In December, Hatfield Elementary School was selected as a Reward - High Progress School for its high achievement as a Title 1 School under the state's School Performance Profile. This reward is now paying off in terms of a $50,000 Innovation Grant, a competitive grant designed to promote new learning structures and processes that meet individual student needs.   

The funding will support four programs designed by Hatfield and district-level staff programs. These programs are focused on Title 1 students in grades Kindergarten through 3rd grade and include the following:

1. An after-school program for the remainder of the year to improve literacy and numeracy skills.
2. An after-school enrichment program to build academic vocabulary and background knowledge.
3. A summer kindergarten readiness program for incoming kindergarten students to follow the English as a Second Language summer program for incoming kindergarten students.  It will give these students three weeks of instruction on literacy skills prior to the beginning of kindergarten.
4. Professional development designed to assist teachers in implementing strategies to reach higher levels of analysis and application of concepts.

"We are very proud of Hatfield Elementary School, one of only 36 schools in Pennsylvania to receive a Reward grant to fund innovative programs and collaboration to improve practice," said Diane Holben, Ed.D. NPSD assistant superintendent. " With these funds, Hatfield students will have more opportunities to build academic vocabulary, background knowledge, and core literacy skills through additional intervention and enrichment programs. Many thanks to the Hatfield staff for collaborating to develop engaging, enriching academic supports for our students."

Warmer weather is hopefully right around the corner. With only a few months left in the school year, now is the time to think about summer camp. North Penn School District Community Education Program offers several fun, interactive camps that cover a wide range of topics including, sports, arts and craft and special trips.

New this year is our Forensics Scene Camp. Other camp themes include art, JROTC leadership, languages, robotics, Technology, TV camps and theater. Sport camps offered include aquatics, football, baseball, girls' and boys' lacrosse and basketball, along with many more. There are over 45 different types of camps offered at various points throughout the summer. Most camps are half days, while others are full day camps. Some camps even offer special pricing if you are registering more than one child in the same camp.

Register now at www.northpenncep.org. Contact staff members in the Community Education Office at 215-853-1028 or 215-853-1029 with questions and for more information.

The North Penn School District's Extended School Care Program will offer eight, one week sessions of camp this summer from June 15th - August 7th. Camp is for children who have completed kindergarten through 6th grade. The program operates from 7am-6pm, Monday through Friday. Camp will be held this year at Bridle Path and Gwyn Nor Elementary Schools. The weekly fee is $245.00 per child. Additional child discounts available.  

Weekly themes will include Animal Planet, Under the Big Top and Aloha Week. Activities will include arts and crafts, outdoor play, gym activities, a weekly field trip and swimming. Breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack are also included.

Registration will begin on March 16th from 4:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. at the ESC at 401 East Hancock Street, Lansdale. A deposit of $50.00 per week, per child is required at the time of registration to reserve your child's spot in the program.

For more information, please visit www.npenn.org under "For Families" and Extended School Care or contact the office at 215-853-1039

Congratulations to the North Penn High School Knight Crier for receiving several distinctions from the 2015 Student Pennsylvania Keystone Press Awards.

NPHS senior Brooke McCoy received first place for her feature photo in the article, "NP Raises Awareness at Childhood Cancer Game."

Senior Scott Vogel received first place for his editorials, including "Why these faces matter to you: The importance of voting," "Veterans Day prompts insight into America's materialistic culture and the search for true appreciation," and "Protests should incite debate, not destruction."

Dan Sardaro, a senior received second place for his review "Indie rock group alt-j gives a new meaning to Delta." Sardaro's personality profile, "Unicycle Kid unmasked: Meet Kevin Birt, the one-wheeled wonder" written with Nafiul Hossain, a junior, and Tara Sorman, a senior, also received an honorable mention.

The Knight Crier also placed first in the best website category.

Six NPHS engineering academy seniors, Joe DiFeo, Alex Noce, Connor Sloan, Alex Pham, Brandon Berlin and Rahul Pendurthi presented the nanotechnology research they have been performing so far this year at the 5th annual Philly Materials Day event held at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

The students' research endeavors, which focus upon two themes: Electronic Textiles and Solar Energy Harvesting, have been made possible by grants from the North Penn Educational Foundation and The Dow Chemical Corporation.

There are three other teams this year performing research in the Engineering Design and Development course at North Penn High School. BCC Biotechnologies: their work focuses upon Antibacterial and bio-absorbable nanofabrics, DeltaTech: their work focuses upon another way of producing nanofibers and nanoscale structures known as Melt-Electrospinning and BCS Technologies is researching and developing High Temperature Superconductive Nanofibers. The students will be utilizing professional research quality characterization equipment and a scanning electron microscope on loan from Angstrom Scientific to analyze their work in the coming weeks.  

The teams will be offering a presentation to the community on June 3 at 7pm in the Audion at North Penn High School.  

Several learning opportunities funded through the NPSD Educational Foundation occurred throughout February. These grants-in-action covered topics varying from science and meteorology to literature and history.

In the beginning of the month, more than 250 students from grade four through six at Oak Park Elementary School learned to identify various elements of weather and the combinations of elements that cause various weather conditions through a program presented by the Franklin Institute. In the primary grades, students study weather but after this early exposure, they do not study the topic further. This presentation allowed Oak Park students to take this elementary knowledge and connect the new learning presented to heighten their understanding of weather. Click here for pictures of the assembly.

A few weeks later, sixth-grade students at Walton Farm Elementary School spoke with Ilse Lindemeyer, a Holocaust survivor. Students read about Lindemeyer in the book, The Number of Stars. This unique experience was  complemented by a 45-minute lesson co-taught by Lisa Bowen-Gotwals and sixth-grade social studies teacher Andrew Rodriguez about the Holocaust. Students also went home with the book, "I'm a Survivor."

In the last week of February, The North Penn High School English Department was held the Third Annual Lit Fest. Lit Fest is a celebration of literature highlighting the eleventh grade Honors students' appreciation for and understanding of the scope of American Literature covered in the junior year curriculum. The highly-coveted Lit Fest trophy continued its reign in Kevin Manero's room, as his sixth period class was crowned winner of Lit Fest 2015.

Lit Fest has several components including a dramatic reading contest, artwork presentations and a knowledge bowl. The teachers kicked off Lit Fest delivering their own selected passage from an American author. Click here for pictures of Lit Fest 2015.

NPHS Lit Fest 3-3-15