Great things are happening at Sugar Creek in 2009-10!

You will notice many positive changes at Sugar Creek this year!  Here’s a list of just some:

*Free breakfast for all students.

*Positive Behavior Supports, our proactive way of teaching behaviors and recognizing students for doing the right thing.

*Common language used by all adults.  We all call behaviors either Above the Line or Below the Line.

*Twice a week Homework club/reading services offered after school for those the school identifies as in need.

*Six-fold increase in our technology budget.

*Four-fold increase in our library budget.

*Eleven SMART Boards (last year we had 1).

*All 3^rd-5^th graders will participate in a technology enrichment program every other week, opposite of Library time, taught by a certified teacher.

*Increase in our supplies budget for Related Arts.

*A student body who’s cultural diversity reflects that of our nation.

*Many new staff, bringing with them new ideas.

*Buddy classrooms between monolingual and bilingual classes, to build a sense of belonging and community for all.

*Buddy classes between older and younger classrooms, to build a sense of belonging and community for all.

*A practicum psychologist.

*Math teacher.

*Two additional reading teacher positions.

*Increase in our monolingual counselor.

*Bilingual counselor.

*On-site translator/interpreter.

*Bilingual secretary. 

*A PTA which actively supports our school!

*Positive energy in our building, and a continual focus on doing what’s best for students.

School Size 

For a year now, Sugar Creek has been preparing itself for anticipated significant growth for the 2009-10 school year (our school size is presently 471 students.)   Most of the growth is from a change in where Sugar Creek’s bilingual students are taught.  For the last three years they were educated at Glacier Edge, but beginning this year they are here at their attendance area school.  In addition, every year we have 40 or more new students, as Verona is a popular place to live.  Over the course of the last year we held numerous parent meetings around the transition and changes, and information was sent home to families (as well as posted on our website.)

In addition, numerous staff spent a significant amount of time learning how best to meet the needs of bilingual students (as well as all learners.)  In Verona, parents of elementary bilingual Spanish-speaking students can choose to have their children educated in classrooms where instruction is provided in both Spanish and English.  Research has shown that using a student’s native language can be powerful tools in helping a student learn English well.

Sugar Creek has hosted a bilingual program before, from 2004-06, and staff was happy to welcome it back!  All schools must follow the landmark 1974 federal act on bilingual education:  the Chacón-Moscone Bilingual-Bicultural Education Act, which established transitional bilingual education programs to meet the needs of limited English proficient students.  

Morland Primary School

Our school is made up of 285 children and 38 adults.

The ages of us children range from 3 to 11, with the very young ones attending a morning or afternoon Nursery and the rest of us in classes from the Reception (nearly 5 years old) to year 6 (10 and 11 year olds).

Our School was built nearly 100 years ago in the East of Ipswich, the major town in the English county of Suffolk. A county in England is like a State in the USA. There are 46 counties in England, compared to 50 States in America.

Morland Primary is situated on a large estate with the names of roads being taken from old English painters like Thomas Gainsborough, Joseph William Mallord Turner, John Sell Cotman, Peter Paul Ruebens and, of course, George Morland who our school is named after.

About 10 years ago, our school had a lot of work done to it to modernise the classrooms and the environment around. We are lucky as our playground overlooks the River Orwell which is the river that serves Ipswich. Ipswich is a port and a number of medium size vessels sail into it everyday, delivering containers of goods from Asia, wood and petrol (gas in the USA).

The adults at the school are teachers, sports trainers, teaching assistants, dinner ladies (lunch-time supervisors), cooks and cleaners and we are really just one big team.

At school there are 16 lunch-time and after school clubs such as dance, drama, boy's football (soccer), girls football (soccer), gymnastics, breakfast club, computer club, golf, netball and many more.

We have just develpoped a wildlife garden with a very large pond as well as an 'allotment', a place where each class can grow vegetables and fruit which is used in the school kitchen. We also have our own kitchen where we learn to cook and learn everything about food hygeine and health and safety.

We hope you enjoy our website done with our friends in Verona, Wisconsin.