Picture Day

Picture day is Wednesday, October 5, 2022. You can order ahead online.

RGA Chipotle Fundraiser

Support RGA with dinner at Chipotle Wednesday, November 2nd from 5-9pm. See details on how to participate online through the Chipotle App or Chipotle.com.

Odyssey of the Mind

Odyssey of the Mind (OM) is an international program that teaches students how to develop their natural creativity to become problem solvers. learn more about OM, attend the informational meeting on Sep. 27 at 6:30 in the library.

Digital Safety Webinars

Digital Safety webinars are for parents, educators, and community members that are open to the public. Webinars take place on dates listed at 6:30pm (CT).

RGA Uniform Dress Code

Brainfuse online tutoring

Brainfuse provides online tutoring 2pm-11pm. This is a free service provided by the Peoria Public Library. You may apply online for a temporary card to utilize this resource.

SEL

Access from Home

Illinois Report Card information for Washington

The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) released our annual School Report Card on Oct. 30 at www.illinoisreportcard.com. The Report Card shows how well our school is progressing on a wide range of educational goals

Student Pick-up and Drop-off Guidelines

7:05-7:30am and 2:00-2:40pm, CARS ARE NOT ALLOWED IN THE FRONT PARKING LOT and students may only be picked up and dropped off in the North Parking Lot located near the ball fields. For student safety, only buses may drive in the Main Parking Lot during these times. Thank you for your cooperation in helping keep our students safe. After these times, students must enter or exit the building from the foyer near the Office. Students may not wait for rides at the Crossroads or outside, but instead need to stay in the foyer until they see their pick-up person or the Activity bus.

Study Skills

Knowing how to study is an important skill to have. Students who use strategies to understand and remember what they read, such as underlining important parts of the texts or discussing what they read with other people, perform better in class and on tests. One of the biggest differences between top students and everyone else was that when they study, they take practice tests. Only 11 percent of students do this, but they perform better because they are studying in a way that goes beyond memorizing material. Also helpful is to create a study timetable & stick to it-- first include things you like/need to do on your schedule and then work study time in after. This method naturally ensures that you are doing things you like to do every day in addition to studying, so you don’t burn out and give up. These kind of balanced schedules are easier follow. Here are some ideas and strategies to help students learn more:

7th Grade Students at Washington Learn from Community Mentors

Washington hosted a variety of community mentors who helped 7th grade students with their cross-curricular research papers on Peoria issues. These generous individuals met with students and explained the ins and outs of various local problems and projects including school safety, transportation and roads, environmental concerns, business development, Peoria Park District initiatives, and funding both for the city and for the school district. After meeting with their experts, students used the information they learned in their Peoria Issue research papers and listed their interviewees as one of their information sources. Thank you to our community mentors: Mr. Cesar Suarez, City of Peoria; Mr. Steve Montez and Mr. Tom Miller, Peoria Park District; Ms. Anna Ghidina, IDOT; Mr. Josh Joseph, Soil and Water Conservation; Ms. Denise Moore, Peoria City Council, Mr.Joe Dulin, City of Peoria; and Ms. Dickerson, Peoria Downtown Development Corporation. They all illustrate how by working together we can make our home of Peoria even better. Thank you for helping our students research and solve a Peoria Issue!

Renaissance Home Connect for Parents

Parents- We are hoping that you will soon begin using Renaissance Home Connect as a way of monitoring and encouraging your child’s reading practice. It can be a valuable tool for monitoring your child’s progress. Research confirms that parental involvement in a child’s education is a strong predictor of student achievement. Thank you for your involvement in your child’s education. What is Renaissance Home Connect? Renaissance Home Connect is a tool that connects the school and home to keep parents informed of their child’s progress in Accelerated Reader, and encourages the child to practice reading at home. How does Renaissance Home Connect help me improve my child’s reading progress? • You can view your child’s progress toward reading goals and view all books that your child has read and quizzes your child has taken. • You can access an online search tool, AR BookFinder, to search for books using various criteria, including author, subject, or reading level. • You can receive emails that reveal results for Reading Practice Quizzes and provide links to the website where you can check progress. The same login and password that your child uses at school will work at home with Renaissance Home Connect.

Veterans and Active Duty Military

Thank you once again to the Veterans and active or past service members who came to Washington last Thursday to speak to our classes. We truly appreciate the time you spent with us, and the opportunity to learn from all of you. Thank you so very much….and thank you for your service! We welcomed members of our Armed Services, past & present, to speak to small groups of students about the significance and importance of Veteran's Day. We had a speaker for each of our classes during first period that day. We began with a small welcoming reception at 7:40 in our conference room and then a student escorted the speaker to the classroom. Washington thanks you for your service!

ISBE School Report Card Results

Students at Washington Gifted Middle School once again performed better than the district and state average on the Illinois PARCC tests. While our results are lower than the previous year, Washington is still proud of our scores, and very excited that many of the other district schools had great gains on their PARCC scores! At Washington, 77% of students are considered Ready for the Next Level according to PARCC scores. Almost 90% of 8th grade students leaving WGMS are considered proficient in Algebra I skills. Let's make sure we are all learning and trying our best all year long!