There is much said about our school community, its welcoming and caring staff, and the way the school ‘feels’ to visitors. At WHS, we are proud of our school climate, and how we have been able to maintain our sense of identity and our values as a learning community, even in times of great change, and shifting demographics.
It is not uncommon for our school to welcome many new families and students into our community. Making new friends, and helping children to feel comfortable, safe, and valued at WHS are things that we are particularly good at! We want every child to feel as if our school is THEIR school. We welcome families to Woodland Heights from across New Hampshire, and increasingly from states in southern New England.
Over the summer months, in addition to approximately 70 new Kindergarteners we anticipated from Spring registration last year, we added 43 students. Over the Fall (from school opening to the Holiday Break), we added an additional 23 students. Since January 1st, we’ve added another 25 friends to our school community. Over the course of that time, we had some students leave our school, as well. Right now our student population for Grades Kindergarten through Five is at 375 pupils. If you consider that 91 of those students were not with us last year (approximately one quarter of our student enrollment), our staff and continuing students have done (and continue to do) an amazing job helping to acclimate our new students and families, making them our friends, and showing them The Wildcat Way.
Outstanding job, Woodland Heights. Together we continue to make our school great!
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Saturday, March 22, 2014
WHS-PTO Literary Movie Night a Hit!
On Friday evening, March 21st, the WHS-PTO hosted a literary movie night featuring 'The Lorax'. What a great family evening at Woodland Heights School!
The well-attended event was eagerly anticipated by many Woodland families. We were able to watch a great movie together with an important message, enjoy event intermissions that featured 'Guess What' games about the life of Dr. Seuss, messages about the importance of family reading experiences, teacher presentations on their favorite Dr. Seuss book which included passage readings, plenty of delicious popcorn and water, and a Dr. Seuss book giveaway (two beautiful hardcover Dr. Seuss books for every child in attendance courtesy of our school's Title I grant).
Thank you families, volunteers, teachers, and students for a wonderful evening at Woodland Heights!
The well-attended event was eagerly anticipated by many Woodland families. We were able to watch a great movie together with an important message, enjoy event intermissions that featured 'Guess What' games about the life of Dr. Seuss, messages about the importance of family reading experiences, teacher presentations on their favorite Dr. Seuss book which included passage readings, plenty of delicious popcorn and water, and a Dr. Seuss book giveaway (two beautiful hardcover Dr. Seuss books for every child in attendance courtesy of our school's Title I grant).
Thank you families, volunteers, teachers, and students for a wonderful evening at Woodland Heights!
New Leadership for Woodland Heights School in 2014-2015
The following letter was sent home to Woodland Heights families on March 20th ....
Dear Woodland Heights Parents,
I am writing today to express my appreciation for the opportunity to serve as your principal at Woodland Heights School for the past four years. Over the course of this time, we have undertaken major school improvement initiatives in the areas of:
1. Pioneering a 21st Century Learning Community at Woodland Heights that changed that way we thought of ourselves as educators, focusing most on what knowledge and skills students will need to be successful in the learning and work environments of the future.
2. Strengthening our Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment programs, such that our students are demonstrating exponential growth in academic achievement levels as demonstrated on the AIMSweb and NWEA-MAP assessments.
3. Developing a strong teaming concept among our staff supported by implementation of the ‘Professional Learning Community’ (PLC) model which fosters focused conversation about the teaching and learning process, and how best to meet the diverse learning needs of students in our classrooms.
4. Creating and maintaining a ‘Child-Centered School’ in which we honor the uniqueness, ability, and value of every student, and work to cultivate their intellectual capacities and character development by personalizing learning using the systems of Differentiated Instruction and Response to Intervention.
5. Conceiving ‘Project Wildcat!’, our comprehensive system to promote a safe, orderly, and focused learning environment at WHS by implementing The Responsive Classroom Approach uniformly across all school settings, developing and administering a school-wide student behavior system, and celebrating the many things that are great about our school.
6. Engaging and partnering with parents in new and productive ways to better ‘wrap our arms around’ students and make certain that they are adequately supported by the adults in their lives so that they can learn and thrive optimally in our school setting and in our community.
7. Carefully reviewing and revising our comprehensive school safety and security program such that students and staff can be safe in our school all day, every day, and in any circumstance.
