Due to predicted heavy rain, the FAPS Campout will not be held this weekend. The Campout is tentatively rescheduled for Saturday, April 29; we will let you know when this date has been confirmed. Any families who registered for the Campout but are unable to participate on the new date will receive a refund. Campout t-shirts will be delivered to school next week for distribution.

Football, food, games, activities, and YOU – the members of our connected community. These are the makings of what’s sure to be a memorable night! A first-time event, Friday Night Lights, will take place on campus on Friday, October 28. The fun will begin in the early evening with pre-game activities, followed by the 7:00 pm game where the Panthers varsity football team will take on Maret under (rented) lights on our newly refurbished Turf Field. Mark your calendars now and plan to be part of the fun!

Note that October 28 is a Faculty and Staff Professional Day with no classes. Watch future issues of Paw Prints for more details!

Get ready for a beloved Potomac tradition! Fall Frolics will take place on Saturday, October 22, 11:00 am-2:00 pm, on the US Tundra and Quad. This annual fall carnival is fun for students and parents alike. It is also a great way to support student scholarships and faculty professional development. There are many ways to get involved:

Volunteer opportunities

• Pre-event shift
• Carnival volunteer shifts - to make sure we have a fun and safe carnival. 

Please note: Per Potomac policy, all parent volunteers must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and need to have submitted proof of vaccination using the form sent out earlier in the year. More information is here. 

Donations

• Donate a cake or individually wrapped candy. We’d love to have at least 100 cakes for our popular Musical Cakes game!
• Donate to a grade/class raffle basket.  A sign-up link for your class basket was emailed directly to parents.
• Donate gently used clothing, shoes, and accessories to Fabulous Finds/Nearly New. (Drop off donations in the MS Square or the Flag Circle Building.)

For more information, visit the Fall Frolics page on CampusNET. We look forward to seeing you at Fall Frolics! 

The 2022-23 Year-at-a-Glance Calendar was recently updated to reflect that on Thursday, November 10, both the Lower and Middle Schools will be in session all day and parent-teacher conferences will be held in the afternoon. Details regarding the schedule and conference sign-ups will be shared by the LS and MS offices in the coming weeks. As a general rule of thumb, the most current calendar of events is the electronic calendar accessible via Potomac's website or the Potomac School app.  

Parents are welcome to join us for the annual LS Folk Dance Assembly tomorrow, Friday, September 30, in the Spangler Main Court, at 11:00 am. All Lower School students will share traditional dances that they have been practicing with Mrs. Clayburn. Please remind your child to wear sneakers for this assembly. For those who are unable to join us in person, here is the livestream link.

Please join us next Friday, October 7, 11:00 am, in Ramsey Assembly for our next Sharing Assembly featuring Ms. Kim's, Mrs. Mendoza's, and Ms. Smalley's homerooms. Parents are invited. As always, please check your child's homeroom Bloomz page to find out when their class will be participating in a Sharing Assembly.

Some of our kindergarten students had a chance to meet with their third grade buddies this week. They spent time interviewing each other, reading books together, and drawing buddy portraits. The kids can't wait to welcome their buddies again!

Please remember to label lunch boxes, water bottles, and jackets so that we can help misplaced items find their owners. If a lost item is not labeled, it will be placed in the lost-and-found bin by the fish tank. Please also send in an extra set of clothes in a labeled ziploc bag to be kept in your child's cubby.

Grade 5 and 6 parents will have the opportunity to learn about the curriculum and special projects for each grade. Please mark your calendar for the dates/times noted below. A recording of each meeting will be posted on CampusNET for any parent who is not able to attend in person. 

Fifth grade: Thursday, October 6, 8:30 am, Flag Circle Building Dining Room
Sixth grade: Wednesday, October 12, 8:30 am, Flag Circle Building Dining Room

Our amazing Middle School readers surpassed our summer reading goal of 1,200 books, reading more than 1,400! To celebrate this accomplishment, we will have our first casual dress day tomorrow, September 30.

The 2022-23 Year-at-a-Glance Calendar was recently updated to reflect that on Thursday, November 10, both the Lower and Middle Schools will be in session all day and parent-teachers conferences will be held in the afternoon. Details regarding the schedule and conference sign-ups will be shared by the LS and MS offices in the coming weeks. As a general rule of thumb, the most current calendar of events is the electronic calendar accessible via Potomac's website or the Potomac School app.  

We are excited to welcome you to Middle School Parent Night tonight, September 29. As stated in the communication from John Mathews on Wednesday, the evening will have three parts:

Parents arrive at the Middle School at 6:30 pm and will visit special subject teachers in their classrooms and labs during the first half hour. Each teacher will be ready to say hello and answer any questions. We recognize that this setting doesn't allow for a deep dive into the curriculum, so each special subject teacher has put together a slide deck or video to offer some explanation about their courses. Please access the ThingLink maps below prior to Thursday evening:

Fourth Grade Specials
Fifth Grade Specials
Sixth Grade Specials

At 7:00 pm, all teachers and parents will head to the Langstaff Auditorium. Middle School Head John Mathews will introduce the faculty and offer some remarks. Finally, at 7:30 pm, parents will head to their children's homerooms, where the teachers will share an overview of this year's homeroom-based curricula. The event will come to a close at 8:30 pm.

