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Pictured very top:
Students from the Horizon West Gamers Club and Home Ec Club promoting their organizations during our very first Club Rush. HWMS offers at least one extra-curricular activity that everyone of our Hornets might enjoy!
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8200 Tattant Blvd.
Windermere, FL 34787
(407) 250-6291
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Horizon West Middle School
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A Successful 1st Month!
We are well into our first full month of school, minus a few days due to Hurricane Dorian. Things are doing well at Horizon West and our students and teachers are working on amazing projects and assignments that will surely increase our student achievement.
Extra-Curricular Activities
True fulfillment stems from true involvement, therefore, we encourage all students to get involved with activities held on campus. A week ago we held our Horizon West "Club Rush" before school started (pictures above). This allowed students to learn and sign up for various clubs and activities happening on campus. Soccer season has commenced, and other extra-curricular activities has initiated, such as Home Ec Club, Student Council, and Gaming Club, just to name a few. We invite all of our Hornets to get involved!
Open House - Sept. 26th
September 26th from 5:30-7 PM, we will be holding our Annual Open House. This event will give parents the opportunity to walk their child's schedule and meet each of their seven teachers. Remember this event is to get a brief overview of each student's class and is not the time for parent/teacher conference or to discuss specific student needs. If you would like more time with all of your student's teachers, please send them an email or call your grade level guidance counselor to set up a meeting.
We have had a wonderful start to a successful school year and we are showing our HORNET PRIDE. Please do not forget to regularly visit www.horizonwestms.ocps.net to get more information concerning all things Horizon West Middle School.
Herein are the highlights from this past week. Please enjoy reading about all the great things that are happening with our students. I hope you enjoy this latest issue and thank you for your continued support of our Hornet Family.
Thank you,
Michelle Thomas
Principal
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All Souls Church and Mr. Ainsley
A special thank you to All Souls Church and Mr. Ainsley for sponsoring our upcoming school assembly (we will have details about this in our next edition of "The Buzz"). We so appreciate All Souls Church reaching out to Horizon West and bringing us this amazing opportunity.
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Sept. 9: Soccer at HOME vs. Gotha Middle, 5:00 PM (1st home game of the season)
Sept. 11: Patriot Day (Anniversary of the events of Sept. 11, 2001)
Sept. 13: NFL Team Shirt Day! (See details below)
Sept. 15: Start of Hispanic Heritage Month across the USA
Sept. 23: First PTSO meeting of 2019-2020 after the monthly SAC meeting. All Horizon West parents, teachers, and students are invited to attend!
Sept. 26: Open House, 5:30-7 PM
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Innovation in the Classroom
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"Project Lead The Way" with Mr. Tomasek (STEM)
Horizon West Middle School is very excited to offer an array of elective courses for our students to explore their creativity and inventiveness. One of these electives is STEM/Project Lead The Way, with Mr. Tomasek.
Mr. Tomasek comes to us from teaching Gifted and Whispering Oak Elementary. Project Lead The Way boasts, "Through our programs, students develop in-demand, transportable skills - such as problem solving, critical and creative thinking, collaboration, and communication - that they will use both in school and for the rest of their lives, on any career path they take." (
PLTW.Org)
Above and below: This past week students were using innovation to create edible cars and see how far they could travel down a ramp. Students used Oreos, pretzels and bananas to create their cars. We see a room full of future engineers coming from STEM this year!
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Free/Reduced School Lunch - DEADLINE SOON!!!
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Horizon West Middle School Hornets should apply for Free/Reduced Lunch to see if they are eligible.
**** IMPORTANT: You must reapply for benefits each year!! ****
For more information about the OCPS Free/Reduced Lunch program, please visit:
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Soccer season is underway and we are so proud of our Hornets for winning their first game of season against Windy Ridge!
Both our girls and boys teams came out as victors in the Windy Ridge battle and were then ready to meet Bridgewater the following week. However, Hurricane Dorian had different plans for our Hornets. Our next game will be this upcoming
Monday, September 9th against Gotha at HOME. This will be our first HOME game, so Hornets be ready to on September 9th to show GOTHA our SWARM OF PRIDE!
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Date
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Location
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Opponent
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9/9
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HOME
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Gotha
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9/11
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SunRidge
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SunRidge
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9/16
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HOME
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Southwest
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9/18
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Carver
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Carver
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Our boys soccer team ready to take on Windy Ridge.
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Our Lady Hornets getting ready for the Silver Hawks.
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Students should bring with them a pair of headphones each day to school.
These can be headphones or wired earbuds that can be found at a local Dollar Store. Your student will be participating in online testing and activities throughout the year and headphones are essential to their success.
* Students - Please remember that you need headphones or wired earbuds, but they should be put away when not being used for a classroom activity.
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Dear Hornet Families,
The PTSO is excited to announce that we have been able to gift the school a mascot! We are so excited about this addition to our family! Keep an eye out at events and games to see the Hornet in action!