Having accomplished so much as a learning community over the past four years, and feeling that I have done all that I can to help us ‘get to the next level’, it feels like an appropriate time to step down as your school principal and make way for new leadership at Woodland Heights School. I will be resigning as your school principal, effective June 30th, 2014.
Your Superintendent of Schools, Terri Forsten, and members of the Laconia School Board have already begun conversations about a process for selecting your next principal at Woodland Heights School. As soon as the principal search process and timeline are finalized, Mrs. Forsten will be communicating important details to our community, including how you could participate in this important process.
It has been a true pleasure serving the City of Laconia as the principal of Woodland Heights School – “a special open school, on the hill”. I am certain that there is no school like WHS on the planet. You are special, you are unique, and what you do for the children of our community is nothing short of amazing. Please know that the time spent at WHS has made me a better educator, principal, and person. I have learned and experienced a great deal at Woodland Heights that will enrich the rest of my life. Serving as your principal at WHS has afforded me an opportunity to do the most important and best work of my career. Thank you for allowing me to join your school family for the past four years. It has been truly wonderful at Woodland! Go Wildcats!
Very warmly and sincerely,
Dennis W. Dobe, Principal
Dear Woodland Heights Parents,
I am writing today to express my appreciation for the opportunity to serve as your principal at Woodland Heights School for the past four years. Over the course of this time, we have undertaken major school improvement initiatives in the areas of:
1. Pioneering a 21st Century Learning Community at Woodland Heights that changed that way we thought of ourselves as educators, focusing most on what knowledge and skills students will need to be successful in the learning and work environments of the future.
2. Strengthening our Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment programs, such that our students are demonstrating exponential growth in academic achievement levels as demonstrated on the AIMSweb and NWEA-MAP assessments.
3. Developing a strong teaming concept among our staff supported by implementation of the ‘Professional Learning Community’ (PLC) model which fosters focused conversation about the teaching and learning process, and how best to meet the diverse learning needs of students in our classrooms.
4. Creating and maintaining a ‘Child-Centered School’ in which we honor the uniqueness, ability, and value of every student, and work to cultivate their intellectual capacities and character development by personalizing learning using the systems of Differentiated Instruction and Response to Intervention.
5. Conceiving ‘Project Wildcat!’, our comprehensive system to promote a safe, orderly, and focused learning environment at WHS by implementing The Responsive Classroom Approach uniformly across all school settings, developing and administering a school-wide student behavior system, and celebrating the many things that are great about our school.
6. Engaging and partnering with parents in new and productive ways to better ‘wrap our arms around’ students and make certain that they are adequately supported by the adults in their lives so that they can learn and thrive optimally in our school setting and in our community.
7. Carefully reviewing and revising our comprehensive school safety and security program such that students and staff can be safe in our school all day, every day, and in any circumstance.
Having accomplished so much as a learning community over the past four years, and feeling that I have done all that I can to help us ‘get to the next level’, it feels like an appropriate time to step down as your school principal and make way for new leadership at Woodland Heights School. I will be resigning as your school principal, effective June 30th, 2014.
Your Superintendent of Schools, Terri Forsten, and members of the Laconia School Board have already begun conversations about a process for selecting your next principal at Woodland Heights School. As soon as the principal search process and timeline are finalized, Mrs. Forsten will be communicating important details to our community, including how you could participate in this important process.
It has been a true pleasure serving the City of Laconia as the principal of Woodland Heights School – “a special open school, on the hill”. I am certain that there is no school like WHS on the planet. You are special, you are unique, and what you do for the children of our community is nothing short of amazing. Please know that the time spent at WHS has made me a better educator, principal, and person. I have learned and experienced a great deal at Woodland Heights that will enrich the rest of my life. Serving as your principal at WHS has afforded me an opportunity to do the most important and best work of my career. Thank you for allowing me to join your school family for the past four years. It has been truly wonderful at Woodland! Go Wildcats!
Very warmly and sincerely,
Dennis W. Dobe, Principal
Laconia School District Teacher Professional Development: Woodland Heights Teachers Lead The Way!!
This past Wednesday evening, the Laconia School District hosted a professional development conference for teachers on the use of iPads to support student learning in our schools.
Each of the workshop sessions will be led by Laconia teachers. The following Woodland Heights Staff will be presenting at this year’s Laconia School District iPad Conference: Betty Doody, Karen Snow, Coni Dwinal, Michelle Plourde, Bobbie Stormann, and Laurie Hale.
