Back to School Information

Dear Grammar School Parents, 
Summer is again passing too quickly!  Carpets have been cleaned, floors have been waxed, and some rooms and teachers have new locations!  We are excited to welcome our new students and families.  We are so thankful that so many of our GS faculty and staff are returning to Westminster this school year.  We do have some great additions to our community.  

• Mrs. Rachel Weatherly will teach our 3-day JK with Mrs. Brooke Jones as her aide. 
• In addition to Mrs. Miller teaching Westminster Extended-Day Enrichment (WEE), Mrs. Blatz has agreed to teach WEE on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons due to the growing interest in the program. 
• Mrs. Anni Leach will be working in Mrs. Hilliard’s class as a 1st grade aide, and Mrs. Rachel Woodard will be an aide for Mrs. Grantham. 
• Mrs. Joanna Harris will join Mrs. Garrett’s class in 2nd grade as her aide this fall. 
• Mrs. Julie Sliger will join our 3rd grade team as an aide, and Mrs. Mary Adams will teach our third section of 3rd grade. 
• Mrs. Laurel Smith will move from teaching 2nd grade this past year to 6th grade literature and composition. 
• Mrs. Jenny Young will now be teaching 6th grade math and spelling. 
• Mrs. Jamie Jackson will be our new 5th and 6th grade aide. 
• Finally, we welcome Mrs. Julie Liddy back to our faculty as our part-time JK-2nd art teacher, as Mrs. Ozier has moved to part-time teaching 3rd-6th.

Along with our fabulous additions to our faculty and teacher transitions, we have some physical movement that you will notice when you come to see us in the fall. 

• Mr. Bell, our 3rd-6th grade Latin teacher, has moved his office space into the science room with Mr. Price and will travel to the classrooms to teach Latin.
• In the former Latin room, we will have a GS academic support center in which Sarah Kimbro, our early childhood reading specialist, will tutor Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This will also be a space for our tutors and therapists to work with our students. 
   

This is an exciting time in GS, and we are so very excited for you to see and experience everything in the fall!  

Meet the Teacher Day:
We are looking forward to our open house style Meet the Teacher Day on Monday, August 12.  A schedule for the day can be found on the link below.  You will receive welcome letters/postcards from your child’s teacher after we send out our class lists on July 26.  
  
Supplies:
Unless you opted out or are a new family who joined our community after 6/10/24, all of your child’s supplies on the list have been purchased through 1st Day School Supplies.  These supplies will be in your student’s classroom on the first day of school.  If you chose to opt out or have recently joined us, please drop off your labeled supplies to our main lobby by August 1st.   

Staggered Start the week of August 13-14:
Parents and students in JK, K, and 1st grade will have a staggered start to the year beginning on Tuesday, August 13.  Teachers in those grades will contact you with the schedule for your child that week.  

It is a joy to be in community with you all and watch your children grow and mature in wisdom and stature and in their relationships with God and each other.  Having seen God’s faithfulness last year, we go into this new year rejoicing and confident that we will again see God’s gracious hand leading and providing for us.  I am so grateful for our faithful parents who generously and enthusiastically support our school.  
New parents, we are eager for you to be a part of this special community.  We welcome you and need you! Our Westminster Parents Association (WPA) works diligently and faithfully behind the scenes to support and encourage our faculty, staff, students, and community.  You are automatically a part of this group; no joining necessary! It is a privilege and a joy to partner with you all.  
May God continue to give us grace, wisdom, energy, and joy for the journey.  

In Christ,
Emily Newman 
Head of Grammar School 
 

Grammar School Meet the Teacher Day (JK-6th grade) 

Monday, August 12, 2024
Schedule:
9:00 - 9:30 Optional Meet & Greet with Dr. Atwood in the lobby, coffee will be served 
9:30-11:30 Open House: Please feel free to visit your child’s classrooms and teacher during this time. Stop in and say hello to former teachers as well.  
10:30-12:30 The Ice Truck, serving Italian Ice, will be on campus for purchase!  $3 for small, $5 for large and they accept cash or card.  

If you have any questions or concerns about Grammar School Meet the Teacher Day, please email me or Karla Scott (kscott@wamemphis.com). 
We are excited to see everyone on Monday, August 12!  
Blessings, 
Emily Newman 
 

We hope you will find the Summer Reading Plan a useful tool for cultivating a love of good literature and for encouraging your child to read. 

1. Enjoy a book as a family! Reading aloud not only stimulates an interest in good books, but also models expressive, fluent reading. Using appropriate intonation, expression, phrasing, and pausing demonstrates that meaning is embedded in the interpretation of words and fosters comprehension.

2. Set up a daily reading time and provide age-appropriate books. You will find wonderful, graded selections on the attached recommended reading list.

3. Make frequent trips to the library!

4. Periodically have your child read aloud to you as you follow along in the text. This will help you assess your child's reading progress. Encourage your child by helping him sound out words if he begins to struggle.

5. Encourage your child in his required summer reading. Students entering grades 3-6 are required to read two books, but we hope students will read many more. You can find the packet with instructions and book lists here. If you have further questions, please email Mrs. Scott. 

Click here for the 24-25 Grammar School Supply Lists. Please scroll to find your child's grade. 
If you did NOT opt out of First Day School Supplies, your child's supplies will be in their classroom on Meet The Teacher Day. 

Dear Upper School Families,

We hope your summer has been restorative and that you’ve enjoyed some of the gifts of this season–a later dusk, staying up to read a few more pages in a great story, gathering with family, friends, and neighbors, or maybe the taste of a sun-ripened tomato plucked right off the vine. While we are enjoying the gifts of this season, we are also eagerly looking forward to the start of a new school year. We are excited to welcome our new students and families and look forward to gathering as a student body to begin the 2024-2025 school year at Meet the Teacher Day on Monday, August 12. Please see the schedule linked below for additional information. We also know that students are eager to know what their schedule will be. US student schedules will be emailed to parents and students Friday, August 2.

