Dear ,

Thank you for answering God's calling by shepherding His people here in South Florida.  We at Westminster Academy are so excited to be part of a community that has such an incredible ministry-minded approach, with so many churches on fire for the Lord, dedicated to working together as a community to advance His Kingdom.

We at WA take our calling seriously to raise up a generation of students prepared to go out into the world, equipped academically and socially, and trained to hear God's voice.  We know that many of our students attend your church and youth group, which is why we have added you to our weekly E-News mailing list.

Please know that you are welcomed and encouraged to attend any our our athletic, fine arts, special services, chapels, etc.  We also welcome any feedback or comments or suggestions that you may have. Please also feel free to send our development/communications director, Laura Brash '87 Bishop, information that you would like for us to share with our school community--her email address is bishopl@wacad.edu.  You may also contact our communications specialist, Susan Gaines, at gainess@wacad.edu.

Thank you again for playing such an important role in our community.  We lift you up often before our Lord in prayer. 

Please see my weekly letter sent to our school community this afternoon: 

Dear Community, 

Please join WA in prayer for our country and all those who lost a loved one on September 11, 2001.

Ten years ago on September 11, 2001, 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger jets and coordinated four attacks against the United States of America. The hijackers intentionally crashed two planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and both towers collapsed within two hours. The hijackers crashed a third plane into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.  The passengers on the fourth plane attempted to take control of United Airlines Flight 93 and caused it to crash into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, preventing it from reaching its intended target in Washington, D.C. Sadly and tragically, nearly 3,000 people died from these attacks on September 11, 2001.

The unprovoked and cowardly attack a decade ago was a horrific time for our country. Even though it was a terrible tragedy as a country, we rallied together as Americans to push forward with a new and determined spirit to protect our freedom.
 
As we pray for our country and those who lost loved ones, may we also remember, with great appreciation, all of the heros who served as police, fire fighters, helpers and emergency workers during the days and months that followed this extremely sad day known as 9/11. Lastly, please join WA as we give praise and thanks to God for our freedom, country, armed forces, police, fire fighters, emergency workers and community volunteers who protect and serve our country and communities every day. We are truly blessed by these remarkable professionals as citizens and patriots of the United States of America.

God bless America!   

Blessings to you and your family in the Name of Jesus Christ,  

Leo Orsino

Headmaster 

Upper School   

Monday, September 12  

B Day

9:30 AM Christian College Fair in the Gymnasium 

4:00 PM MS Volleyball @ Abundant Life

5:00 PM Cross Country Open @ WA Athletic Complex  

4:30 PM Swimming and Diving Meet @ Pine Crest 

5:00 PM JV Volleyball vs. Berean Christian

6:00 PM Varsity Volleyball vs. Berean Christian  

Tuesday, September 13

A Day

School Pictures - Grades 6, 7, 10 and 11 

3:30 PM Varsity Golf @ University School

4:00 PM MS Volleyball vs. Highlands

5:15 PM JV Volleyball vs. Highlands

6:00 PM JV Football @ Dade Christian

6:30 PM Varsity Volleyball vs. Highlands 

Wednesday, September 14

B Day  

School Pictures 

6th Grade Spiritual Retreat

10:45 AM Upper School Small Groups

Thursday, September 15

A Day 

School Pictures Grades 8, 9, 12 

6th Grade Spiritual Retreat

3:30 PM Varsity Golf vs. Coral Springs Christian

4:00 PM MS Football vs. Boca Christian

4:30 PM JV Volleyball vs. Coral Springs Christian

6:00 PM Varsity Volleyball vs. Coral Springs 

Friday, September 16

B Day

6th Grade Spiritual Retreat

4:30 PM Varsity Swimming and Diving vs. Pace and Posnack 

7:00 PM Varsity Football vs. Zion Lutheran (WA fans show your football spirit and wear white) 

Saturday, September 17

 8:30 AM Cross Country @ Spanish River Invitational  

10:00 AM WA Christian Invitational Swim Meet

3:00 PM All State Solo and Ensemble Auditions

Tempest "N" Tampa Robotics Competition 

Lower School

Monday, September 12

8:15 AM Kindergarten Parent Meeting in  

Lower School Media Center  

Student Council Elections

Tuesday, September 13

School Pictures 

Student Council Elections

Wednesday, September 14

School Pictures

Student Council Elections  

Thursday, September 15

Lower School Chapel 8:15 AM DeVos Chapel (parents are welcome to attend) 

Student Council Elections

Friday, September  16

Student Council Elections

Pre-Kindergarten Classes (2, 3 and 4-year-olds)   

Please drop off your child in front of the pre-kindergarten classrooms at CRPC (Federal Highway entrance). Teachers and assistants will be ready to assist you from the car in the morning at 7:45 AM and will be ready in the afternoon to place your child in the car at 3:00 PM. Please observe the specific instructions from the lower school office in identifying your car so that the teachers and assistants can assist you efficiently. For the safety of our students, please remain in your vehicle. 

