SWHS Principal's weekly updates for Nov 6th, 2017

Good evening, this is Mike Hettenbach, Principal of Southwest Guilford High School with your weekly updates and reminders...

Please make sure you have turned back the clocks this evening one hour. This Wednesday is an early release at 1:35 for students and Friday is a holiday, no school for students and staff. 

Great job to the Men's Soccer team for a fantastic season. Additionally, a great job to the Men's Cross Country team for finishing 7th in the states. Men's football plays this Friday against Statesville at home in the first round of the playoffs.This is the first home playoff game for the football program in the history of Southwest Guilford High School.

November is Tobacco Prevention Month. With the rise of vaping products, research is beginning to show that teens who are more likely to end up using traditional cigarettes, making e-cigarettes a gateway to traditional tobacco. Addiction may be the most dangerous thing about teen use of e-cigs/vaping. "Nicotine exposure during adolescence can cause addiction and harm the development of the brain". Parents, please have this conversation with your teenager about the dangers of tobacco and vaping products. 


Southwest is having a school wide canned food drive Nov 13-17th.  Items like canned soup, canned vegetables, and canned fruit are needed. Please no glass containers.  The collected items are going to Out of the Garden that serves families in Guilford and Forsyth county.  

Sprint Cellular has a grant whereby some students will qualify for a special smart phone program and Southwest High is participating in this grant.  Students who meet these qualifications will be called into Mrs. Barnum’s office for more information.  Parents of those students will also be given extensive details. 

A heads up to all parents and guardians that report cards will be distributed to all students this Wednesday on November 8th. Please ask your child for their copy. If your child informs you they did not receive their report card, please call the school. This is also an early release day at 1:35 so please be prepared to see your child arrive home early on this day. 

Registration for rising 11^th and 12^th graders began last week.  Students will meet with their counselors individually via English classes to discuss their options based on their post high school plans.  This is the perfect time to start having conversations about life after high school as planning for that life begins now.  If your child is not enrolled in English this semester, they will meet with their counselor next semester. 

There will be another Senior Meeting on Wednesday, November 8th. Students will be released early after this meeting. Seniors will order their graduation supplies from Herff Jones. Information about supplies was provided to your child this past Wednesday at the November 1st senior meeting. Additionally, the senior counselors distributed information in an e-mail this past Wednesday with specifics related to this process.  As seniors will be allowed to go home early on Wednesday, seniors should take advantage of this day by filling out applications, resumes, working on essays and even going to visit a college.  You can register to take an official college tour by going to a college or university’s admissions website. Also, seniors who completed the FAFSA application process will receive an extra incentive on this day. 

Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors: The Guilford Apprenticeship Partners will have an information session at school on Wednesday, November 15^th .  The GAP program offers a path to attaining a college education for free while also obtaining paid on the job training.  See Michelle Cook, cookm@gcsnc.com for more information or to sign up. 

All sophomores will take the pre-ACT on Wednesday, November 8th. Please bring in your calculator if you have one. 

Free Tutoring opportunity!  Brainfuse now offers students tutoring services, designed for a wide range of academic needs. Students can get help with classwork, extra help in difficult subjects or prepare for college preparatory tests including the SAT. These services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to accommodate any schedule.To access these resources go to gparesources.gcsnc.com to register for an account and/or sign in to access resources.Students can access Brainfuse on any GCS computer. At home, they'll need to use their parent's log-in to the Guilford Parent Academy website.

As it relates to the weekly athletics, please feel free to navigate to the www.cowboysports.org website for detailed information. 

Upcoming Athletic schedule, extracurricular events, and important activities:

Monday, November 6
Freshman Incentive trip

Tuesday, November 7

Instructional Meeting - 10:30 - Barnum's Office

Wednesday, November 8

Seniors order graduation supplies - Coggins Gym (early release for seniors)
Report Card Distribution
Early Release Day for students
Pre ACT Test (10th graders

Thursday, November 9
Junior Incentive trip

Friday, November 10

Holiday - No School

Coming up.....

Tuesday, November 14th
Senior Speech Night - 5:30 - 9:00

Remember, you are always able to access this message on our school website under School News and titled Principal's Weekly Updates or on Facebook and Twitter. Please follow Southwest High School at SouthwestGHS for both Twitter and Facebook. This is a great way for us to communicate and stay connected.

We are... Southwest!