The 2020-2021 school year was another successful year of learning at Ladson Elementary School. Our school continued to provide a safe, nurturing environment where students are academically challenged in CD through 5th grade. We continue to place academics and student achievement as priorities and our school is helping all students develop the World Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by providing a variety of opportunities for students to create and collaborate. In a typical school year, examples of our students employing these skills could be found on our morning news show, our recycling team, our robotics team, and our chorus. However, due to COVID protocols, students engaged in collaborative tasks through Zoom breakout rooms, shared and created in Google suite, and learned and shared about other applications.
Our students demonstrated high levels of proficiency in adapting to new tasks at hand. Throughout the school year, students were invited to return to in-person learning as families felt comfortable. We completed the school year with 77% of our student population attending school in-person. Through the use of creative scheduling, mobile special area teachers, and our outdoor learning environments our students were able to continue to receive enrichment and intervention services. Our virtual teachers continued to provide engaging lessons through the use of technology and differentiated instruction for their students. We had a task force of staff members who engaged with virtual students who were identified as disengaged throughout the school year. They assisted the families in minimizing any barriers they faced in school participation. We continued our focus on creativity and collaboration through the implementation of Kagan Cooperative Learning Structures in many of our classrooms.
We recognize that parent and community involvement is integral to what we do at Ladson Elementary School. We strive to engage our families and school community in the educational process as much as possible. This year, we employed virtual options to engage our families. We held virtual parent information sessions, Family Literacy Night, Math Night, and continued our annual Science night. Staff and community members worked together to create engaging activities that families could participate in at home with us via Zoom. Parents were kept informed through school agendas, school wide texts, weekly call-outs, and social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Remind. With the leadership and support of our Parent Advocate, parents are linked with community resources and volunteer opportunities within the school.
At Ladson Elementary School we believe that it is our responsibility to develop all aspects of our students so that they have every opportunity to excel in today’s society. We continued to provide a safe, challenging, and caring learning environment while nurturing the skills necessary for our students to graduate college and career ready.
Janet Brown, Principal
Blaze Johnson, SIC Chairperson
