W. M. Anderson Primary School is the Home of the Jaguar Cubs. W.M. APS is a student-centered school where we transitioned from a school within a school to fully traditional for the 2025-2026 school year. Our vision of P.A.W.S (Preparing, Aiming, & Working with our Scholars to succeed continues to guide our direction in preparing our scholars for the future. This primary school is the largest primary school in Williamsburg County with a student population of 369 scholars from Child Development through second grade. The student body is comprised of 89.7% of scholars who are classified as African American, 7% are classified as Caucasian, 1.4% are Asian, and 1.9% are classified as two or more races. The school provides a safe learning environment where scholars’ social-emotional needs are met. At W.M. APS, we continue to put our scholars’ education first. We will remain focused on utilizing data from our scholars to drive their instruction and personalize their education by providing engaging lessons with interactive learning opportunities. Our educators will continue to utilize best practices to ensure that our scholars learn leadership skills, academic skills, and social-emotional skills to function as productive citizens and life-long learners. In order to maintain these goals, we focus on teacher effectiveness, uphold strong instructional content within lessons, and value the connection between home and school. Through our continued partnership with parents and community members, faculty and staff, we help to instill the necessary skills to prepare our scholars to become college, career, and citizenship ready.
W.M. APS is helping to prepare our scholars for their future by developing their College and Career ready World Class skills of the SC Graduate through engaging lessons and multi-tiered support systems. At W.M. APS, we continue to put our scholars’ education first. Our staff remain concentrated on utilizing data from our students to drive their instruction and personalize their education by providing engaging lessons with interactive learning opportunities. We make informed decisions based on student data and use it to target our needed areas of enrichment support. During the 2025 - 2026 school year, our staff have continued to participate in ongoing professional development in learning how to better provide multi-tiered instruction through small group rotating lessons, interventions, how to progress monitor scholars’ achievement on assessments, and reinforce the rigorous curriculum for all grade levels. Our curriculum included a continuation of the iReady Math curriculum and the HMH curriculum for English Language Arts throughout the district K-8 grades. The academic success of our scholars always lead our decision-making process which is what is best for the education of our scholars. Our scholars’ needs are further addressed through interventions, targeted literacy development approaches using Lexia, and multi-tiered support systems within the classroom, the use of our Reading Interventionist, and additional support for academics in our 21st Century programs.
The school climate is family-centered where the academic achievement of our scholars is placed as the center focus for all school activities. At W.M. APS, we are a neighborhood school which promotes strong partnerships between community and family. We hold parenting workshops, School Improvement Council Meetings, and family engagement events on various topics to include promoting reading among all grade levels, Multi-Tiered System of Supports, data drive, curriculum support, and social-emotional learning to name a few. Through our parenting coordinator and parenting center, parents/guardians are provided information and resources to better assist their child in reaching academic success. We value the support provided through local businesses and community stakeholders who share our vision of Preparing, Aiming, & Working with our Scholars to achieve success!
The faculty and staff at W.M. APS recognize the importance of providing a strong foundation of learning for our scholars and continue to attend professional development opportunities in order to improve teacher effectiveness as well as help our scholars to achieve academic success. At W.M. APS, the educational success of each scholar and our school are top priorities in the decision-making processes that are outlined in our School Strategic Plan. The staff works as a team in all efforts to instill the district motto of Imagining Greatness.
Debbie G. Donnelly, Principal W.M. Anderson Primary School
