Hendersonville Elementary School is helping all students develop the world-class skills and life career characteristics of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate through providing a safe, high achieving, and supportive learning environment. HES has become a Leader In Me School that promotes an environment for students through following the teachings of Steven Covey's Seven Habits of Happy Kids. At HES, we hold our students to the following expectations: "Bee" Kind, "Bee" Engaged and "Bee" Safe and "Bee" a Leader everyday. We demonstrate these characteristics by challenging our students to be leaders, think critically, act empathetically, and immerse themselves in learning through creativity. As a part of The Colleton County School District, we also believe that we will be a world-class school system that ensures all students achieve at high levels. We take pride in our district's motto “Preparing Every Child Today for Tomorrow.”
Hendersonville Elementary School’s teachers are supported by a curriculum instructional facilitator, a reading coach, and a reading interventionist. Our teachers meet weekly in a professional learning community environment called a CTM (Collaborative Team Meeting). These meetings are held to enhance teachers' ability to collaborate, investigate research-based strategies, create common assessments and analyze student data, and also become more reflective in order to effectively impact classroom instruction. Our teachers continue to strive to learn effective and innovative strategies to use in their classrooms such as small group guided reading, small group guided math, Reading and Writing Workshop, First in Math, Xtra Math, science kits, interactive manipulatives, technology-integrated lessons, collaborative lessons, Webquest and technology-based projects. Students participate in Guided Reading lessons in our Literacy Lab. The HES Literacy Lab is where our Reading Interventionist works with students to develop reading proficiency. We utilize Classworks in order to create Individualized Learning Paths for students that will target specific skills in both reading and math.
Our teachers instill a positive work ethic within our students from an early age so that they will be ready to demonstrate the ability to communicate, collaborate, and persevere through the rigorous standards in language arts and math for college and career readiness.
At Hendersonville Elementary School, we also have various programs that focus on the development of the whole child. As stated before, we have transitioned into becoming a Leader In Me School, heading into our third year in the three-year process. Leader In Me has assisted in the leadership development of our teachers and students. We believe that if a child is fully engaged in their learning experience they have taken ownership of their learning. We also believe that Leader In Me is intentional about giving all of our students the opportunity to express the knowledge they have obtained and to feel comfortable showcasing how they learn. This past year we continued to use the Positive Behavior Intervention and Support Program (PBIS). However, in the upcoming school year, we have merged the 7 Habits with our core beliefs. Our students and staff will live the 7 Habits each day. Through this culture, we promote appropriate student behavior and character development on a school-wide basis. Our expectation is for students to display positive behaviors and redirect or reteach when inappropriate behaviors are evident. We celebrate the positive behaviors by monthly BUZZ Bash Celebrations. Students who needed additional support participated in a check-in-check-out mentor program that involved more specific behavior intervention strategies. Our school counselor also provided additional support each week through guidance lessons that were on various topics chosen by need.
Hendersonville Elementary has also partnered with the Low Country Food Bank to provide food over the weekend for numerous students and their siblings. The Backpack Buddies Program has been very successful in providing services to many families in the community. Students also are provided support for their individual needs through the free breakfast and lunch program. We want to ensure that our students are nutritionally ready to learn throughout the school day. In addition, the Lowcountry Food Bank distributes food on district-approved dates to families in the Hendersonville community.
At Hendersonville Elementary, we believe the school staff, district personnel, and school community contributed immensely to develop our students as independent thinkers, effective communicators, and lifelong learners with personal responsibility and good moral character that reflects the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate. Together we are committed to the continued growth and development of our students while they "Learn Today to Lead Tomorrow."
Ms. Christie Davis, Chairman of the School Improvement Committee
Dr. Joseph Hollington, Principal
