You can start signing up now for the 6 weeks of Thursday lunches for the rest of the second quarter. Please submit your menu choices by Tuesday night, Nov 1. See the tab above for "Lunch Delivery" or when you sign into your SignUpGenius account you will see the sign-up for November and December lunch delivery already there.
Warrior Challenge Update
As of Friday, Oct 28, we have earned $3000 in sponsorships and about $1200 in donations have been submitted so far. Our goal is to raise $10,000. The Grand Prize of being designated as the Ultimate Warriors is awarded to the tribe that has each member raise at least $40 and has the highest average fundraising total. Each Ultimate Warrior tribe member will get an Iron Academy pocket knife and doughnuts one morning for "refuel time"! Students will also have the opportunity to choose prizes if they are among the top 10 fundraisers. The prizes they may select include passes to Defy Gravity, free bowling passes at Buffalo Lanes, Grand Slam USA voucher, Gamesturz free game time passes, free putt-putt and video game tokens at Adventure Landing, Chick-fil-a free breakfast cards, or one free sandwich per month for an entire year from Big Apple Bagels! Many thanks to parent Emily Curran who contacted all of these businesses to get donated prizes. We have already determined who the "Strongest Tribe" is from their activities on the WC day and that winner was Josheb! This tribe will be treated to an off-campus lunch at the Mellow Mushroom in Wake Forest, sponsored by the Kiker family.
We will accept any donation at any time that it comes in but try to have the donations submitted no later than Tuesday, Nov 1 to count it in your son's fundraising total to determine prizes.For both the morning and afternoon carpool times this Monday and Tuesday, you can give your donations to Anne York, Rebekah Anderson, or any of the teachers who are at the doors. Online donations can be submitted through Tuesday evening at http://warriorchallenge2016.blogspot.com/
Our young men did a great job! They tried their hardest in sit-ups, push-ups, and squats and clocked some of their fastest times ever for the 1 mile run! Below is a brief video (more polished than what was sent out already) that shows all of their outstanding efforts! It was also so heartening how the young men rallied around and encouraged each other to do their best. This video is on Iron's Facebook if you want to share it to request donations.
You can also email this link to the video to show what your son has been doing to raise money for his school: https://youtu.be/vILJODUyzU0. The funds that we raise from the Warrior Challenge help to pay for many school expenses such as library books, the challenge coins, the knives for the 9th grade Forging Camp, referees, athletic uniforms, field rental for our athletic teams, PE and classroom supplies. Through the generosity of the donors who sponsor your son, we are providing an extra source of revenue to help fund school operations. Mr. Hahn is also doing a major fundraising campaign for the school and if you know of a potential donor who is interested in investing in the future of Iron Academy, please talk to Mr. Hahn.
Request for hosts for grade level dinners
Lisa Wald, the IPF Co-Vice Chair of Family and Social Activities, has sent out a request to see if anyone is willing to host a parent dinner party with the parents in your son's grade. We did these last year and it was a great opportunity to get to know the parents of the new friends that our sons are making at IA. The dinner party will be potluck. Please reply to Lisa very soon at lisa.wald@yahoo.com if you are willing to open your home and the dinner can be planned at a time that works best for the host's schedule. We would like to do these in November or December.
Winter Sports - Basketball and Wrestling
BASKETBALL: Tryouts for middle school and JV basketball start Monday, October 31! Please encourage your son to try out - we need enough to fill two teams! A middle school player can "play up" on the JV team but 9th graders can't play on the middle school team. The basketball participation fee is $150 and can be paid in full to Coach Mitchell or Rebekah Anderson by Friday, Nov 4 or make two payments $75 by Nov 4 and $75 by December 1. The basketball practice and game schedule is already on our school events calendar at: http://www.ironacademy.org/events-calendar/
WRESTLING: Wrestling is a club sport for Iron this year and will begin on Tuesday, Nov 1. Coach Mitchell will be the coach and will teach the basics of wrestling and take the students to tournaments for individual competition. There is no participation fee for wrestling but players will need to buy their own uniforms which are expected to cost around $50 and may need to pay very small tournament fees. Players will keep their uniforms. The dates and times for the wrestling practices is also already on our school events calendar: http://www.ironacademy.org/events-calendar/
For any questions about our athletic teams or player academic and conduct eligibility requirements, contact Coach Mitchell at jmitchell@ironacademy.org.
