Week of September 7, 2026

Happening this Week

  • Monday: Labor Day - no school!

  • Tuesday (Specials: A-Day)

  • Wednesday (Specials: B-Day)

  • Thursday (Specials: C-Day)

  • Friday (Specials: D-Day)

From Principal Jenn

Good Evening Families!

We had a great second week of school, despite the heat keeping us inside for most of the week! Happy the forecast includes a bit of a cool-down (if we can call the upper 80s and low 90s a cool-down). I will note that after the first 10 days of school, we are all a bit exhausted and excited for this three-day weekend; enjoy your labor day and we’ll see you on Tuesday!

We have few important updates for the upcoming week: 

At George Watts Montessori, we want to ensure students and families have access to available resources when needed. We are a community that cares and works to support the needs families may have. This includes resources such as weekend food bags, help with the holidays, access to mental health care for students, and more. If you would like to explore and sign-up for the ways we can help, complete this confidential form, or email Amanda Melton (amanda_melton-sierra@dpsnc.net). Last year, we were able to help over 60 students each weekend, and we’re prepared to help even more this year!

On Tuesday, the North Carolina School Board certified the results of the 2026 School Report Card data. We are excited to share that George Watts Montessori continued to achieve a B letter grade. We increased proficiency on ALL NC End-of-Grade assessments over 2025 data and maintained a met expected growth rating. While test scores and school report cards tell only a small portion of the story of our community, we remain proud of the hard work of our students and staff in the classroom last year! If you have questions or wonderings about the NC school report card, I’d love to chat!

We have a new data manager this year; Samaya Dawson-Hart (samaya_dawson-hart@dpsnc.net) joined our team in late July and hit the ground running to learn how to support as data manager. If your child is out sick or for an appointment, please make sure to include both our child’s teacher and Samaya on communication, so she can accurately code the absence. School attendance daily is essential to student success, so whenever possible, we encourage you to schedule appointments later in the day, so students can still attend school–we do understand that it is not always possible. 

Thursday is our first PTA work session at 3PM. The PTA collaborates to support learning, family engagement, support for our classrooms, and more. I encourage you to come on Thursday and see how you might be able to get involved!

Have a great week, and we hope to see you around George Watts Montessori soon!

Principal Jenn

This week in your Family-Connect Folder

Be on the lookout for your grade level-band newsletter in Tuesday’s folder.

Are you new to Montessori?

We want to share some “lingo” to ensure you know what we mean. Over the next several updates, we’ll share each one of the five core components of Montessori Education.

This week’s core component of Montessori education are the “Montessori Materials”.

“Didactic materials – Didactic meaning “designed or intended to teach,” these are the specially-designed instructional materials—many invented by Maria Montessori—that are a hallmark of all Montessori classrooms.” (https://amshq.org/the-ams-difference/core-components-of-montessori/)

Montessori teaching follows the progression from concrete to abstract. This means, students begin learning concepts with materials they can touch and explore. This helps develop understanding through concrete learning. As they begin to develop conceptual understanding, students can then demonstrate understanding in more abstract ways such as solving a math problem on paper without the use of materials.