Lesslie Elementary School is helping all students develop the World Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by improving student achievement in math, literacy, science, social sciences and arts. Within our core instruction, our students learn critical thinking and communication skills by working in collaborative groups. