Our new intermediate school structure, although only in it's second year, is proving to be the best educational experience for our scholars. In addition, our partnership with the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) has assisted us in our efforts towards building teacher capacity, while growing teacher leaders and increasing student achievement. This past school year, students were heavily engaged in the process of interpreting standards at the highest level and involving themselves in the 21st Century Skills of learning in order to move towards embodying the vision of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate. Scholars engaged in the process of developing success criteria for their learning by being directly involved with planning with the end in mind, so students do not have to guess how they are going to be assessed at the end of a lesson. Our MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) data indicates successful delivery of content by the teachers as a result of a more focused, engaged, and personalized learning approach that allows students not to “hide” in the classroom during teaching and learning. Our school motto, “100%: All In, All Win,” is put to the test daily as we work continuously to ensure failure is not an option. We were happy to be one of the leading schools in our district for student progress, and we plan to continue to making the growth to get our school to 100% student growth and achievement. As a result of our continued pursuit of academic excellence, we were removed from the state’s priority list for school improvement.
Our scholars are resilient and possess the grit, perseverance, and fortitude needed to become academically and personally successful. To remind them of these character traits, we have named each grade level after original colleges called, “The College of Perseverance, The College of Grit, and The College of Fortitude.” These identifiers make up the frame of our PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention System).
Although we can see success, in our school culture, we realize it is impossible to sustain this success without a solid foundation at the primary level. We intend to build a stronger bridge with our feeder primary school in order to increase and build the capacity to prepare our students for academic success. The primary principal has agreed to foster a cross-campus professional learning community that will allow our teachers to participate in professional development that supports the transition grades between 1st grade and 2nd grade, prior to those scholars coming to our intermediate campus.
We will continue to support the "whole-child" through our various after school and during school programs such as: Ballet and Tap, Golf lessons, Etiquette classes, wind ensemble classes, drum line classes, public speaking classes, the entrepreneur club, our single gender programs, and our newly formed student council. Our community supports our school in a multitude of ways. Our school is supported by several local businesses, organizations, colleges, universities, and churches such as: ZEUS, Trinity Industries, Hardee’s, Dollar General, Linda’s Awards and Gifts, Project Life, The Orangeburg Homeboys Golf Outing Association, The Orangeburg Consolidated School District 5 Filling Station, The Rotary Club, Tamalyn’s Dance Centre, The Orangeburg Chapter of the Links, Inc., Claflin University, South Carolina State University, Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College Cornerstone Community Church, Chick-fil-A, First Presbyterian Church, The Feast of the Lord, New Mount Zion Baptist Church, The Orangeburg Yoga group, and Unity Fellowship Community Church. These reputable groups offer academic, emotional, and social support in the areas of mentoring, tutoring, monetary donations, food and clothing, school beautification, and incentives for students’ academic and behavioral achievement.
In the 2019-2020 school year, we intend to strengthen our partnership with NIET by participating in their TAP System for Teacher and Student Achievement. This is the next level from the School Improvement Solutions component we adopted. According to NIET, this system is a comprehensive school reform solution that establishes sustained structures for building educator excellence and increasing student achievement growth.
Our scholars deserve the highest quality education that can be made available, and our faculty and staff possess the collective efficacy to produce this experience for them.
Hayward R. Jean, Principal
Stanyetta Carson, SIC Chairperson