As part of a response to the spread of coronavirus, telecommunications company Comcast recently announced that it was offering two free months of home internet service to low-income families who qualify for the company’s “Internet Essentials” service.

The website for the promotion is internetessentials.com/covid19. To change the language, click on the tab on the top of the website. Click here to check out their flyer.

7^th and 8^th Grade Virtual Open Houses: We want to make sure that ALL our families stay informed this school year. Our team is in the process of scheduling a virtual Open House for our 7^th and 8th-grade students, which will include a series of videos and presentations. Examples of various topics that will be included are:

• Introduction to our faculty and staff

• Important information about the virtual learning schedule
• Expectations for virtual learning, including classroom rules and procedures and information on completing and submitting work
• Resources available to your student
• How to complete and return important student forms
• Information on Schoology (Learning Management System) and PowerSchool Parent Portal (Access to your child’s grades and attendance)
• Introduction to Microsoft Teams (HCPS virtual conferencing method we will be using this year to conduct virtual classes, meetings, etc.

Stay tuned for more details as they begin to unfold in the next few weeks!

6^th Grade Orientation:

Our 6th-grade orientation will take place virtually this year. Our team is currently preparing a series of videos to help transition your child to Quioccasin Middle School. We will also provide tutorials on the use of the HCPS laptop and Schoology, which is the HCPS learning management system. These videos will be posted on our school website on Thursday, August 27^th, which is the day we kick off our 6th-grade orientation. There will be a “live” virtual component during the orientation. The time of the virtual “live” meeting will be announced in next week’s communication. In addition, our staff is planning a virtual drive-through parade so we can introduce ourselves to our new QMS families and meet our future Griffins! More details will be provided as our plans develop.

7^th and 8^th Graders Laptop Camera Activation:

The technical support staff will be available at Quioccasin Middle School to activate secondary laptop cameras Monday through Thursday from 8:30-11:00 AM and 12:00- 4:30 PM in Café 2 during the months of July and August up until the start of the school year. Please enter through door # 6 located at the front of the school. You may park your vehicle in our large parking lot. We will be closed from 11:00-12:00 PM as QMS is a food distribution site. The total time to perform the work is about 5-10 minutes. As a reminder, each person that arrives to have their HCPS laptop serviced is required to wear a mask and to practice social distancing. You only need to bring the laptop to be reconfigured. You do not need to bring a charger and you do not need to know your child’s username/password. Students who are new to QMS and/or rising 6th-grade students do not need to complete this process.

To suit our virtual environment for classes to start the year, HCPS has developed a new schedule. Check the new timeframe to see how a typical day will line up for your student. Download the schedule here.

Each year, Virginia offers a 3-day break from state sales tax. Scheduled for Fri., Aug. 7 – Sun., Aug. 9, the tax break applies to a variety of items: qualifying school supplies, clothing, footwear, hurricane and emergency preparedness items, and more. The attached 2020-21 QMS Supply List has the items your student will need across all classes; plus, individual teachers may request certain items the first several days of school.

Qualified school supplies, clothing, and footwear include (extensive product list on link):

• • Qualified school supplies – $20 or less per item
  • Qualified clothing and footwear – $100 or less per item
    

If you are a student athlete attending Freeman High School next school year, please click on the link below to read the document concerning information on athletics and physicals.

Incoming Rebels20

Your child’s final grades for the 19-20 school year can be found on the HCPS Parent Portal (https://sis.henrico.k12.va.us/public/home.html). If you do not currently have a Parent Portal account, the directions for creating an account can be found on the email portion of this message and on the  HCPS Webpage under PowerSchool (https://henricoschools.us/powerschool/). If you wish to have a hard copy of your child’s final report card, you can make a special request to have one printed once schools are open to the public.

picture courtesy of cat.xula.edu

On this Wednesday, June 3rd, our faculty will be lined up in the main parking lot to send off our eighth-grade students in a drive-through parade during student property pick up times!

Students with last names A-L          8:30-11:00

Students with last names M-Z        12:30-3:00

We encourage our families to decorate their cars to show their support of their teachers and our school! Students will receive a yard sign that day and a certificate for a Chick-fil-a 8-count nugget or sandwich plus a digital offer card. These have been emailed to you from Ms. Case and must be used the same day as the parade. If you did not receive an email by May 30th, please email Ms. Case at vmcase@henrico.k12.va.us. Lastly, we are putting together a short “virtual moving-on” video that will be sent out to families the week of June 8th as a final celebration of our 2020 eighth grade class!

picture courtesy of seesimplelove