Pelion Middle School is helping all students develop the World Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by providing a learning environment that embodies a holistic approach to education, including researched-based instructional best practices, a focus on social-emotional learning, and opportunities for students to explore other areas of interests through clubs, electives and arts. We were also excited to open our school to the community for numerous family engagement events.
Pelion Middle School is proud to be a Paideia Seminar Nationally Certified School. With our continued partnership with the Paideia Center, we provide students with rich learning opportunities to practice critical thinking and communication skills. The Paideia Seminar Cycle consists of students reading and analyzing a shared text, engaging in meaningful conversations about the text with their peers, and reflecting and writing about the text. Through this active learning, students and staff participate in Paideia Socratic seminars that provide access to complex texts. This work increases our student-to-student dialogue and a deeper understanding of content.
Committed to providing structures necessary to help each student achieve more, PMS employs a push-in model for Response-to-Intervention (RTI) for qualifying students in both English Language Arts and math to ensure that each student’s needs are being met in the general education setting. PMS once again offered an afterschool program at no cost to families. This program, which served 40 students, focused on students’ individual academic needs. Through the implementation of the Workshop Model, we maximize student learning opportunities and provide timely, meaningful feedback and assessment through which to adjust instruction and enrich learning experiences across content areas.
Our counseling department supported our school’s commitment to improving students' behavioral and social skills by providing classroom lessons and hosting small group sessions for students in addition to their one-on-one sessions with students. We are incredibly proud of the hard work of our counseling department. The Pelion Middle Counseling Department is one of only three RAMP-certified middle school programs in South Carolina. To earn this distinction, a counseling program must successfully implement the ASCA National Model framework and show evidence of direct and indirect services to students, program planning and improved student outcomes in the school counseling program. Some of the exciting opportunities the counseling department provided for students at PMS during this past year included participation in the MEBA Competition Showcase, job shadowing, a field trip to Lexington Technology Center, and a sixth grade career showcase.
PMS students are also encouraged to gain world-class skills through a variety of elective offerings including STEM, agriculture science, world languages, visual and performing arts, and physical education. Several of our performing arts and visual arts students were honored this year by being accepted into the district’s honors band, chorus, orchestra and art programs. At the region level, PMS had two orchestra students and one band student selected to represent our school. We are also excited to have two students selected to participate in the Governor’s School Visual Arts Summer Program. One of those student’s artwork was on display during the prestigious 2024 Artfields Festival.
This year Pelion Middle students participated in a variety of clubs and sports offerings. Twice a month all students had the opportunity to participate in staff-sponsored clubs during the school day. This allowed students to explore interests and form positive relationships with staff and students around a common interest. We are incredibly proud of our archery team’s growth and success. They placed first in the state in Bullseye and IBO and set a new state record in IBO. They also won the National Championship in IBO, qualifying them to represent Pelion Middle in the World Competition next school year. Our award-winning Future Farmers of America Club continued to represent us well in dairy cattle judging and horse evaluation, placing second in the state in both. PMS was excited to continue to expand our athletic offerings, adding a seventh grade volleyball and boy’s soccer team this year.
We are proud of our faculty and students and all their accomplishments this year. We know that the support of our families and community members was key to these accomplishments.
Jessica Keisler, Principal
Tabitha Causey, SIC Chair