Our annual sixth grade team-building field trip returned after a two year hiatus. The excellent weather this week helped create a beautiful setting for both days in the woods at Camp Crowell in Oakton, VA. Throughout the day, the sixth graders worked on team-building activities that focused on cooperation, communication, and problem-solving skills. A highlight of the day for students was flying over the treetops on the zipline. A huge thank you to the PE department for organizing this great experience for our sixth graders. View photos here.

The crowd-pleasing candy counter game will return to Fall Frolics this year and we need lots of sweets! When you come to campus for a meeting, sporting event, or our upcoming IS Parent Night, please bring along a bag of individually wrapped candy for this purpose. There are collection bins at the division entrances. Thank you!

After Caroline Furnace, students will return to Trinity United Methodist Church on Friday, September 30, around 4:00 pm. Parents should pick their child up from Trinity promptly; students who are not picked up will be returned to campus to take the late bus home. (In that case, a transportation change should be submitted through SchoolPass.) Should your child be traveling home with another family, please be sure to email Joleen Hyde and both students' advisors.

IS students took to the Turf Field bleachers to celebrate the first day of games in their division. Student leaders Charlotte Parry, David Hallam, and Nick Morris led the division with some team introductions and zany athletic puns; they even invited the Potomac Panther to join in on the fun! The Potomac Fight Song was rehearsed and perfected. IS students are now prepared to cheer on all of our Panther teams. View the gallery.

The annual Grade 8 Bonding Day is tomorrow, September 30. All eighth grade homerooms will go on a local hike and then stay after school for an afternoon of team-building activities. This is an important event, and we hope that all of our eighth graders will be able to join in on the fun! The event will end at 5:30 and students will take the 5:45 pm bus home or can be picked up in front of the IS Office. 

The IS team looks forward to welcoming parents on Thursday, October 6. Our Parent Night program will begin at 6:30 pm in the Engelhard Performing Arts Center with remarks from Head of Intermediate School Ryan Woods. Light refreshments will be served in the IS Commons and the EPAC Lobby.

At the annual Honor Council Assembly on Tuesday, students heard from several faculty and student speakers about the value of integrity in their work and interactions at Potomac. Honor Council Student Chair Ali O'Brien '23 and Faculty Chair Franz Ritt spoke about the pressure of perfectionism on students and the importance of recognizing that perfection is not a realistic goal. Faculty member James Gillespie shared some personal stories on his own journey to understand the importance of honor and integrity in academics. At the end of the assembly, the elected leaders of the Student Government Association and the Honor Council began the school-wide process of signing the Honor Pledge Book. All students will sign the book in the coming weeks.

The Upper School Honor Pledge can be found on page 47 of the 2022-23 Handbook for Parents and Students.

Out of more than 3,000 schools nationwide, The Potomac School’s Speech and Debate team is ranked #88, placing them on the National Speech & Debate Association's (NSDA) Top 100 list. The team is recognized for their overall excellence and exemplary participation during the 2021-22 competition season.

In addition to being recognized for one of the nation's top speech and debate programs, Potomac earned membership in the NSDA's honor organization, Societe de 300. This award reflects outstanding commitment to teaching students essential life skills – including communication, research, listening, writing, and organization. 

We were excited to see such a wonderful turnout at last Thursday's Parent Night! If you were unable to attend, your student received your copy of the school directory in advisory this week. We look forward to upcoming opportunities for parents to visit the Upper School, including the parent and admin coffees, parent dinners, and parent-teacher conferences on November 10-11.

Volunteer in the US Library! We need volunteers to help only once in the fall, and only once or twice in the spring. This is a perfect way to learn about topics our Upper School students are working on and the library resources that are available to them. Please contact US Library Committee chair Liz Brenner-Leifer if you are interested in helping out.

This summer, Upper School faculty member Harry Strong received a 2022 Outstanding Educator Award from the University of Chicago. Mr. Strong was nominated by a former student, now enrolled at the University of Chicago, in recognition of going “beyond everyday teaching and making a difference” in their life. A well-deserved honor!

Junior Naveen Paddock joined season two of the streaming series The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers which premiered last night on Disney+. Naveen joins the cast as a series regular, playing a new character, Jace, and his additional credits include shows Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The Code, New Amsterdam, and Billy Porter’s feature film directorial debut, the 2022 movie Anything’s Possible. Catch the recent interview where Naveen discusses his involvement in season two of The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers.