March 2, 2023

Hello, Westview families, 


Congratulations on completing the second trimester of the 2022-2023 school year!  We are so happy to see all the great progress our students have made. We are looking forward to seeing many of our families on campus next week for teacher conferences. We are proud of our students' learning this year and are looking forward to sharing their progress with families.  We know how much effort students, teachers, and families put into making a successful year of learning at Westview. Thank you for your continued support and for trusting us to educate your child.

 

Looking forward,





Bevan Koch

Head of School

The Westview School

Calendar at a Glance


THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 2023

  • Westview Talent Show (1830 Building Only) | Largent Hall @ 9:30 AM


MARCH 13-17, 2023

  • Spring Break


WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2023

  • CAMP Smile Day Camp (Upper Elementary)


THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2023

  • POW Meeting


MARCH 29-31, 2023

  • CAMP Smile (Middle School)


SATURDAY, APRIL 1, 2023

  • POW Family Fun Day - 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM | The Westview School


APRIL 3-6, 2023

  • Westview Wildcat Spirit Week


THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2023

  • Wildcat Pep Rally - 10:00 AM | Largent Hall


FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 2023

  • Good Friday (No School)


MONDAY, APRIL 10, 2023

  • Staff Development / Student Holiday


SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 2023


APRIL 24 – 28, 2023

2023-2024 ACADEMIC YEAR CALENDAR

Notes from Nurse Ana: Should I Send My Child to School?

It’s hard sometimes to decide whether to send your child to school when he or she doesn’t feel well. Here are some very important guidelines to consider when making that decision. These guidelines must be enforced for the comfort and safety of all our students.


Children who have the following symptoms should stay home and not come to school until these symptoms have been gone for at least 24 hours without the help of medication or until your doctor sends a note that states the condition is not contagious and it is OK for your child to come back to school.

FEVER

Children must be fever-free for 24 hours, without the use of medicine, before returning to school. Check your child’s temperature with a thermometer, and if a fever over 100.4 degrees is present, don’t send him or her to school, even for just a little while in the morning. It doesn’t help your child’s health to give medicine for fever and send them on to school. These medications only reduce the fever for a short time and don’t take care of the illness that is causing the fever.


VOMITING AND/OR DIARRHEA

Students with vomiting and/ or diarrhea must go home or stay home for 24 hours or until free of vomiting and/ or diarrhea for 24 hours WITHOUT medication. Medications to control vomiting and or diarrhea are not given at school because students are to be free of vomiting or diarrhea to remain at school.


RED EYES

Red eyes, especially if there is also drainage or crusting around the eye, can often mean your child has conjunctivitis, also known as pink eye. Not all pink eye is contagious. Sometimes it is just allergies or other irritations that are causing the red color, but until we know for sure, which means we must have a note from the doctor stating the condition is not contagious or until the redness and drainage are completely gone, your child must remain out of school.


We have common goals with you- the health, safety, and school success of your child!

Chess Wizards is Coming to Campus this Spring

Join Chess Wizards this spring for challenging chess lessons, exciting tournaments, fun, team activities, and more! If you’re brand-new to chess, you will learn the basics and get playing right away. If you’re a seasoned checkmate artist, you will learn new ways to let your creativity show on the chessboard. Classes will be Tuesdays from 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM for 7 sessions beginning on January 17. The cost is $147 per student. Chess Wizards enrollment is for Upper Elementary and Middle School students only.  Register at www.chesswizards.comSee the flyer for more details.

Save the Date for Music for Autism | Saturday, April 15

The Westview School is so excited to once again partner with Music for Autism for in-person concerts. Music for Autism is a national organization that aims to enhance the quality of life and raise public awareness through autism-friendly, interactive concerts developed specifically for individuals with autism and their families. For the first time since 2020, Music for Autism will be holding in-person performances. These performances are live, interactive, open to the community, and autism-friendly. Westview is excited to be the host venue for the Music for Autism events. Save the date for Saturday, April 15, 2023, at 11:00 AM. The Houston-based Apollo Chamber Players will be the musical talent. The concert will be held on the Westview campus in Largent Hall. This event is open to the community, and registration is required. If you are interested in volunteering for the event, please complete this form.

