Dear Parents/Guardians:

Prior to the COVID Pandemic, Portsmouth City Schools was embarking on a journey to change the way both our teachers teach and our students learn in our classrooms.  We spent many months last year identifying competencies that will allow our students to compete for 21st Century jobs and are excited to share them with you at this time.  We are calling these competencies the Portrait of a Portsmouth Trojan and they will be stressed throughout our district moving forward and our teaching staff is being trained on implementing them in our classrooms.  These competencies are:

            Technology Literacy

            Critical Thinking

            Communication

            Collaboration

            Confidence

            Character

Each of these competencies are considered vital to future student success and teachers have taught lessons and units this school year that emphasize them and will be creating more lessons highlighting these competencies next school year.  Please watch the short video entitled “The Future of Work” to better understand “Why” we are making these changes throughout our district.

We look forward to sharing our journey with you on our district website and Facebook pages as we move from our Portrait to Practice.

Sincerely,

Scott Dutey