SOCCER AND CROSS COUNTRY UPDATES: Our middle school soccer team won the tournament and first ever Triangle Area Athletic Conference Championship by beating Thales-Rolesville 3-1! The team ended the season with 11 victories and 2 close losses. They played with heart, character, and tenacity.
Our cross country team was the runner-up in their conference tournament! All of our cross country players did very well this year with many top 10 finishes or finishing in the top 50% of the runners.
Please click the "Lunch Delivery" tab above for information and the link to the SignUpGenius for our October Lunch delivery. You can also find the sign up for delivery whenever you sign into your SignUpGenius account. Please try to place all orders for the month no later than Tuesday, Oct 4. The students are really enjoying the food!
We have two events in October in immediate need of volunteers: the Cross-Country Conference Meet that IA is hosting at our school on Saturday morning, Oct 8 (9:00-noon for volunteers) and the Warrior Challenge student fundraising event on Oct 25 (noon to 3:00 pm for volunteers). We also need drivers for field trips during the Intensive Week explained below. While it is a blessing to have a small school with the mentoring relationship that our teachers have with the students, it also means that we really need each family to volunteer at least once this year in order to have enough help with our activities. Grandparents are welcome to volunteer too!
Warrior Challenge - Ready for Kickoff
This Thursday Oct 6 the students will set their goals for the fitness activity they will do for the Warrior Challenge on October 25! With their fitness goal in hand, the students will seek donations from family, friends, relatives, neighbors, etc. We'll have information sent home in a packet on Thursday and will also email it to the parents. Thank you to everyone who has requested to be a corporate sponsor - we still have some room on the t-shirt for more logos! Our t-shirt vendor has given us until Friday, Oct 7 if anyone else would like the opportunity to ally with IA and promote your business. Send an email to IPF@ironacademy.org for more information on being a sponsor.
Tribe Day on Oct 10 and Challenge Coin Ceremony on Oct 26
A very unique aspect of an Iron Academy education is the attention paid to truly living up to our Honor Code. Parents should be on the lookout the week of October 3 for a survey to fill out about your son on where you see that he stands in his efforts to live the Honor Code and be a gentleman scholar. On Monday October 10, please be sure that you son is in school for the entire day for their first Tribe Day. The Tribe Day is NOT an A or B day and students will not need to bring their textbooks to school that day. The students will do tribe activities, including assessing where they see each other stands in living up to the Honor Code and in being a gentleman scholar. The faculty will also assess each student. By October 20, parents will be notified if their son is or is not eligible to receive his Challenge Coin if he does not currently have one. The Challenge Coin Ceremony will be on Wednesday, October 26, 11:30-12:30 if the parents would like to attend.
School Holiday on Fri Oct 14 and Intensive Week Oct 17-21
October is a busy month! Please be sure to frequently view our Events Calendar that can be found in the tab above or from the ironacademy.org website under the Welcome tab: http://www.ironacademy.org/events-calendar/. Please note that Friday October 14 is a day with no classes so that families can enjoy the NC State Fair and that we will have our first INTENSIVE WEEK from Oct 17 to 21.
Our exciting line-up for this upcoming Intensive Week
6th grade: Orienteering and Outdoor Skills. There is an open invitation to 6th grade dads to join us on Thursday night Oct 20 for an overnight camp out with our instructor/minister and former Navy seal.
7th grade: Art History II. We will take a trip to the North Carolina Museum of Art on Tuesday morning, Oct 18. Two volunteer drivers will be needed.
8th grade: Mon/Tues/Wed will be "Creative Storytelling and Critical Analysis" from a biblical worldview and Thurs/Fri will be Apologetics
9th grade: College Application Planning and will need volunteer drivers on Friday morning Oct 21 for our college visit. ALL parents are invited to attend a meeting on Thursday evening, Oct 20 (time to be announced soon) with an Admissions Officer from Campbell Universityto discuss how families can plan and navigate the college admissions process. Families with older students who are soon applying to college will find this meeting to help them too.
Announcements from September Parent Kickoff Meeting
In case you missed the September 6 Parent Kickoff/Open House meeting, Mr. Hahn made several announcements.
