Dear Parents/Guardians of Grade 3-5 Student,
Microsoft Office 365 is a cloud-based communication and collaboration tool, hosted by Microsoft and managed by Prince William County Schools (PWCS). Office 365 enables PWCS students (grades K-12), faculty, and staff to email, store files, and collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in real time from school, work, or home, all within a secure online environment.
PWCS Microsoft Office 365 provides students with secure and easy online access to documents, spreadsheets, and presentation and communication tools that are easily accessed from home or school and enhance teacher and student collaboration and learning beyond the four walls of the classroom. Teachers can use Office 365 to facilitate group projects and use the track changes tool to see the level of participation of each student in a group. Teachers can also give feedback to students directly in documents shared with a teacher. Turning in assignments is as easy as sharing the file in Office 365 with the teacher, or emailing it to the teacher through the student’s PWCS Office 365 email account. * Programs students use regularly in class and at home such as Benchmark Literacy, PowerSchool Assessment and Discovery Education will be accessed on student’s Microsoft accounts in their “waffle.”
Third-Fifth grade students are receiving and have activated their Microsoft Office 365 accounts. Students in grades 3-5 will have access to email as well as online versions of MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, and OneNote, all of which can be utilized at school or at home. In addition, students will have 5 licenses to download MS Office 2013 on their home computers, laptops, cell phones, and/or tablets. In order to download MS Office 2013, a student will login into his/her Office 365 account online. At the top of the page he/she will go to settings (the gear icon) and choose Office 365 Settings. Then on the left side, the student will choose Software and follow the online prompts to install the software.In order to access his/her account, a student visits uses his/her Office 365 username and password to log in.
One of the components of this Office 365 account is an email account for each student. These email accounts are able to send email within and outside of PWCS. There is no “Parent View” of the email or the Office 365 account. Parents are encouraged to explore Office 365 with their child by logging in together. Parents can have their child log in to his /her PWCS Office 365 account at home and show you his/her email inbox and sent items. At school, students have received instruction on using “netiquette” and the appropriate use of email. We encourage parents to discuss and monitor appropriate use of email with their child. Any inappropriate use of the email account or the Office 365 account will result in loss of the account and may result in additional consequences.
Microsoft Office 365 is a very productive instructional classroom tool. Files stored on OneDrive are always accessible and backed-up online in a safe and secure data environment. Implementation of Office 365 in the PWCS classroom is a teacher decision, but parents do have the option to opt-out of the use of Office 365 for their child. Parents/Guardians that feel it is not in the best interest of their child to use Office 365 can visit the PWCS web-siteto print and complete the PWCS email Opt-Out form and return it to Henderson Elementary School.
For more information about the student Office 365 account, please visit
Sarah Willey (Instructional Technology Coach)
Your child's 365 information is attached below.
Username-
Password Hint on the back of this letter. Please keep this in a safe place.
Thank-you, Sarah Willey