Gold Hill Middle School is passionate about helping all students develop the World Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by providing an education that centers on academic, social, and emotional growth. We demonstrate this vision by providing learners with a rigorous education where all students are valued and where the faculty exhibits academic excellence through high expectations, collaboration, and engagement. We maintain and strengthen our culture of high expectations with our dedication to the Fort Mill School District’s STEAM initiative and implementation of the 5-C’s: Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, and Caring.
This past year we applied for and received the Cognia STEM Accreditation, becoming the first school in our district to receive this accreditation. As part of this accreditation process our school underwent a rigorous evaluation process including the submission of several narratives along with evidence, interviews with groups of students and parents, classroom observations with a Cognia observation tool, and a culminating STEM presentation. We learned a great deal going through this very reflective process and were excited to receive the accreditation.
Our students, staff, and families were reminded of the importance of spreading kindness in an effort to change the world during our One Book, One School Initiative. Together we read Pay It Forward. This book tells the inspiring story of a middle school student, Trevor, who decides to accept his teacher's challenge to "Change the World". He develops a simple plan of spreading kindness that grows into a giant movement. Our students, staff, and families read this story of hope together over the span of a week. Trevor taught us all those small acts of kindness that can have a ripple effect that can impact a community and potentially even the country/world. This book highlights the transformative effect kindness can have on others.
Together, the school and our community raised over $18,000 for the Special Olympics. This was the highest total of all the schools in our district putting Gold Hill Middle School at the top once again. Partnering with our Student Council, Gold Hill Middle School put on our third annual Fort Mill School District Dodgeball Tournament pitting faculties from all schools in the district against each other in pursuit of the Polar Cup trophy. For the first time in the tournament's history, a team from Gold Hill did not win the tournament. The faculty team from Fort Mill High School won the Polar Cup, but our Gold Hill team will look to win back the Polar Cup for next year. Gold Hill had a team of administrators, teachers, and STUDENTS take the plunge together in one of our local swimming pools this past February. GHMS continues to uphold the distinction of being a Unified Champion School which is awarded to schools promoting social inclusion through intentionally planned and implemented activities that affect school wide change.
Here at GHMS, we believe in establishing a culture of family throughout our school. We ensure our incoming 6th graders feel a part of our Bulldog Family through our WEB (Where Everybody Belongs) Program. 8th grade WEB leaders facilitated various character education groups throughout the school year, forming partnerships and friendships with our new 6th graders. The feeling of family extends into our staff as we welcome new teachers into our building through our Lead Dog Program. In addition to the district-wide mentoring program, the Lead Dog program pairs new teachers to our building with veteran teachers to help not only acclimate the new teacher to the responsibilities of being an educator, but more importantly, “fully immerse” them into the Bulldog Way of supporting and caring for one another.
Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, and Caring are all exemplified through our academic, athletic, artistic, and philanthropic endeavors and successes. Academically, our students scored well on the SC Ready and STAR assessments and almost 60% of our students maintained A’s and B’s in ALL courses. Our 7th graders honed their creative writing and public speaking skills through their Toast for Change speeches, while 8th grade students learned to respectfully argue with their peers using the Lincoln-Douglas Debate format. Community members volunteered their time to judge these debates. The Bulldog Robotics team competed in the Full Volume Challenge as well as won competitions at the regional, state, and national levels! Our art club continued to develop and install murals along our hallways and our band and choral programs received “superior with distinction” ratings at their performance assessments. Our drama and chorus program partnered together to put on an amazing rendition of Alice in Wonderland featuring three amazing productions. Our new morning news show, DawgTV, continued to improve on its efforts from the previous year. The new production is planned, filmed, and edited by our students.
The athletic department at Gold Hill Middle School had an equally successful year as well. The GHMS Dance Team received several podium placements in local competitions. Our girls soccer team placed first in the conference championship. Our baseball team made it to the championship of the regional tournament and our GHMS Special Olympic athletes brought home a number of ribbons from the games. All of our athletic teams fought hard and represented our school extremely well.
We are proud of the collaboration and care our students and staff have shown to our community. We were recognized as a Partner School with Winthrop University, welcoming several student teachers on their journey to certification. Our Beta Club students gave over 1500 hours of community service. Our PTA provided over $35,000 in support for school initiatives in math, science, social studies, literacy, and chorus. Once again, Gold Hill Middle School was able to open up our building and host a Regional Geography, History, and Science Bee for both North and South Carolina students. Partnering with our Robotics Team and parents in our community, Gold Hill was able to host a Robotics Competition for the third year in a row. Gold Hill Middle School continued with our Mentoring Program called Bulldogs on Track, where community leaders (police officers, the police chief, firefighters, and business leaders) come in to meet with and mentor several students.
Gold Hill Middle School continues to believe in a safe, nurturing, and positive learning environment. We hold our students to high expectations academically and behaviorally while also teaching them how to be good citizens, find success, and make the world a better place.
Richard Eppes, Principal
Liz Haen, School Improvement Council Chairperson