Woodland Heights educators continue to lead the way with technology! Way to go, Woodland!
Sign-Up Now for Spring Parent Conferences!
Please review and complete the Spring Conference sign-up form that was sent home with your child recently. You can indicate preferred conference times, and if you have multiple teachers to see. Please send the form back to us, and we will confirm your conference time. It is important to note that these meetings are designed to be ‘student-led’ conferences in which your child leads the conversation about his/her school year and the learning s/he has enjoyed since our fall (goal setting) parent conferences. The students will present examples of their work, talk about assessment results, and discuss the extent to which they have met learning goals established in the fall. The students are typically very pleased and proud to share all of the great work that they have done and all of the growth that they have made over the course of the year. We look to these meetings to serve more as a celebration of student learning, than a time when problems or parent concerns are discussed. For specific concerns about your child’s progress, etc., please make a meeting appointment with your child’s teacher for another day — we are always happy to meet with our parent partners!
It is important to note that on the day of our Spring Conferences (April 10th), we will have an Early Release at 1:00pm., there will be no Project EXTRA!, and we will be sending Quarter #3 Progress Reports home with students on that day. Get ready for a day of celebrating the growth and achievements of our Woodland Wildcats on Thursday, April 10th. See you then!
2013 NECAP Testing Student Reports Sent Home on March 14th!
This past October, our students in Grades 3-5 participated in the NECAP Statewide Assessment. We have received our Student Reports, and sent them home with our students recently. As you may remember, this test is very challenging for students, and requires a good deal of stamina as there are multiple subtests in Reading and Mathematics that include multiple-choice test items, as well as short– and long-response written items. Additionally, our 5th Graders take subtests in Writing.
Overall, our school-level results this year are consistent with our results in recent years. We keep progressing as a school, at a slow but steady rate, as evidenced on this assessment. For more information about our school’s 2013 NECAP results, please use this link.
Our AIMSweb and NWEA test results have brought us much more encouraging results, and are seen to match more closely our current programming and instructional methodology in the Laconia Elementary Schools.
As you review your child’s NECAP student report, consider any questions or concerns you may have, and then reach out to your child’s teacher or principal. We would be delighted to speak with you about this test, school and student level results, and what we are doing to improve everything that we do here at Woodland Heights. As always, thank you for your partnership and your support!
Overall, our school-level results this year are consistent with our results in recent years. We keep progressing as a school, at a slow but steady rate, as evidenced on this assessment. For more information about our school’s 2013 NECAP results, please use this link.
Our AIMSweb and NWEA test results have brought us much more encouraging results, and are seen to match more closely our current programming and instructional methodology in the Laconia Elementary Schools.
As you review your child’s NECAP student report, consider any questions or concerns you may have, and then reach out to your child’s teacher or principal. We would be delighted to speak with you about this test, school and student level results, and what we are doing to improve everything that we do here at Woodland Heights. As always, thank you for your partnership and your support!
Sunday, March 2, 2014
WHS Students Participate in ‘BullyX’
Shortly before Winter Break, our students had an opportunity to participate in a national anti-bullying campaign organized by LegacyX (founded by local musician Justin Spencer, who also founded the school touring group ‘Recycled Percussion’). WHS kids joined schoolchildren across our nation who were invited to write or draw messages to express their views on bullying, kindness, and respect. Their work was powerful and inspirational. All of our messaged red sheets of paper were sent to Las Vegas, Nevada, where they will be added to a massive red ‘X’ display in the desert, and videotaped by helicopter on March 22nd. The video will be posted on Youtube for everyone to see! We’ll be watching for the video at WHS! Great job, Wildcats!
‘WHS Monday Message’ Podcast Offers Weekly WHS News Program
Adding to our numerous WHS parent information resources, we launched a weekly podcast news program this past September. A podcast is an online audio file that you can access and listen to. Every Monday morning, we record and post a 5 minute program highlighting events of the past week and previewing activities for the coming week — to include lunch menu details! We hope to get a variety of 'talent' on the podcast, to include staff and student announcers (similar to Mrs. Plourde's student-produced 'What's Up, Woodland?' digital video school news program). You can find a link to the 'WHS Monday Message' podcasts (and so much more) on our super-wonderful WHS website. Check it out!
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