We are continually building our Spirit Store and hats are back in stock. You may purchase online and have your student pick up your items or send them with money to purchase at lunch at lunch on Fridays. Check out our website for availability at www.hornetsptso.org
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Spirit Night at Jeremiah's Italian Ice next Tuesday! |
Jeremiah's Italian Ice Spirit Day has been moved to Tuesday, September 10th due to Hurricane Dorian. Please come out and tell them you are with HWMS to have a portion of your purchase donated back to the school. We will also have a Bruster's Spirit Night on September 18th too.
Lastly, join us for our first PTSO meeting of the year on Monday, September 23rd after the school's SAC meeting. You can sign up for membership, committees, and learn more about what the PTSO is planning for this year. All parents, teachers and students are invited to attend.
Sincerely,
Tammy Forrester
President
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For the rest of September, Friday's will be NFL Team Shirt Days! Wear your favorite NFL team jersey or t-shirt!
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Parents,
 Skyward Family Access is our student grades management system for Orange County Public Schools. Parents have an account to Launchpad, which connects you to Skyward and Canvas to see their child's attendance and grades at any time electronically.
This is a great tool to stay up-to-date on your child's performance. With the use of Skyward, no one can ever say they don't know their grades, as Skyward brings this information to the palm of your hand on your cellular device or home computer.
Over this past weekend, our school was informed that any SKYWARD access that were reported to the district had been resolved. All families should try to log in to Skyward following the directions provided by OCPS at
Click Here
Once you register your account for the first time, you will continue to log in at
parents.classlink.com/ocps to access the Parents Launchpad Portal.
If you are unable to log in to Skyward or are still facing issues, you will need to complete the OCPS form at
Click Here and email to
[email protected] You will be contacted once your form is received and when your issue is resolved.
We thank you during this time as we roll out new technologies to our OCPS families.
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Parents, be sure to check out the OCPS Parent Academy Series. You can sign up for one of the many sessions at ParentAcademy.OCPS.net
The first Parent Academy for this year is
Take A Walk Down OCPS Lane, September 14th at Boone High School. The OCPS Parent Academy is an educational program designed to enhance student achievement through the support of community and family engagement. The program's purpose is to strengthen and build capacity of families. These events are free to families and provide opportunities for children of all ages.
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An essential part of our Horizon West Middle Family is our School Counselor Team. You can find some information on each of our school counselors below, and please know that we are so happy to have them on our team.
Our school counselors are here to assist our parents and students will a variety of opportunities such as: personal and social counseling (challenges with peers, family dynamics, managing anxiety and depression), college and career readiness (Naviance, exploring career cluster pathways) and academic counseling (student motivation, organizational skills and grades). Please feel free to call 407-554-1570.
Please remember that your first line of contact with any classroom issues should be your child's teacher. Our counselors are happy to help our Hornets, however we need to follow protocols that allow for a connection between parents, students and teachers for a year of success and achievement. Thank you!
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The Florida Department of Education (FDOE) is consulting parents as stakeholders for state Career Technical Education (CTE) programs as part of the state plan for the federal Perkins Law. They are collecting general information on knowledge and opinions of parents through the 2019 Parent Survey of Public School Students (Grades 6-12).
Parents, please take a moment and complete this survey to assist our Career & Technical Education Department at OCPS. The survey is open now through November and can be accessed HERE.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BZC6G88
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SAC Chair and Co-Chair Needed for 2019-2020
Horizon West Middle School is looking for parents that would be interested in participating as a Chair or Co-Chair for our School Advisory Council. If you are interested, please complete the link below:
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Monday's Motivational Moment!
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KING ON SERVICE TO OTHERS
Everybody can be great . . .
because anybody can serve. You don't have to
have a college degree to serve.
You don't have to make your subject and verb
agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace.
A soul generated by love.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Horizon West Leadership Team
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This communication may contain information that is legally privileged, confidential or exempt from disclosure, and intended only for the use of the addressee(s) named above. If you are not the intended recipient, please note that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. Anyone who receives this message in error should notify the sender immediately by telephone or by return e-mail, and delete the message from their computer and any printout thereof. Please note that OCPS utilizes spam and junk e-mail filtration applications in its e-mail systems. That filtering process may prevent or delay delivery of certain e-mail communications. If you do not receive a timely response to an e-mail communication, please contact the intended recipient by phone.
Copyright Notice
 Reproduction of this material, either written or electronically, including the general layout, graphics, analyses, and content topics without the express approval of Target Performance Systems, Inc., a Florida corporation, and OCPS-Horizon West Middle School is forbidden without written consent. Thank you for your support of the Orange County Public Schools and especially Horizon West Middle School. Please contact Mrs. Heather Rodriguez (Administrative Dean) at [email protected] with any questions.
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