On this webpage, we have gathered a wealth of Back to School information. You will find necessary forms for athletics and medical records as well as summer reading info, supply lists, the major dates calendar, and hot lunch information.

This year we’re welcoming several new teachers to the Upper School faculty. Dr. Annita Davis, a long-time teacher who has a PhD in mathematics from the University of Memphis, will join us as our Algebra II and Pre-Calculus teacher. She brings many years of experience and a love of mathematics to the classroom. Mary Kathryn Davis, our own Coach Davis’s wife, returns to Westminster (she’s an alum) to teach Art History to our juniors. Amanda Johnson will move from Grammar to Upper School to take over 7th grade Literature from Dee Stubblefield, who is shifting to part-time teacher and will teach 8th grade Literature. And finally, Betsy Cashman, our Upper School counselor, will now work two days a week (Wednesdays and Fridays) and be available for your students if they need to meet with her. Please welcome these new teachers!

As the beginning of school approaches, please remember that students need to read and annotate their summer reading books. They’ll need to be ready to discuss and turn in their annotations for a grade when they return to class full time on Tuesday, August 13. If you have any summer reading questions, please direct them to Stacy Pritchard and Jonathan Callis.

Enjoy these last few weeks of summer, and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Grace and peace,

Elissa Roberts, Assistant Head of Upper School
Emily O’Dell, Dean of Students
Jonathan Callis, Academic Dean
 

Upper School Meet the Teacher Day (7th – 12th grade) – Monday, August 12

Schedule
8:00 am New to WA students arrive for breakfast and orientation in Room 202
8:30 am All 7th grade students arrive to the CLC to set up lockers
9:00 am Returning 8th-12th grade students arrive to set up lockers
9:30 am All US students gather in the sanctuary 
11:45 am US students gather outside for fellowship and the Ice Truck (details below)
12:00 pm US student dismissal
*8:45-9:30 am - Optional parent meet & greet with Dr. Atwood in the school lobby, coffee will be served. 

Meet the Teacher Day for US students will look a little different than it has in the past. Students will still have the opportunity to meet and engage with their teachers, but we also want to inspire them for the journey ahead and equip them with good expectations and the necessary tools to begin the year successfully. We will carry these same goals through the first week of school as students spend part of the day in classrooms and the other part in seminars, discussions, and community-building activities. Students should wear their daily or dress uniform for Meet the Teacher Day. At 11:45 am, students will go outside where The Ice Truck will be onsite for students to purchase Italian Ice if they would like. Cost is $3 for small and $5 for large, and they accept cash or cards.  

For Upper School, only students come for Meet the Teacher Day. Parents are welcome to come to an optional meet & greet with Dr. Atwood from 8:45-9:30 am in the school lobby, coffee will be served. Additionally, parents will have the opportunity to meet teachers during Parent Open House, Thursday, Sep 5 at 6 pm. Student schedules will be emailed to students and parents Friday, August 2. We will also have paper copies of student schedules to hand out as students arrive for Meet the Teacher Day.

If you have any questions about Meet the Teacher Day, please email Stacy Pritchard (spritchard@wamemphis.com). We are looking forward to a great year!

Blessings,

Elissa Roberts, Assistant Head of Upper School
Emily O’Dell, Dean of Students
Jonathan Callis, Academic Dean
 

You should have received an email from Mrs. Stacy Pritchard in June with all of the information you need for your student's summer reading assignments. If you have any questions, please email Mrs. Pritchard.

Below is a list of school supplies that Upper School students will need to have on the first day of school. Items will be broken down by class only if specifics are required. If you have questions, please contact Stacy Pritchard.

Upper School Supply Lists

The '24-25 Major Dates Calendar can be found here. 

There is an updated menu being offered for the '24-25 school year. Please click here to view the Belltower menu offerings and prices. 
You can view ordering instructions here. 

We have a variety of sports teams offered through our athletic department starting in 1st grade all the way through the Varsity level. Please reach out to our Athletic Director Joe Abrahams (jabrahams@wamemphis.com) if you have questions about a specific sport. Any athlete that participates in a Westminster sport must have the appropriate forms filled out, signed by a parent/medical professional, and returned to the athletic office before the applicable season begins.  Forms are valid for one school year and physicals are valid for one year from the date of the visit. You can now access and turn in the majority of the forms using this Jot Form submission link. 

In addition to the Jot Forms above, all student athletes need a medical evaluation signed by a medical professional on file with the athletic department. 

• Medical Evaluation Form

See carpool guidelines for JK-12th, before and after school care here.

Choir
Choir auditions have been held and the list will be emailed later this summer.  If your child is in 3rd-12th grade and would like to participate in choir, but did not get a chance to audition, please email Mrs. Smith.

The choir fee for the year is $150, which is divided into $75 per semester. This fee covers music, folders, and uniforms.  Returning singers may trade their old or outgrown uniforms in to Mrs. Smith for a different size.  

Strings
We offer beginning, intermediate, and advanced strings ensembles. The advanced and intermediate ensemble members are selected by audition.  Please contact James Ryan, our director of strings, to set up an audition day/time in August.  The fee for the string ensembles is $150 per semester.  

Westminster Academy offers aftercare from 3:15-6 p.m. on all school days. 

You can find information about aftercare here, including the prepay option that includes a 20% discount.

We are so glad to have our parents as such an involved and vital part of the Westminster community. Please check out all of the opportunities to plug in on our parent volunteer page!