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.
Thank you to everyone who shared food and their recreational equipment at the Back-to- School Picnic on August 27! What a fun time we had!
NEW - Lunch Delivery on Thursdays starting Sept 8
We are pleased to partner with Grand Street Pizza in Knightdale to start with once per week lunch delivery on every Thursday. We have choices of 21 different entrees! See the Lunch Delivery tab above for more details and how to place your order. We will use SignUpGenius and PayPal to order and pay online and will order for a month at a time. Please place your order for September no later than Tuesday night, Sept 6. Many thanks go to parent Denise Hanna who scouted out all of the Knightdale restaurants to find good food for us!
Parent Open House Meeting on Tuesday Sept 6 at 6:30 PM
We are looking forward to seeing everyone at the Open House night for the parents to meet their son's teachers. We will begin in the Conference Room that is inside the church building. Enter through the covered walkway between our school building and the church building. After some announcements you will go to the various classrooms to walk through your son's class schedule. Refreshments will be available.
Also remember to bring your son's STUDENT FORMS to the Open House if you have not already submitted them. To download copies of the forms, see the Forms tab above. ALL families need to submit 3 forms: the Emergency Contact and Medical Administration Release, Immunization Records if you have not already submitted an up-to-date copy when you applied, and the Physician's Approval for Physical Activity. By law, immunization records must be submitted by the 30th school day, which is September 21. Optional forms as needed are the Medication Administration if your son needs to bring medicine to school and Volunteer Driver and Volunteer Background Check if you will ever drive students on a field trip or extracurricular activity or do unsupervised work with the students. Rebekah Anderson collects all of these forms and maintains your student's files.
Is it an A day or a B day?
If you ever need to know which days are A or B, there is a calendar in RenWeb in the School Information menu section. When you need to schedule medical appointments for your son, it is most helpful to schedule them when he has his study skills class time. See the tab above for the daily schedule for your son's grade.
2016-2017 Parent/Student Handbook is available
Our 2016-2017 Parent/Student Handbook can be viewed and downloaded from the Handbook tab above. Please do read the handbook to become familiar with discipline, academic, and general school policies. Contact information for each teacher is in the handbook.
Student Activity Clubs; Outdoor Adventures Club
We do plan to offer several athletic activities, the debate team, and the outdoors adventure club as described below. But we would also like to see how much interest our students have or if any of our families have any connections to help mentor our students in club activities such as chess, singing, musical instruments, drumming, dancing, robotics, photography, yearbook? Please talk to Jon Mitchell about any extracurricular activities that your son is interested in doing and of anyone that you know who would help lead it.
We do have one club that is starting on Friday, Sept 9 - the Outdoors Adventure Club! It will meet for most Fridays during the fall semester and their activities will continue in the spring semester too. We are partnering with MTS TO SEA Outdoor Athletic Company to teach camping and outdoor skills to our students. The club will be led by Danny Myer who will be at our Open House event to meet the parents and answer your questions. They have an exciting curriculum for our students. There is a fee for each event paid to MTS TO SEA and you can sign up for any events that your son is interested in attending. Click HERE for the schedule of activities and description of what students will learn for each activity.
No-fuss Fundraising
Would you like for Iron to earn donations at no cost to you? There are many retailers who contribute to schools if you will make it known to them who you want your shopping to benefit. We have partnerships for Iron to earn funds when you shop at Harris Teeter, Kroger, Amazon, Groupon, and Office Depot/Office Max. We also collect BoxTops and will submit our next batch the end of October. We are also partnered with a phone app, Shoparoo, where Iron can earn donations by you simply using the app to take a photo of any store receipt and giving a rating to the retailer. Please do ask grandparents, neighbors, friends, and relatives to be willing to connect their shopping habits to Iron Academy! See the Retail Fundraising tab above for details on how to help Iron by simply shopping.
Warrior Challenge Student Fundraiser
Did your son participate in a walk-a-thon type of fundraising activity at his previous school? We have a way cooler version of that for our students - the Warrior Challenge! It will be held in the afternoon on Tuesday, October 25. Our students are being challenged to pass the Army Physical Fitness Test for 17 year olds: do at least 42 push-ups in 2 minutes, do at least 53 sit-ups in 2 minutes, and run 2 miles in less than 15:54 minutes! Alternative fitness activities will be available too and your son will ask for donations for how many repetitions he does or flat donations. We do need a lot of volunteers for that afternoon if several parents are able to take a vacation day from work. We also are selling sponsorships for $250 to businesses to advertise their logo on t-shirts that each student will receive and be recognized on our fundraising website. If your son gets a sponsor to contribute, that will count in your son's fundraising total.We will have more details coming soon.
Soccer and Cross-Country Team Update
Our soccer team is off to a promising start with a 1-1 record! We lost our first game against Thales-Rolesville but won our second game against Wake Forest Charter. Our cross country team will have its first match on Friday, Sept 9. You can find the schedule of games in our events calendar on the tab above. Go Swordsmen!
Used Clothing Sale
We still have a lot of used clothing available to purchase! More items are being added to our inventory. See the Clothing Sale tab above for the link to make your purchase.
September Calendar
Monday 5th: Labor Day Holiday Tuesday 6th: Soccer Home vs. Thales-Apex at 4:00 Parent Night Kick-off Open House at 6:30 Friday 9th: Cross-Country at 4:00 at WakeMed Soccer Park Saturday 10th: SCIENCE LAB DAY #1 Monday 12th: Staff Planning Day - No School Soccer Home vs. Southside Christian at 4:30 Thursday 15th: Soccer Away vs. Wilson Prep at 5:00 Friday 16th: Soccer Away vs. Thales-Apex Sunday 18th to Wednesday 21st: Mr. Hahn, Mr. Anderson, and student leaders visit St. Benedict's Preparatory School in Newark, NJ Monday 19th: Soccer Home vs. Oxford Prep at 4:30 Thursday 22nd: Cross Country at Cardinal Charter School in Wilson, NC Monday 26th: Cross Country at Blue Jay Point Park at 4:00 Soccer Home vs. Wake Forest Charter at 4:30 Thursday 29th: Soccer Away vs. Raleigh Christian Academy at 4:30