The IA Core Values were discussed. "That we may glorify God in all things, we will:
Love every student so that every student knows it
Complement the family and the church, never displacing either
Build and embody a discipleship community by biblically resolving conflict, eliminating gossip and slander, and loving the IA family
Live the Honor Code"
Handouts were distributed with contact information for each teacher and who to contact for different questions. Please see Rebekah Anderson to get a copy of this handout.
There will be various surveys sent to the parents from school administration throughout the year. Please complete these surveys very soon when you receive one.
We are looking to move IA by next year to a location in North Raleigh, to the west of where we currently are at Radiant Church. We are in talks with a couple of churches in the Six Forks Rd area. Please be in prayer about a location that is more convenient for our families.
We have had many requests to open a single gender school for girls with a focus on biblical womanhood. We have therefore decided next year to open "Academy 31," which is named for Proverbs 31. Academy 31 and Iron Academy will operate under one administrative structure but students will be in single-gender classes. We are in the process of hiring a female leader for Academy 31 and have three outstanding candidates.
The school calendar has been modified and Veteran's Day on Nov 11 will NOT be a school day. Families can use that day on their own to commemorate Veteran's Day.
Video of School Day
What happens during a typical IA school day? A lot! Learning, leading, fitness, and fun! Anne York is putting together a video to illustrate our school day, but here is a sneak peak from a video that Google Photos randomly put together from video clips:
Science Lab Saturday - Oct 22 - 7th and 8th graders only
The science labs for this month are only for the 7th and 8th graders. Time is 8:00-11:30 am. Please have your son dress in his academic clothes (polo shirts, khaki shorts or pants) with closed toe shoes. He needs to bring a pencil, notebook, and snack and water.
Athletics Update
IA is a member of the newly formed Triangle Area Athletic Conference (TAAC) for middle schools. The other TAAC members are Thales-Rolesville, Thales-Apex, Wake Forest Charter, and Southside Christian. All of our MS teams will compete for Conference Championships on these days:
Soccer: October 13 and hosted by Thales-Rolesville
Cross-Country: Saturday October 8 and hosted by Iron Academy. We will need 15-20 volunteers to manage this event, including timers, course guides, registration, and parking. The races start at 10:00 am but volunteers should come by 9:00 am.
Soccer news: We have clinched the 2nd place seeding in our conference with a 7-1 record, including 3 shutout wins! Game 1 of the end of season tournament will be played at home on October 10 at 4:30. We want to thank Mr. Rich Anderson for getting our team started this season and welcome Mr. Wes Starr to our coaching staff to finish the season. Cross country news: In our first year as a team, we have 7 young men who stepped up to tackle the grueling endurance challenge that is cross country. Middle school races are approximately 2 miles while high school distance is 3.25 miles. Our middle school runners are Brendan Hanna, Zac Lake, Ben Boylston, Casher Collier, and Jon Anderson. Our JV runners are Stephen Anderson and Byron Brewington. Our runners have done very well with finishing in the top half of the rankings. Of note, Zac Lake has finished 3rd out of 52 and Ben has finished 9th out of 52 at a recent race, each having shaved a minute off of their previous times. The cross-country team is coached by Jon Mitchell.
Winter sports will begin on October 31. We will offer Middle School basketball, JV basketball, and a combined middle school/JV wrestling club. Students who are interested in participating in winter sports must meet eligibility requirements (good academic standing and conduct) prior to trying out. Contact Coach Mitchell for questions about eligibility. For our PE courses, Coach Mitchell would like to remind the parents to have their sons come prepared each day with approved PE attire, a towel, water bottle, and if needed, deodorant. Approved PE attire is an IA t-shirt from Land's End or any of our spiritwear t-shirts. Athletic shorts must be solid black, gray, or crimson/burgundy.
Extracurricular Club Activities
The Debate Team members will be selected in mid-October. Any students who are interested in joining the debate team can still come to one of their meetings on Wednesdays, 3:30-5:30 in the History classroom. For our Real Adventures Outdoors Club, the October schedule is 10/7: orienteering on campus ($20); 10/21: fishing off campus ($25); and 10/28: camping skills on campus ($20). You can contact Danny Myers at danny@mtstosea.com if you would like to be added to the email list for Outdoors Club activities.
