Belvedere Elementary School embodies our motto of "Live. Love. Learn. Leave a Legacy." The faculty supports all students for future goals by focusing on the World Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate while creating a balanced environment of nurture and academic rigor. 

During the 2023-2024 school year, our school continued to focus on the following specific characteristics of the Profile: World Class Knowledge – rigorous standards in language arts and math for career and college readiness; World Class Skills – critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration and teamwork, and knowing how to learn; and Life and Career Characteristics – work ethic, and interpersonal skills and World-Class Knowledge – multiple languages.

To ensure our students are developing World Class Knowledge – rigorous standards in language arts and math for career and college readiness, teachers collaborated both vertically and within grade level teams to analyze common formative assessments, Fountas & Pinnell, Fast Bridge outcomes, Measures of Academic Progress outcomes, behavior and attendance data. 

Teachers then developed intervention plans for grade levels, small groups and individual students to accelerate achievement and compensate for learning loss due to school closure the previous year. These collegial conversations led to improved classroom instruction and intervention.  Professional development was targeted from classroom observation and student achievement data.  Classroom teachers engaged in several instructional planning days and extra-duty planning after the school day in which academic conversations and planning focused on understanding the level of rigor within reading and math standards, planning units containing highly effective instructional strategies and the development of standards aligned assessments. Further, there was an intentional focus through planning on providing not only quality core but also small group instruction to meet student needs.

We are proud of our strong history of academic success.   At Belvedere Elementary we also have various programs designed to focus on Life and Career Characteristics – work ethic, and interpersonal skills. We implemented a "house model" for students to be recognized for modeling good character and work ethic. Through the house model, we saw a great reduction in the percentage of students who received behavior referrals. Further, we collected over 1000 canned food items and soft drink tops as service-learning projects. 

There were five cohorts from kindergarten through fourth grade of Mandarin Chinese language learners, which is a Graduate characteristic in World-Class Knowledge: multiple languages.  

At Belvedere Elementary School, we believe all stakeholders share in creating our future South Carolina Graduates. We have an active PTO and over 200 approved volunteers to support student learning. Further, during Read Across America Week, we had over 100 guest readers for our students. We also collected hundreds of post cards from around the world to show the vast reach of our community. We appreciate your support as we work together to leave a positive legacy.   

We continue to focus on student growth both academically and socially with the support of our stakeholders and are proud of the results from this school year.

Allyson Long, Principal

Kerrie Tobias-Roth, Chair of the School Improvement Council