semifinalists each year is then whittled down to an even smaller number of National Merit Finalists.
Students who become NMSQT finalists generally have a full-ride to the university of their choice! Both semifinalist Ryan Clarke (class of ’09) and finalist Thomas Donica (class of ’16) chose to continue their educations at Liberty University on scholarships. We are thankful we can help give our students an opportunity to achieve their dreams!
What’s Happening–October 25-November 2
October 29th – PTF/Early Dismissal
October 30, 31, and Nov. 2 Winners from Boosterthon will take their trips off campus.
Nov 1 – SGA begins our annual Canned Food Drive. Bins will be located in the Day Care, Elementary, Jr High, and Gym.
Nov. 2 Juniors and Seniors will meet with Herff Jones to look at class rings and graduation materials.
A Glimpse Inside the Elementary School
During our recent Boosterthon, we started each morning by “huddling” together with all the students, watching our daily Mindspark video, and recognizing students. We gave out prizes and the students cheered for each other. It was so much fun.
I’m reminded of how good it feels to celebrate success and to encourage each other to do amazing things. If you didn’t already know, we have some amazing teachers at Wayne Christian School. I get the joy of working with a group of 14 elementary and middle school teachers. The next time you’re in the hallways, make sure to remind these teachers what an awesome job they are doing.
One of our teachers, Mrs. Darden, will be receiving a grant from NC Bright Ideas. This grant will be used to purchase Document Cameras for each of our kindergarten through 2nd grade classrooms. Teachers will be able to use these cameras to project real-time directly to their Mimio boards. This will make it easier for teachers to demonstrate manipulatives and handouts.
I’m also really excited about the work that Mrs. Newberry is doing with middle school math. She is incorporating iPads in her math class. I had the chance to watch a group of sixth grade students recently answer math questions using an iPad and Mrs. Newberry was able to see their answers in real-time. It was great seeing these students get excited about math!
There is so much to celebrate so far, and I know that the next nine weeks of school will be even more exciting. Don’t forget that our Parent Teacher Fellowships are on Monday, October 29. This is a great time to connect with your child’s teacher.
Students Selected for Wayne County Junior Leadership Program
Wayne Christian School is excited to announce that four members of the junior class have been selected to serve in the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce’s Junior Leadership program. Darden Bynum, Payton Jackson, Anna Rendall, and Madison Wells are our representatives this year.
“Junior Leadership was a vision and class project of the Leadership Wayne Class of 1998-1999. It began with the goal of exposing high school juniors to the many job opportunities in Wayne County and has evolved over the years to include team building and leadership skills exercises.
Since its inception, over 320 students have graduated from this program.
Annually, the Chamber seeks high school juniors to apply for the Junior Leadership Program. This highly competitive process selects 25 high school juniors from around Wayne County to participate. Students selected meet the following requirements:
- Have a solid “B” or above average
- possess positive social skills
- Be involved in school and/or community activities
- Have a desire to learn more about Wayne County
- Be willing to commit to 100% participating
- Have good moral character
Junior Leadership meets for seven sessions from October through May. Participation in all events along with the completion of 10 hours of volunteer service hours is required. The graduation ceremony is held in May.” https://www.waynecountychamber.com/junior-leadership/
Congratulations to our representatives, Darden, Payton, Anna, and Madison! We are proud of each one who applied!
Makeup Days
When Hurricane Florence hit North Carolina, WCS missed seven days of school. Add in the day we missed for Hurricane Michael, and we have missed a week and a half of instructional days so far this school year. We were fortunate to have minimal damage to our campus and miss no more school than we did.
The administration builds a few days of leeway into our calendar every year to ensure that we meet the academic standards set forth by the North Carolina Department of Non-public Instruction even when we miss a few days for inclement weather; just last week, the NC Legislature also confirmed a bill providing schools flexibility in making up missed instructional days. As a result of these two measures, WCS will not have to make up the school days missed for Hurricane Florence.
Coming Soon–New Website
We need your help!
