The News From MGWS

Webelos troop #338 spent the afternoon raking leaves and tending to the gardens here at MGWS.  The boys are working toward their conservation badge, and will soon be moving up to be boy scouts.  Thank you for your attention to our school, boys!

There were a lot of rosy cheeks walking down Academy Street this morning! Our spirits were high and the cocoa was warm. It was a great way to start a Wednesday:-)

Our donation boxes and display cabinets are quickly filling with donations from the MGWS community.  Our goal is to collect at least one item from each and every student.  If you haven’t sent anything in yet, time is running out!  Items will be packed up and sent to local food pantries next Tuesday, the 15th…

MGWS students headed off to the high school for a sneak peek at the upcoming district musical, The Wizard of Oz.  It promises to be a great show!

Who would think adding two words to a famous phrase would make all the difference to kids in need.  Thanks to the World Ambassadors Club- millions of children in poverty will have a chance to survive. World Ambassadors Club, Mrs. Girouard’s and Mrs. Lindgren’s class raised $298.65 for Unicef this Halloween!

With all the donations from this campaign tens of millions of lives will be saved with clean water, good food and medicine.  Next year, we urge you to participate in trick or treat for Unicef.

Sincerely,

Cameron Morin &  the World Ambassadors Club

Marshwood Great Works School is collecting canned goods and other nonperishables over the next few weeks. All items will be donated to food pantries in South Berwick and Eliot.

Let’s make this our best food drive yet!

The weather was brisk

but our kids took a risk

they proceeded with vigor 

& wished the cocoas were bigger!

By David Ramsay

news@seacoastonline.com

October 23, 2009 2:00 AM

SOUTH BERWICK, Maine — Based on last year’s national math tests and recent state test results, Marshwood Great Works fourth-graders are arguably among the best and brightest in the nation, say school officials.

On the National Assessment of Educational Progress Mathematics test taken last school year, Maine fourth-graders scored 244 (the national average was 239), with only four states scoring higher than Maine. Only eight states scored higher than Maine eighth-graders.

On the Maine Educational Assessment math test last year, Marshwood fourth-graders compared very favorably to the state average on that test, meeting or exceeding the state average by 14 points — 81 percent for Marshwood fourth-graders, while the state average was 67 percent.

At Wednesday evening’s School Administrative District 35 meeting, school board members were thrilled to learn these results.

“What’s really impressive is that SAD 35, we’re way above the state average, so the state is number four nationally and we outperform the state of Maine by a huge margin for the fourth grade,” said Superintendent Jeffrey Bearden. “That’s a real telling statistic because it demonstrates that our students can compete with any student in the nation in the area of mathematics.”

Bearden added, “We have very few students in the ‘do not meet the standards’ category.” For example, in the fourth-graders’ math tests, there were only 3 percent of students whose scores fell into the ‘do not meet’ category and only 2 percent in reading.”

Assistant Superintendant Gail Sullivan also reported that in reading, Marshwood fourth-graders exceeded the state average by 12 percent, with 83 percent meeting or exceeding the state average of 71 percent for the state average in those categories.

School officials were also pleased that math scores are rising and have attributed this trend in part to the use of the enriched Everyday Math program developed by the University of Chicago that was adopted several years ago.