What's new in this week's edition?

A Word from the Headmaster
Winter Sports Tryouts
PSO Corner
Nurse's Notes

A Word from

the Headmaster

Greetings, Highlanders!

It’s great to have everyone back this week. Just to ensure this isn’t a lost opportunity to share something more high-minded than upcoming events, here’s an interesting article, written by a former President of Harvard University. In it, she discusses the now-emerging, unintended consequences of having eliminated the teaching of cursive in most schools.

Quarter 2 seems to go flying by, so here is a list and brief description of upcoming events:

10/28 | Green/Gold Day

This is our primary community event for quarter 2. Please read below for more details. The event will be after our Friday early-release, and will involve food and celebration of our student athletes!

11/1-11/4 | Used Book Drive

We’re asking for any gently used books to stock our library. If you have books that are not “Great Hearts Library Appropriate” you may still donate, and we will take to Half Price books to attempt to redeem in order to purchase more appropriate library texts.

11/2-11/4 | Usborne Book Sale

*More details to come. Classrooms will have scheduled time for students to visit the book fair, and we will also allocate times for families to peruse together, outside of school hours.

11/4 | Literary Character Day

See information below.

11/18 | Family Movie Night on the turf

11/21-11/25 | Thanksgiving Break - No School

11/30 | K-2nd Grade Concert

12/1 | 3rd-5th Grade Concert

*Concerts will be held on-campus, in the morning after drop-off. Students will not wear “concert attire,” but instead will perform in their school uniforms. More specific information to come.

12/16 | Last day of Quarter 2

1/2-1/6 | Project Week

Project week typically takes place in the week just before the start of the second semester. Students will be given directions for a research or other project before they leave for winter break… Students can expect to invest up to 15 hours on their projects, which are due on the first day they return for the second semester… Project week teaches students how to study a topic in-depth on their own and how to manage their time, to cultivate love for something of interest to them, and to participate in true intellectual “leisure”—i.e. pursuing something for its own sake and value. (Handbook, 45)

1/3-1/6 | Parent Teacher Conferences

Parent-Teacher conferences will be scheduled to discuss the ongoing progress of our scholars. Teachers will send out links as we get closer to the conference dates.

Take good care,

Winter Sports Tryouts

Boys & Girls Basketball and Boys & Girls Soccer

Who: 5th-7th graders

When: October 31-November 3 from 3:45-5:30pm

FYI: Team practices and games begin Nov. 7 from 3:45-5:30pm and will run through Feb. 3

*Athletic fees are $250 per sport, if you played a fall sport you will receive a coupon code discounting your fees to $150.

**If you did not play a fall sport, please create and link parent and student accounts here: BigTeams and complete the health history form and upload a current physical for your scholar-athlete

For any questions, please email Coach Hammonds.

PSO Corner

Green/Gold Day is just a week away!

Mark your calendars for our inaugural Green/Gold Day on Friday, October 28th! We will celebrate our first season of campus sports with a tailgate party, athletic competitions, food and much fun! This celebratory event is for all Invictus families and will be the main campus social event for the quarter.

The event will begin at 4:00pm.

Please sign up to bring an item! Click here!

Spirit Days / Nights

On Tuesday, October 25, we will have a Spirit Night at Peter Piper Pizza. The address is 12475 IH-10 W. A portion of all sales will be donated back to Invictus. You just need to mention "Great Hearts Invictus" at checkout.

Click here to purchase Spirit Wear.

We are currently sold out of Youth Small and Youth Medium of the green student shirt. We have low inventory of Youth Large in the green student shirt. A new order is in production of these sizes.

Lunchroom Volunteer - October

Lunchrom Volunteer - November

All volunteers must have a background check and a signed FERPA form on file. FERPA forms can be signed electronically and emailed, or signed in ink and returned to Mrs. Robinson at the front desk. For any questions about volunteering on campus, please contact our Volunteer Coordinators, Veronica Baeza and Brittany Jackson.

Nurse's Corner

NATIONAL SUDDEN CARDIAC ARREST AWARENESS MONTH

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION (H. CON. RES. 393) – October is a month designated to support the goals and ideals of National Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Month. Sudden cardiac arrest is often compared to a heart attack, but the two are very different. A heart attack is when blood flow to the heart is blocked. Sudden cardiac arrest is when the heart malfunctions and stops beating unexpectedly. To put it simply, a heart attack is a “circulation” failure, while cardiac arrest is “electrical” failure. In 95% of sudden cardiac cases, the victim is lost.

Every year, more than 350,000 people die because of cardiac arrest. In fact, sudden cardiac arrest (or SCA) kills one person every two minutes. That’s claiming more lives than breast cancer, lung cancer, or AIDS. The scariest part is, SCA does not discriminate. It takes the lives of men, women, babies, teens… All the way up to the elderly. This can affect anyone and everyone. To decrease the death toll, it’s important to educate people on what SCA is, what the warning signs are, and how to respond if someone around you goes into cardiac arrest.

Symptoms of sudden cardiac arrest are drastic and immediate. If someone around you collapses, is unconscious, loses their pulse, and is not breathing, they are likely going into SCA. You MUST act fast, or you will lose them quickly. Here’s what to do.

Call 911. Make sure someone can be on their way as fast as possible. Do this before you begin doing anything else.

Perform CPR. Push hard and fast on the person’s chest at a rate of 100 to 120 compressions per minute. If you have not been trained, just continue chest compressions, and allow their chest to rise completely before the next compression. Continue to do this until emergency personnel arrive.

Use a portable defibrillator (AED) if one is available. This isn’t likely, but if you are near one and are not trained, someone near you may be able to guide you in its use.

Source: https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-sudden-cardiac-arrest-awareness-month-october/

Literary Character Day

A rich tradition at Great Hearts campuses is our Literary Character Day. This celebration will take place on Friday, November 4th. Students will have the opportunity to dress in costume of any book character that fits within the scope of our curriculum. Their selection will need to be pre-approved by their classroom teacher. More info will come soon.

If you want to shop now and also play it safe, any character from the campus' Classics to Keep will be approved. You do not need to stay within the classics of your grade. For instance, a kinder scholar may dress as Pinocchio (3rd grade text). Costumes do not have to be store bought! Feel free to get creative with items you may already have at home.

Pop-culture costumes will not be allowed. See some examples below: