At Anderson Mill Elementary, our staff is helping students develop characteristics and skills aligned with the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate. Our school's mission is to develop competent and confident lifelong learners by creating a safe, positive, and innovative environment where the staff, parents, and community work together to provide a curriculum that recognizes individual differences and allows for students to reach their maximum potential. It is the intent of the faculty and staff to lead students toward being disciplined, productive, informed, and fulfilled individuals. To achieve these ideals, mutual respect and understanding must be present in the learning process on the part of all participants: faculty and staff, students, families, and the community.
Our teachers continuously participate in yearlong professional development sessions to increase their knowledge of integrating content area and technology in literacy. In addition, our teachers have embraced the challengers of teaching through the pandemic and continue to expand the depth of their technology knowledge. We continue to create innovative practices for increasing student engagement, fostering critical thinking and providing project based learning experiences. Our school also continues to offer a variety of individual learning paths for both reading and math. The implementation of these programs, in conjunction with a rigorous curriculum and an individualized approach to instruction, have increased student achievement on standardized and classroom assessments. By creating a more individualized approach to teaching and learning, we are working to meet the needs of learners from every subgroup in our diverse student population.
At Anderson Mill Elementary, we are “On the PROWL towards Excellence," continuously embracing our challenges and celebrating our successes. Our dedicated teaching staff embodies an attitude that focuses on continuous improvement and keeping students at the center of all instructional and policy decisions. Because of this attitude and our dedication to our mission and vision, we have seen high levels of student achievement, continue as we embraced the COVID 19 pandemic. Our school earned a rating of "Good” on the new SC State Report Card for the 2018-2019 school year. Anderson Mill scored above the state and district average in both ELA and Math on the SC Ready Assessment and received the Palmetto Silver Award for academic excellence.
The results of these assessments are being used to help drive our instructional practices toward a more rigorous approach to curriculum and assessments. The incorporation of assessment items that require a greater depth of knowledge have been added to our formative and summative assessment tools. Teachers are adding more project based learning experiences that allow students to engage in critical thinking and creative problem solving. Our professional development has been centered on taking a closer look at the whole child, increasing rigor in the classroom, and initiating engaging, hands-on learning experiences. In addition, our full-time literacy coach works with teachers, our guidance counselors, our five reading interventionists, and our administrative team in professional learning communities to refine instructional strategies and analyze student data in reading and their social/emotional needs. Anderson Mill Elementary is committed to providing a high quality educational experience for students of diverse backgrounds, talents, and interests.
In addition to academics, our school continues to focus on service learning projects to instill a sense of purpose and civic responsibility in our students. Our children had the opportunity to "give back" as we embraced several community outreach projects that included: Kids for Lids, Letters of appreciation to our healthcare workers, can food drive for our community, Angel Tree, and the Spartanburg Humane Society.
Our school continues to prioritize our students’ social and emotional health, especially as our children continue to cope with the COVID 19 pandemic. Our counselors continue to provide classroom guidance and small group guidance for students who need more support. . Guidance counselors teach monthly guidance lessons to students in grades one through five and weekly guidance lessons to students in kindergarten. The lessons are designed around several key character traits: a positive mental attitude, compassion, perseverance, respect, cooperation, initiative, and integrity. These character traits are also connected to our school discipline policy and students are taught to reflect on their choices through the lens of our six character traits. Incentives for good character such as our Terrific Kid program, Good School Citizen Award, and You Had Me at ROAR (Anti-Bully Prevention) reinforce positive behavior and recognize students who display good character.
At Anderson Mill Elementary, we have tremendous support from our parents and the community. Our Anderson Mill PTO meets monthly to organize and plan events for our students and staff. Through their hard work and fundraising efforts, the school has benefited from new outdoor seating equipment, ink for the school's color copier, Angel Tree donations at Christmas, snow cones, and exciting opportunities to jump/play on inflatables for our Spring PTO Fun Day event. In conjunction to our school wide events, Our PTO funded the PBL graduate course for 25 of our teachers to participate in this past Fall and Spring. We are so thankful for the hard work of each PTO member!
We have a wonderful group of parents and community members who serve on our School Improvement Council. This group of dedicated individuals meet on a monthly basis to discuss the direction of our school improvement plan. Through parent surveys and teacher forums, the SIC works to determine the needs of our stakeholders and implement strategies and action steps to meet those needs. Because of SIC's support of our free school-wide events, desire to build new relationships with local business and community members, and dedication to the overall school community, our school is able to continue our endeavor to improve in all facets of education. For these and many others, we are extremely grateful that they invest their time in our school and with our children!
Committed to Excellence,
Beth Foster, Principal
Shameka Dawkins, SIC Chairperson
