Since welcoming students to our new school in August 2024, South Lake Elementary's primary focus has been on establishing a foundational culture of leadership and strong relationships with our students, families, and community members. This focus directly supports our vision to foster a caring community where students flourish as communicators, collaborators, creators, and critical thinkers. We have accomplished this by building a strong school community where students and staff learn from and support each other, creating a safe environment where students feel comfortable taking risks and exploring their interests, and fostering partnerships to support student success.
Throughout the school day, we have purposefully integrated the Lexington One Profile of the Graduate. Our teachers and students practice being knowledgeable, creative thinkers and problem solvers, independent learners, communicators, collaborators, future-ready literate, personally and socially responsible, kind, and resilient. These skills are vital for our students to succeed both in school and in life. To support school-wide leadership, our fourth and fifth-grade students had the opportunity to apply for leadership roles, such as our news team, announcement team, and safety patrols. Each team is guided by a staff member who supports students in taking an active role in the culture and climate of the campus, helping to develop the leadership skills and confidence needed for success. In the classroom setting students also had leadership roles and the use of a ticket system provided an opportunity to celebrate individuals for following our Positive Behavior Support System of “Be Safe, Be Responsible, Be Respectful.” We believe that this commitment to student empowerment will help our students embody our school motto: "SLES Where Dreams are Unleashed!"
Our school's instructional approach is centered on high-quality, research-based practices. For literacy, our dedicated literacy coach has worked with each grade-level team to implement a backward design model for curriculum integration and to effectively use data to inform small-group instruction. To further strengthen our foundational reading skills, our K-3 teachers and special area teachers participated in LETRS training offered by the state, providing a common language and deeper understanding of the science of reading. We also integrated both the Heggerty and UFLI curricula to strengthen phonemic awareness and phonics. Our literacy coach also led professional learning communities (PLCs) tailored to specific grade-level needs, addressing topics such as planning and pacing, comprehension strategies, and intervention techniques.
In addition to our strong literacy focus, we've prioritized the South Carolina math standards from kindergarten through fifth grade. Our math coach provided targeted professional development on math interventions and offered valuable support with data analysis, including the creation of prerequisite documents to facilitate differentiated grouping. We have incorporated fluency and number sense routines into every lesson and used item analysis to identify class and grade-level strengths and areas for growth. This year, our fourth and fifth-grade teachers have also completed OGAP training in multiplicative reasoning, further strengthening their ability to guide students to a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts.
Throughout our inaugural year, student progress was continuously and extensively monitored. In our regular data meetings, teachers and staff reviewed student data to ensure mastery of the skills and strategies taught in our small-group Response to Intervention (RtI) settings. This collaborative, data-driven process allowed us to monitor student achievement, provide timely and targeted support, and ultimately ensure that every student at South Lake Elementary was supported on their journey to excellence.
Looking back on this inaugural year, we are immensely proud of what we have built together. Thanks to the dedication of our staff, the partnership of our families, and the incredible spirit of our students, we have successfully laid a strong foundation for future generations of SLES learners. This has been a year of great achievement, and we are confident that our students are well-equipped to continue their journey of discovery and excellence. We thank our entire community for making our first year so successful.
Jennifer Stanley, Principal
Angela Jones, SIC Chair
Jennifer Stanley, Principal
Angela Jones, SIC Chair
