WGO - MS Updates

WGO

Issue #2: August 20, 2026

Home

ES Matters

HS Highlights

PTG

Calendars

Main Contacts

From the Principal

Mr. Chris McBride

Connection and partnership are vital for middle school students to learn. Teachers continued to facilitate connections in their classes, Advisory, and Explore. You are invited to connect with us at the MS Back to School Night next Monday, August 24.

As it is early in the school year, it is important to share our attendance expectations. Consistent school attendance is essential for academic success - interactive discussions, labs, and group projects simply cannot be replicated when a student is absent. Below are a couple of key points from the MS Family Handbook, which outlines our attendance expectations in greater detail.

Key Attendance Guidelines:

All Absences Count: We do not differentiate between “excused” and “unexcused” absences. While valid reasons for missing school occur, every absence affects learning.

Attendance Expectations: Students are expected to have 7 or fewer absences per course per semester. Exceeding 7 absences in a course may result in conditional enrollment status.

Thank you for partnering with us to prioritize attendance and support your child's learning journey.

MS Celebrations

It is truly inspiring to watch our classrooms come alive again as a new school year gets underway!

Learning in Middle School is as rich and diverse as our student body itself. On any given day, walking down our hallways, you will see students collaborating on group projects, diving deep into independent research, posing big questions through inquiry-based learning, testing ideas via hands-on experimentation, and pausing to consolidate their understanding through thoughtful reflection.

This rich variety goes far beyond mastering content. By engaging with concepts in so many different ways, our Middle Schoolers are developing adaptable problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and flexibility - vital life skills that will serve them well in almost any situation they encounter in the future.

MS Updates

MS BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT

You are cordially invited to the Middle School's Back To School Night:

Monday, August 24 from 5:00pm - 6:30pm

This is a wonderful opportunity to hear from the MS Leadership team and to meet all of your child's teachers.

Update - To help you prepare for the evening, you are invited to click HERE to see all the MS teachers. You can also read their bio's and a summary of their classes.

MS ACTIVE PARENTING COURSE

Join our MS Counselor, Ms. Martinez, for a 6 week parenting course.

Learn and practice parenting skills relevant to raising tweens/teens like building cooperation, problem support, and when to use different types of consequences.

Additionally, this is a great chance to build some connections with other middle school parents and grow together.

Check out the details and sign up here.

NEW FAMILY ORIENTATION

It was a pleasure to meet many of our new families last week at the New Family Orientation. If you would like to review the slides, you can reference the New Family Orientation Presentation.

We are all here to support you and your family in any way we can so if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out.

CURRICULUM SPOTLIGHT

At ACS, we believe that keeping you informed about your child’s academic journey is key to their success and growth. To help you stay connected with what’s happening in the classroom, we have published the Unit 1 Overviews for all Middle School courses.

You can now view what your child will be exploring, creating, and learning over the coming weeks by visiting the "Learning in Middle School" section towards the bottom of this site.

We encourage you to take a look and spark some great dinner-table conversations about their learning! As always, if you have any specific questions about a course or unit, please feel free to reach out directly to your child’s teacher via email.

Happy learning!

ATTENDANCE

Consistent school attendance is vital to the long-term academic learning and personal success of each student - nothing can make up for time missed from a classroom environment involving discussions, lectures, experiments, and other collaborative experiences.

To better understand our expectations around attendance please read through ACS Middle School Family Handbook.

Should your child be absent:

Please inform the school through the PowerSchool parent portal.
This video shows you how to report a student's absence.
Should you have any issues regarding PowerSchool, please contact powerschool@acsamman.edu.jo.

CAMPUS HOURS

For the safety and security of our students, please remember that adult supervision is only provided during regular school hours.

Unless students are participating in a school-sponsored, adult-supervised activity, they should not be on campus outside of these times:

Mornings: Campus opens at 7:40 a.m. (and 8:40 a.m. on Tuesdays). Please do not drop students off earlier, as there is no supervision.
Afternoons: All students must depart campus promptly at 3:00 p.m. dismissal unless enrolled in an official after-school program.

Thank you for your cooperation in keeping our students safe and our campus secure!

From the Athletics Office

WELCOME BACK SCORPIONS!

We hope you've had a restful summer and are ready for an exciting year ahead. The ACS Activities Department has been busy planning a full slate of athletics, arts, service, and leadership opportunities for Elementary, Middle, and High School students.

Everything you need to know for 2026–2027 is now available in our Activities Preliminary Information guide: schedules, tryout dates, uniforms, SAISA and AAC tournaments, AEP registration windows, and more.

Access the 2026–2027 Activities Information Guide here

Whether you're a new student, a returning Scorpion, or a parent looking to get involved, there's something here for everyone. We look forward to a great year together.

Middle & High School Registration Now Open on PowerSchool

Log on to PowerSchool to register for the Activities on offer below. On PowerSchool - Go to Student Profile → Student Form, and you will find the form under General Forms.

The links below lead you to all details needed about the activity :

Cross Country (MS & HS) - starts the week of August 16
SAISA Swim Team (MS & HS) - starts the week of August 16
Montana MUN & MUNoM Grades 8 to 12 - starts the week of August 23
U14 Boys Volleyball Grades 6-8 - starts the week of August 30 (website link with information available soon)
U14 Girls Volleyball Grades 6-8 - starts the week of August 30 (website link with information available soon)
U14 Boys Soccer Grades 6-8 - starts the week of August 30 (website link with information available soon)
U14 Girls Soccer Grades 6-8 - starts the week of August 30 (website link with information available soon)

From the Learning Commons (MS/HS)

GREETINGS

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Welcome to the start of the 2026–2027 school year! My name is Ms. Lori Black, and I am excited to serve as your child’s Middle & High School Librarian this year alongside Ms. Kelli Harris in the Learning Commons.

Our goal in the Learning Commons is to foster a vibrant, welcoming space where students can cultivate a love of reading, develop strong research and information literacy skills, and find the academic support they need to succeed.

Throughout the year, we will be working closely with teachers and students to:

Guide students in finding independent reading books that ignite their interests.
Teach effective research strategies, source evaluation, and database navigation.
Provide quiet study areas, collaborative workspaces, and access to key digital resources, including Sora, The New York Times, and The Economist.

We encourage you to ask your child about their visits to the Learning Commons and what they are currently reading. If you ever have questions about our library collection, digital subscriptions, or research tools, please feel free to reach out to us at any time.

We look forward to a wonderful year of learning and discovery with your students!

Warmly,

Ms. Lori Black & Ms. Kelli Harris

From the Tech Office

GUARDIAN ACCESS TO GOOGLE CLASSROOM

We are excited to announce a new feature coming to Google Classroom that will help you stay more connected to your child's learning. Starting next week, we'll be rolling out the Guardian Access to Google Classroom feature for students in grades 4 through 12.

Click here for more information.