Kindergarten

Please drop off and pick up your child in the circle drive in front of the gymnasium; please enter from 22nd Avenue only from the north during peak traffic times. The gate opens at 7:45 AM and 2:30 PM. In the morning drop-off, please proceed through the single car lane to the circle drive in front of the gymnasium. Cars should always remain to the outside of the orange cone line. Please pull to the furthermost point where the cars are stopped. A teacher or assistant will greet you curbside, assist your child, and escort your child to their classroom.  

Afternoon pick-up: Please proceed through the outside car line to the circle drive in front of the gymnasium. Please clearly display your child's numbered car sign so teachers and assistants can identify your car quickly and assist you efficiently. Your child will be waiting with their teacher for curbside pick-up.

Grades 1-5

Morning drop-off: Please enter from 22nd Avenue, only from the north. The gate opens at 7:45 AM and 2:30 PM. Cars should always remain to the outside of the orange cone line. An administrator, teacher, or assistant will greet you curbside, assist your child with the car door, and escort them safely.  

Afternoon pick-up: Please proceed through the two car lines. Please clearly display your child's numbered car sign so teachers and assistants can identify your car quickly and assist you efficiently. Your child will be waiting with their teacher for curbside pick-up.

If you desire at any time to short-term park, please park across 56th Street at CRPC. For the safety of our children, please do not park in the drive-through area of the school. Please do not drop off your child on 22nd Avenue or 56th Street.

Grades 6-12  

Drop-off and pick-up in the CRPC parking lot: Please drop off and pick up your child in the designated area behind CRPC.  

ACE Students

ACE students will follow the specific grade level drop-off and pick-up directions. For the safety of all our children, please remain in your vehicles at all times. 

Student Drivers

All student drivers, please park in the reserved student parking area and please have your student parking decal on the left corner of the back window at all times--thank you!   

Parents with Multiple-Aged Children

Parents of grades 6-12 students may drop off your children through the WA driveway if there is a 5th grade or younger student in the vehicle.  

Special Notice...Afternoon LATE Pick-Up

All students pre-kindergarten thru grade 5 who are not picked up by 3:15 PM will be enrolled in CASA until their parents arrive.  

At 3:30 PM, CASA charges apply.

All students Grades 6-8 who are not picked up by 3:30 PM must attend Middle School Hang Time. The circular drive in front of the gym is NOT a designated drop-off or pick-up area before 3:45 PM for any student.

The athletic field will be open for parents and visitors on special events.  

Please don't allow your child to be at school unsupervised before 7:45 AM and after 3:30  PM--thank you! 

PLEASE NOTE: More information, including a special map, will be sent to you this coming Tuesday, September 13.

Please remember that we will always put the safety of your child over convenience at WA. Thank you for your cooperation!  

Please plan to attend a six week course on the basics of Financial

Stewardship (Financial Peace with Dave Ramsey). This course begins September 13, at 6:30 PM at CRPC. For registration and additional information please contact: Jeff Masters at 954.977.5150 or jeff@jeffmasters.com. 

The first class is FREE!

Students who are interested in meeting with these representatives will be excused from class. Parents are welcome to attend! Please contact Student Services for more information. 

SEPTEMBER

FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY (Room 203)

September 20, 1:00 - 1:30 PM

GARDNER-WEBB UNIVERSITY (Room 203)

September 21, 1:00-1:30 PM

OCTOBER

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY (Room 203)

October 5, 12:30 - 1:00 PM

GUILFORD COLLEGE (Room 203)

October 13, 8:30 - 9:00 AM

ITHACA COLLEGE (Room 203)

October 18, 12:00 - 12:30 AM

DAVIDSON COLLEGE (Room 202)

October 24, 10:00 -10:30 AM

More dates to follow ...

Our 2011 magazine fundraiser is about to end, so please consider giving magazine subscriptions as gifts this year or purchase subscriptions for the school. 

 Let your friends and family know about our fundraiser and ask them to place their orders with us. Magazines offer a wonderful opportunity to promote reading in the home!

If you would like to support WA, please shop online NOW and renew or order new subscriptions. Simply click here and enter our school account number (1117353) to make a selection! All online sales will count toward your child's prizes.

Family members living outside our school area can easily go online and order magazines without having to do it through the mail. The success of our sale depends on the teamwork of our students, families and school community, and time is running out.

Thank you, we couldn't do it without you! 

    The WA Choir Sings at
Rio Vista Community Church
 
We are excited that WA's mixed choir will be singing at Rio Vista Community Church on Sunday, October 2, at both the 9 AM and 11 AM services. We are grateful for this opportunity for our students to minister to the congregants of Rio Vista. If you would like to join us, directions and more information about the church can be found at www.riovistachurch.com.

Thank you for your continued support and encouragement of our exceptional students as they share the love of Christ through music.  

      Helping WA as You Shop!   

