Middle School students consistently win numerous awards in these contests thanks to hard work, talent, and ongoing support of their English teachers. Poems are written by each child in Middle School and entered in various contests to compete with thousands of students throughout Texas. Congratulations to all who entered, all who placed, and to our English faculty.


FIFTH GRADE OLYMPICS: Moving ahead, we are looking forward to the Fifth Grade Olympics tomorrow, Friday, April 8. Opening ceremonies begin at 8:15 a.m. in Penson Gym—parents meet in the gym rather than in the classrooms (except the team moms). Fifth graders will come to school ready to participate in Olympic competitions designed by the P.E. Department. Each girl has been assigned a country and will compete both individually and as a member of that team for the day. Parents are welcome to come cheer them on for all or part of the day! Please have your fifth grader report to school at the regular time wearing her country’s t-shirt, P.E. shorts, and tennis shoes. The t-shirt has been issued by Hockaday. Goff’s Hamburgers will be catering lunch for the girls and faculty in Tarry House.

EIGHTH GRADE COMMUNITY SERVICE: Our eighth graders, their peers from St. Mark’s, and advisors will be spending the morning of Saturday, April 16 at the Texas Trees Foundation to complete community service hours.  The girls are to meet at Hockaday at 8:00 a.m. in the Forest Lane parking lot and return there to be picked up at noon. Girls should please wear jeans (no shorts or leggings) and closed-toed shoes.  Work gloves are highly recommended. Click here for more information. This is a required event for our students; please contact me if your eighth grader has a schedule conflict. Girls who are unable to attend on April 16 must make up three community service hours. They may either choose a service project of their own, or Laura Day and I can provide suggestions and opportunities.

CHEERLEADER TRYOUTS FOR CURRENT 8TH GRADERS: All current eighth graders, freshmen, sophomores, and juniors are welcome and encouraged to try out for the cheerleading squad which will cheer for St. Mark’s next fall. On Monday, April 11 and on Tuesday, April 12 from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. mandatory clinics will be held in Hicks Gym at St. Mark’s. These will be followed by mock tryouts in Hicks on Thursday, April 14 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Lastly, official tryouts are in the same place on Friday, April 15, and they will begin at 4:45 p.m.

If you have any questions about the tryouts or about cheer in general, your daughters may contact any of the rising senior cheerleaders: Brooke Balthrope, Grace Bush, Sam Galardi, Megan Hudspeth, Erica Jones, Jordan Lazenby, Catherine Merrick, Emma Paine, Kristen Romano, Elinor Sachs, or Hannah Sung. With questions about logistics, you may email Coach Kiki Pennington.

UPPER SCHOOL PRESENTATION TO 8th GRADERS:  On Thursday, April 14, the Upper School Diversity Forum will make a presentation to our eighth graders during a lunch/recess period. The Upper School students will offer insight into the girls’ growing self-awareness/identity/differences as incoming freshmen. 

ERB TESTS: All Middle School girls will take the ERB tests on the mornings of Wednesday, April 20 and Thursday, April 21. Shortened, regular classes will be held on both afternoons. ERB, Educational Records Bureau, is the highly respected educational organization which designed these evaluation tools. These learning assessments provide the school and your daughter’s teachers with valuable diagnostic information about areas of strength and those areas needing further attention. Teachers find this data most useful in working with individual students. Once again this year, the girls will be taking these tests online. Sixth, seventh, and eighth graders will use their own laptops, and fifth graders will use computers provided by the School. There is no special preparation needed for any ERB tests except to be sure the girls get a good night's sleep and eat a nutritious breakfast. We ask that you not schedule any doctor or dentist appointments on those mornings; we do not provide make-ups as we value and study the longitudinal implications of these assessments rather than the results in any individual year. When you receive the results of these assessments in June, a detailed interpretation of your daughter’s scores will be included. Please keep in mind that these percentiles and stanines indicate how your daughter performed on certain tests on a given day; they should not be considered an indicator of her future academic success. Our faculty will give the girls specific information about testing locations and procedures as the time draws closer.

INCOMING MEETING FOR PARENTS OF RISING 5th and 7th GRADERS: Those meetings will be held on Wednesday, April 13 for rising fifth grade parents and on Monday, April 18 for rising seventh grade parents. Both meetings include parents of new and returning students and are for parents only of current students and parents and students new to the Hockaday community. Arriving around 5:45 p.m. will provide you time to visit and have some refreshments before we start the meeting at 6:00 p.m. We ask that you please wear your Hockaday nametag. This is a marvelous opportunity for returning parents to meet and welcome new families who are joining our school community. You will also meet parent representatives from the Hockaday Parents' Association and learn about the fantastic academic programs from our Middle School teachers.

LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL CALENDAR:  It is time to send out notification regarding the last month of school as you begin to make plans for May and summer. I have included the times girls need to arrive at school for special events and rehearsals. Due to construction, Eighth Grade Graduation and all other spring and end-of-school events will be held in Penson Athletic Center. As a result, students in grades five through seven will attend Eighth Grade Graduation on Friday, May 27 this year because of the larger venue.  Please make your late-May /early summer plans according to the dates and times in this link. 

UPCOMING EVENTS: April is an extremely event-filled month for us. In addition to the Fifth Grade Olympics, Eighth Grade Community Service, and ERB’s I mentioned above, our Middle School choirs and orchestra have evening performances next week:  the choir concert at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, April 11 and the orchestra concert on Tuesday, April 12 at 6:00 p.m. Directors of both groups have provided participants and their families with detailed scheduling and attire information. Hockaday alums will visit campus on Friday, April 15 for Alumnae Day; students are required to wear dress uniforms on that day.  The next week Latin students will hold their annual Roman Banquet on Tuesday, April 19 at 6:00 p.m., the girls will have Friday, April 22 off due to in-service meetings, and the seventh grade will leave on Sunday, April 24 for New Mexico!

IMPORTANT SAFETY REMINDER:  No children are allowed to walk across Welch Road for pick up in the afternoons or drop off on Welch Road in the mornings. Parents may park on a side street and cross to accompany children onto or off campus during carpool. We have been very clear with the girls about the dangers of not following these guidelines. 

 

Have a lovely weekend,

   

Linda Kramer