Just as Henry Hudson explored the New World, our students have the opportunity to "Explore Their Dreams,Discover Their Future". The new millennium is approaching and we are building a bridge by offering many new experiences to our entering students as well as our students already attending. Our school is a "School Wide Program School", which means that parents, teachers and administration work together to plan our educational goals and programs for our students and, in addition, for our parents. This year our student population consists of 6th-8th graders and nine classes of special education students, but we are in the planning stage to add a 5th grade and become a "Middle School". We include our special education students in all of our activities and our 7th grade class president is a special education child. We make the transition from elementary school to middle school smoother by having the incoming grade remain in their classrooms most of the day. We have the teachers travel for the change of subjects. For classes like gym, art and music the students are escorted by a teacher. In addition, we have a sixth grade wing, where all the 6th grade classes are housed. We plan to have a 5th grade wing next year.

District 8 has been accepted into the New York City's Middle School Initiative, which gives IS125 the opportunity to become partners with Teacher's College, Columbia University to plan and implement new programs for the next three years. The staff and parents are planning to become a magnet school for "Journalism and Telecommunications" next year. Committees have been formed and we are in the process of create entrance criteria and establishing a curriculum. We are in the process of establishing partners with Bronx Net and creating a television station where our students will be able to write scripts, learn the technology of broadcasting and be in front of the camera. In addition we are also establishing a partnership with the Bronx Times, which will enhance the school newspaper and train the students as reporters, editors and learn the technology of producing a newspaper.

Our students are given an opportunity to excel and experiment in many different areas, not just academics. This year, we have two art teachers and we are involved with Project Art. We have outside artists that teach our students and train our subject teachers about how art can be used to teach communication arts, mathematics, science and music in their classrooms. When you visit our school, you will see samples of the students' work on display in the lobby and throughout the corridors on each floor. The music department has two teachers, one instrumental and one vocal. I.S. 125 has a band , which has played at Christmas time for old age homes and family shelters. We have a Spring Concert, where the choir and the band play together at night for our parents It's also a tradition for our band to play at our graduation ceremony. Our technology department has two teachers and the school is involved in several different programs, such as Project Smart, Teaching Matters, Project Connect and Fern. Classroom teachers are being trained to instruct the students to use the computers in the classroom for research and how to use the computers as word processors to write reports. By the end of the year, we will have over 80% of our rooms with at least four computers and a printer. Our school will have at least 30% of our rooms connected to the Internet. It is planned that each teacher as well as each administrator will have an e-mail address and parents will be able to communicate over the Internet.

We have extended our day, by offering classes after school and on Saturday. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, we offer remedial/tutorial classes in reading and mathematics. The Tuesday and Thursday classes are for physical education/arts and they are offered to students that demonstrate by their behavior, attendance and academic success, their desire to participate. The Saturday Program students have requirements to participate and we offer, boys and girls basketball teams, photography, karate,technology for students and for parents, school band cheerleaders and science enrichment for 5th,6th and 7th graders.

I.S. 125 has an outstanding Academic Olympics Team that is presently tied for first place. We have a long standing streak and have not lost a game in five years. We have been the District 8 Champion the last four years. We hope to make it five years in a row as champion this year. Henry Hudson offers honors classes in Earth Science, Sequential Mathematics One and Spanish Proficiency. In addition to the education that goes on in school,we take our children away for weekends. We have already taken 100 students and a combination of 30 parents and staff to Kent,Connecticut to Club Getaway and have planned a trip for 50 students and staff and parents to spend a weekend in our nation's capitol , Washington D.C., in May. We have special award presentations during Parents' Association Meetings at night for Scholarship, Honor Roll and Principal's List students where they receive certificates. At the end of the year, we have a National Junior Honor Society induction ceremony.

The students have a student government which has representatives from each class, who elect a grade president. with the aid of a faculty advisor, they meet monthly by themselves and once a month with the principal. This year, they requested that we have a "Spirit Week" which was a tremendous success. Monday the students and staff wore pajamas; Tuesday the students wore jerseys for sports day; Wednesday the students dressed like a teacher; Thursday the students dressed liked twins and Friday was Crazy Hair Day. That week we had the best attendance, least lateness and not one fight all week. Each week each grade has a scheduled assembly where the assistant principal and the dean are able to communicate and build school spirit through special assembly programs.

This year we had special events, such as our students and staff prepared a production of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream". We also had a very successful "Career Day" and a Saturday where New York Cares came in and helped beautify our schools with murals, plantings and an over-all cleaning of our building. In addition, we have morning radio announcements throughout the school, such as news, sports and weather. I.S. 125 has just entered the Middle School Economic Initiative, which is a citywide competition sponsored by the Federal Reserve. We are very fortunate to have a corporate sponsor Deloute and Touche who visit us and we send students to them throughout the year. The most exciting partnership is with NASA, because the head of NASA graduated from our school in the early fifties. When John Glenn and other astronauts came into New York City to ride through the canyon of heroes we were invited to act as official hosts and hostesses during a breakfast at the Museum of Natural History. We rode with the astronauts, the mayor and the chancellor on the official float during the ticker tape parade.

The success of The Henry Hudson Intermediate School has to be attributed to the hard work of the parents and staff. We are very fortunate to have an excellent Parents' Association that has been able to have at least ten percent parent volunteers on a daily basis. The parents assist in the lunch rooms, girls' locker rooms, duplication room, classrooms and where ever there is a need. Because the whole educational family is committed to excellence, I.S. 125 will become the number one school in the Bronx, and eventually in New York City.