Welcome to the February edition of the Washburn Academy PTA Newsletter! January was a busy month as you can see from all the news below. The Parent Teacher Association encourages you to forward this newsletter to your friends and family to let them know what our children have been up to at school.

Good Will

Did you know that Washburn Academy is the largest and most active Volunteer Minister group in the Tampa Bay area? With a small army of high school and middle school students, our Volunteer Ministers are at the ready to help out at food pantries, community events, assisting individuals in need, as well as contributing their time and efforts to disaster relief and the Virginia Tech shooting.

The Lower School students in Richard and Roberta’s classes continued in their effort to keep their adopted park free of litter and more enjoyable for the community. They are definitely Volunteer Ministers in the making!

Physical Education & Sports Highlights

The Girls Basketball season got underway in January. The girls played their first game against Veritas and won! We are very proud of all the girls and their coach, Neil Washburn, as well as assistant coach and player, Ayla Hubbard.

The Lower School students are working on meeting National Standards of Health in their daily PE classes. In addition, Quentin teaches them various games and exercises.

In the Middle School and High School sports classes students can choose from a variety of activities. One of the classes offered by “Grandpa” (Bob) is tackle football on Mondays and Thursdays. This is also part of the Girls Basketball team’s practice time.

Student Highlights

The most improved student in Roberta’s class this month is Dillon. Roberta said that he has been making his targets every day and his handwriting is now extremely neat! She also said that he has become very reliable running errands for Roberta, and he is very proud to be of service. Well done!

The most improved student in Richard’s class is is Weibke. Richard said that she completed her flash cards and her math. Additionally6 she worked hard to graduate from the 3rd grade! Well done!

The most improved student for Neil’s class is Daniil. According to Neil he recently completed all of his math requirements, including the highest algebra courses that are offered at Washburn. (This is some pretty challenging math!) Daniil said that at his school in Russia he hated math and was not very good at it before. He now says that he likes math. Well done!

The most improved students in Shawn’s class were Moham and Ryan. Shawn says that both have shown great improvement! Further, both students are productive in class and reaching for more work. Ryan’s goal is to be an auto mechanic and is lining himself up to do this and attend college through a scholarship program. Shawn said that Moham is seriously rolling up her sleeves and applying study tech to get through her entrance program with no wasted time. Well done to both students.

Staff Highlights

Richard Washburn, one of our lower school teachers, is a HUGE history buff! It doesn’t take much at all to get him going on this subject! This passion extends beyond the classroom and into his private life. He is a big fan of the History Channel, but he also attends events that re-enact important time periods in history. Richard’s enthusiasm for history makes the subject interesting for his own students, but he also routinely does seminars for high school students, which they LOVE!

To Our Parents

As parents, the highest compliment that we can give the school is to refer families to Washburn Academy. The school now has business cards that you can give to people you would like to introduce to the school.

The PTA is also collecting “Box Tops” and Campbell’s soup labels. Recently when we mailed in the Box Tops the school got a check for over $50.00. This is an easy way to support the school without spending extra money!

And lastly, Shawn wanted to encourage us as parents to stay in touch with our children’s teachers. Parent conferences are supposed to be held quarterly, so if you haven’t gotten a recent update on your child’s progress, please make arrangements with your child’s teacher.
Any of the Washburn teachers or staff may be reached by e-mail at washburnacademy@gmail.com. You can also call the main school phone at (727) 647-1668. Shawn also said that parents are always welcome to see their child’s teacher after school, but in order to ensure availability call or e-mail first.

From the Editor

I decided to start a PTA newsletter to help us (as parents) be better informed about the daily activities of our children at school. I really want you to encourage you to send this to your friends and family. It is a great way to help the grandparents, aunts and uncles see what your kids have been up to. My mom loves to hear about my son volunteering at the food pantry!

Best,
Jen Nickerson