Promoting Independence - Parents' Input Need

Shelby Haller is a student at Texas Woman’s University in Houston. She is completing her capstone project for her doctorate in occupational therapy at Westview. Her project is to develop a parent education program to support children with autism in developing independence in their everyday lives. As a parent of a child with autism, you have valuable insight to share. 

 

Please take a few minutes to complete this anonymous survey to help Shelby develop her program. If you have questions, you can reach out to Shelby directly via email. 

 

Thank you for helping Shelby, our students, and their families!

The Stewart Center: Top Tip of the Week

The Stewart Center at The Westview School is our on-campus therapy clinic staffed with qualified professionals ready to meet the needs of families and students at Westview and the Houston community. The Stewart Center team is always ready to go above and beyond to support a child. Thank you to The Stewart Center for sharing their words of wisdom with our community. This week, Lisa Van Hofwegen, Speech-Language Pathologist, has an excellent top tip to share. 

OUR BRAIN RUNS OUR BODY BUDGET

Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, psychologist and neuroscientist states that our brain’s primary function is to run our body budget. We have a limited amount of glucose, water, salt, and other resources at any given time. Our brain runs a constant prediction model of our body operating in the world and then allocates resources in anticipation of upcoming expenditures. Dr. Feldman Barrett says that moving our bodies and learning new things are two of the most expensive things for our brains to do. There are many ways we can add to our budget: playing, engaging in pleasant social interactions, getting enough sleep, and eating a healthy diet. Exercising today is a deposit in tomorrow’s budget, according to Feldman-Barrett. Deposits in the budget are potential buffers to adverse conditions. When our budget is running a deficit, we stop learning new things, according to Feldman-Barrett, and “small problems” might feel like “big problems.” We, humans, might experience the same stimuli under the same conditions but respond differently on different days due to fluctuations in our body budget. 

Have You Registered for Westview Summer Camp?

Registration is OPEN for Westview Summer Camp. Join us for Westview's Summer of Fun at Westview Summer Camp. We will have two sessions available for the summer of 2023 - June 12-30 and July 10-28


Give your student a fun, structured summer filled with activities that help maintain the academic and social skills learned throughout the school year. Westview Summer Camp is open to current students and their siblings.


*Recent former and incoming students may also apply.


Camp is staffed by Westview teachers and assistants, as well as area high school and college student volunteers and former Westview students. Two three-week sessions help students to maintain skills while having fun in an engaging learning environment.


For our younger participants, the days are filled with water play, music, art, science, sports/motor activities, and much more. For older campers, our program offers engaging educational activities and social skills practice.

**IMPORTANT: If you do not receive a confirmation email after registering, please contact Candi Pettit to confirm registration.

Ensuring that each camper's needs are met while they're at Summer Camp, additional programs include: General Tutoring, Intensive Summer Reading, Writing, and Math Clinics plus Speech and Occupational Therapy (available through The Stewart Center)

Message from POW: Check Yesterday's Inbox for More Details

Did you see the Wednesday POW email? Lots of great information about all the upcoming Spring events. Don’t miss the curtain call on all of these important dates coming up this spring for our Westview Wildcats! The POW Steering Committee has been hard at work planning and organizing a memorable and fun Spring, and we can’t wait to share it with the rest of our Wildcat Family!


Emily Watts and Stefanie Rugaard

RESOURCES


Website

Calendar

RenWeb

Simply Fresh Kitchen

2022-2023 Family Handbook

Faculty and Staff Directory

POW School Store

The Westview School provides a unique, specialized, and nurturing learning environment offering outstanding educational and social opportunities for children on the autism spectrum. 
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