Every time you use your Target Visa or  

Target Guest Card®  

at a Target store or at www.target.com, Target will donate to WA. The amount donated to WA is equal to 1% of your Target  

purchases and 1/2% of Target Visa purchases made at any other store.  

Please see details at target.com.   

 WA Senior and Junior Families  

Westminster Academy will be offering another SAT/ACT test prep course for seniors who would like to increase their scores and juniors who would like to begin preparing for the SAT/ACT tests during the 2011-2012 school year.

Please view the details here about the course. It will begin on Monday, September 12 and end on Friday, October 21, 2011.  The course will be taught during the school day on B-day, 4th hour block from 1:30 to 3:00 PM, in room 203.

For those students who are unable to attend this test prep course, we will be offering other courses throughout the school year. Some will be offered during the B-day, 4th hour block and others will be offered after school on Wednesdays.   

If you are interested in taking the course, please contact Sharon Curlee at 954.771.4615, ext. 2522 or curlees@wacad.edu.

Further information regarding furture courses will be emailed to you.

Moms, dads, grandparents, alumni--please come and join part of the fun and excitement of benefiting our school by helping with our annual dinner auction!  A planning meeting will take place on Tuesday, September 20, at 8:00 AM in the lower school media center. 

For more information please contact Katy Singh at  soundmed@bellsouth.net. 

From time-to-time, special wardrobe privileges will be given to our students and faculty/staff. In order to reduce confusion, special privileges will be given only on the last day of the week only  

(other than Homecoming, Winter Homecoming and winter weather for extremely cold days). There are no special privileges for next week, however, next Friday, September 16 is Spirit Day, meaning WA t-shirts with uniform shorts, pants or skorts can be worn! 

New Online School Calendar!

To help keep you even more informed about school events, WA has chosen to use Tandem for Schools as our new online school calendar. As a Christ-centered, comprehensive college-preparatory school, there is an abundance of learning opportunities to keep track of during the school year. To help you and your family, we decided to use Tandem for Schools as our main calendar system.

Even though we wanted to go live the first week of school, there were a number of challenges with customizing the calendar for our school and we wanted to make sure it was user-friendly.

We have updated the calendar links on the website and you can now access the calendars on the website directly from there.    

This introductory video explains some of the features in this new system. It explains how to create a user account, and shows you how to track the events that interest you.

(Note: If you have subscribed to the old school calendars, you will need to unsubscribe to those and subscribe to the new.)

This new calendar provides you with:

· One place to find all school events

· The ability to subscribe to events in a personal calendar, such as Outlook, iCal, Cozi, or Google calendar

· A personal Dashboard area where you can track events for the groups that are important to you, and receive email updates when their events change time or location

· Google maps to event locations

 In the coming weeks, we will send out detailed information on how to get the most out of this new calendar. If you have any questions or feedback please email calendar@wacad.edu.  

 We encourage our families to be involved in mid-week services at their churches. This is a helpful reminder that no homework will be assigned on Wednesdays. Please know that at times work may be due on Wednesdays from a previous assignment.

Astrid Audet Academy Of Ballet

 2nd Annual Nutcracker Suite Ballet Performance

           Placement Auditions Saturday, Sept. 17

Open to all students enrolled in ballet.  

Please call the Academy @ 954-491-8418

            11:30 AM-12:30 PM Ages 5-7     

         12:30 PM-1:30 PM Ages 8-11  

                     1:15 PM-2:30 PM Apprentice Co.       

                     2:45 PM-4:15 PM Juniors and Seniors

         Performance Date: Saturday, December 17 @ CRPC (proceeds to benefit Outreach Ministries)

aaacademyofballet@gmail.com

www.aaaballet.com 

          Come be a part of this special holiday tradition and ministry!

Please join us on Monday, September 19, in the DeVos Chapel from 7:00- 8:00 PM for an informative symposium about the biblical and theological worldview of Westminster Academy.  

Together we will learn the doctrinal beliefs that your child is taught in Bible class and throughout our curriculum. You will hear from our panel of faculty and staff, including Dr. Leo Orsino, our headmaster, and Mr. Mike Critch, our upper school principal, as well as upper school Bible faculty.

We look forward to seeing you on September 19!

Please join us for a special treat as our upper school students share the love of Christ through song, instrument, dance, artwork and drama.  

A special love offering will be taken to support the Fine Arts at WA.

New WA water bottles, coffee cups and t-shirts (long-sleeve and short-sleeve), along with WA hoodies are now available in the school store!

 School Store Hours:

Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings from 7:45 - 8:15 AM. The store will be closed on Tuesday mornings.  

The store is also open Monday-Friday in the afternoon from 2:45 - 3:30 PM. The School Store is located in the gymnasium, with an external entrance near the lower school entrance.   

  Let's Talk About Lunch...  Q & A  

As we launched our new lunch program, we had some additional questions. Please click here for information which you may find helpful.    

Please click here to view next week's menu.