By Shelly Santaniello
Hometown Weekly Correspondent
The Sunita L. Williams Elementary School has opened. This is a significant event for the town. Needhamites probably can’t help but be impressed with the big, beautiful structure as they drive by. They may wonder what it looks like inside, how many lucky students will attend, and how it...
[caption id="attachment_33372" align="alignright" width="300"] Race Director John Hrones with Great Bear (Ted Strollo).[/caption]
Over 900 runners ages 1 to 86 from 50 towns and as far away as New Jersey gathered on Sunday, May 19, for the...
On Sunday, May 19, the Needham Youth Track Club is sponsoring the 29th running of the Great Bear Run, a road race for all ages. There is a 5K run (10:30 a.m.), 1 Mile Run and Prostate Walk (12:15 p.m.), events for children including 400 meter (age 7-14) – 2:15 p.m., 200 meter (age 6)...
Needham’s regional award recipients for the prestigious Boston Globe Scholastic Art and Writing Awards for 2019 have been announced. This program, sponsored by the Boston Globe and The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts (SMFA), introduces Massachusetts communities to a new generation of young artists. Competing against thousands of other young Massachusetts...
Needham’s celebration and observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is scheduled for Monday, January 21, in the Pollard Middle School auditorium. The program will be from 10 a.m. to noon, and doors will open at 9:30. Refreshments will be served.
The program is sponsored by the Needham Diversity Initiative, Clergy Association, Human Rights Committee, Public...
By Laura Drinan
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Every year at Needham’s Pollard Middle School, the eighth grade students participate in a day that revolves around the community: Students Take Action Day, or STA (pronounced “stay”) Day for short.
Throughout the year, the eighth graders must participate in donating six hours of their time to community service. While...
By Laura DrinanHometown Weekly Reporter
Mornings at Pollard Middle School are unlike any other middle school’s. Before first period even begins, the students are practically skipping to homeroom, animatedly chatting with friends and classmates. Instead of resting their heads on the desk and pretending they’re still home in bed, the kids are asking their...
Students that refrain from eating breakfast before school lose two hours of productivity per day, reported a recent study. Officials from Pollard Middle School aim to increase the amount of students participating in school breakfast, an effort that caught the eye of New England Dairy & Food Council. Pollard’s school nutrition department was...
Needham Park and Rec will be hosting the first TGIF Night of the 2017-2018 school year on Friday, October 13, from 7:30-10:00 p.m. at Pollard Middle School. The program is just for 6th graders who live in or go to school in Needham, and will include music from a DJ, a crazy fun inflatable obstacle...
By Laura Drinan Hometown Weekly Reporter
Pollard Middle School students were starstruck by the author of their One School One Book’s novel, “The Seventh Most Important Thing,” Shelley Pearsall, who visited the school on September 26. Students celebrated the half-day with talks from Pearsall and activities relating to the book, which was read by...
This summer, Pollard Middle School hosted its third annual Launching Scholars camp. Over 20 students came to Pollard from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. to develop math skills and focus in character development.
Launching Scholars, a program founded on the principles of The Calculus Project, offers a one-week free summer program, as well as after-school...
As part of his Eagle Scout project, Needham’s Stephen DeMaio, with the help of about ten other Scouts from Troop 13 Needham, created an outdoor classroom at the Pollard Middle School.
[caption id="attachment_20958" align="alignright" width="400"]Read more
Parents from Pollard worked tirelessly on creating a new teachers’ space at Pollard Middle School this summer.
With a volunteer interior designer, a volunteer photographer, and many parents, the space was transformed to a wonderful work area and lunch space for teachers....
By Katrina Margolis
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Middle school is already a complicated time made up of navigating a new set of academics, discovering who you are as a person, and cultivating new friendships. It takes a very special middle schooler to go above and beyond and take on an additional class to learn a...
By James Ensor
Hometown Weekly Reporter
“Skateboard EDU” was a two week program offered by the Needham Parks and Rec department that taught young skaters the basics of safely carving it up. Kids aged 8 to 11 brought their own boards, helmets and pads to the tennis courts in back of Pollard Middle School during the...
By Stephen Press
Hometown Weekly Staff
The students of the Pollard Middle School eighth-grade social studies class slumped in their desks, some still wiping the sleep from their eyes. It was a typical scene that plays out daily in every classroom across the country. First period, it seems, is a perpetual battleground between the waking...
By Ethan Lee
Hometown Weekly Contributor
From Friday, June 3, to Saturday, June 4, the Pollard and High Rock Drama Clubs captivated audiences with excellent performances of “The Hound of the Baskervilles.” Presented in the Pollard Auditorium, the middle school actors and actresses delivered their very own student-run version of the Sherlock Holmes classic. The...
The Needham Education Foundation’s annual Spelling Bee was held this past Sunday in the Needham High gym and once again the event was filled with eager teams of spellers from all grade levels, local businesses, teacher and school officials, community organizations, and residents looking to prove that...
Pollard Middle School eighth grader Anthony Walsh was recently notified that he is eligible to compete in the semifinal of the 28th annual Massachusetts National Geographic State Bee to be held at Elms College in Chicopee on Friday, April 1.
By Josh Perry Hometown Weekly Staff
More than a year ago, the Needham school district began exploring changes to its protocols for the extreme situation of an intruder with a weapon. After 1-1/2 years of discussion and research, the district switched to the ALICE protocols and those changes were recently approved by the Needham...