WCS will be launching a brand-new website at the end of October! It’s been four years since our last update, and we wanted to make our site more user-friendly for our families. The new site will have features that many of you have asked for…easy access to RenWeb, copies of forms that you need to sign, updated (easy-to-read) calendars. It will also be mobile-friendly!
In addition to being a place for you, our current families, to find information pertaining to your children’s schooling, we want to be able to use this new website as a showcase of our school for prospective families. Part of this is showing who our current families are and what life is like at WCS.
We know that you have a choice about where to send your children to school, and we want to know why you chose WCS. Other families like yours are facing the same decision, and hearing from our current families may help them with this choice. Take a minute to fill out this three-minute survey to let us know why you chose WCS. Your words may end up on our website or Facebook page.
Get Involved
When I meet with a new family, I always tell them – “You are a part of the Wayne Christian Family and that means that you are welcome to be as involved in the education of your children as you would like to be.” Parents, I want you to know that you are valued and that you are welcome at Wayne Christian School. In fact, we could not do what we do without your help each day.
We are partners in the education of your children. I believe that one way we can partner together is through our Parent Teacher Fellowship (PTF) on October 29. For students this is a half day, but for parents, and teachers, this is a great way to connect and discuss the progress of your child.
Our kindergarten through sixth grade teachers will soon post a sign-up sheet for parents to sign up for their PTF. I want to encourage all of our families to pick a time and meet with your child’s teacher. A lot of times, we wait for things to not be right before we meet, but I believe that we should also take time to meet to celebrate things that are going well.
I hope that you’ll make plans to be here for Parent Teacher Fellowship on October 29.
Here are some other ways that you can be involved in the coming weeks:
- Boosterthon Fun Run – October 17 at 8:30 – we need parents to help setting up the run, marking laps, cheering on the kids, and passing out water.
- Popcorn Friday – October 26 at 7:30 – we need parents to help set-up and distribute popcorn to students.
Let me know if you’re available to help with our Boosterthon Fun Run or our Popcorn Friday.
Mr. Miranda, Elementary Dean of Students
919-735-5605 ext. 100
Halfway There!
Wayne Christian School is full of awesome students that have amazing friends and family. As you have probably seen, we started our Boosterthon Fund Raiser this week. Monday, we held two pep rallies to get the kids excited about our Fun Run and Color Run. The elementary kids are watching character building videos each day and unlocking mystery puzzles. This year’s focus is S.T.E.A.M (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics), led by our teachers, also known as “Mind Sparkers.”
We are off to a great start! As of Friday morning, we have raised $19,384.25 in total pledges, which means we are over halfway to our goal of $35,000 and to dye Mr. Brenner’s hair red! Mr. Miranda and Mrs. Anderson have been busy passing out a lot of fun prizes for the students. Friends and family from sixteen different states are helping us raise money—we are so thankful for our grandparents, friends, family, and alumni who are supporting us during the Boosterthon.
WEEKEND CHALLENGES!
– If an elementary student receives a total of $2 per lap in new pledges (or $60 in flat donations) over the weekend, they’ll receive a special prize!
– The 7th-12th grade homeroom with the highest number of pledges will receive a Chick-fil-a breakfast one day next week.
– The elementary classroom with the highest number of pledges will have a popcorn and a movie afternoon.
Don’t forget to log in those pledges at funrun.com!
Meet the Graham Family
Meet the Graham family. Dalton is a sophomore and Addison is in the 4th grade at WCS. From mom, Brandy:
This picture of this beautiful soul is one of the many reasons my kids go to Wayne Christian. He has struggled with school from day one, and my child was not happy. He has been through testing for many years to find out how we could help and what modifications he needed. Well, all that was in place and nothing was enough. Home life was miserable because he was constantly struggling with everyone’s expectations. A breaking point happened the middle of 7th grade. The Lord opened doors quickly and has blessed our family beyond measures! We still struggle with issues at times but Dalton knows that he is loved and not just another body taking up space at school. The staff truly care about him as a student and person!
Talon Times 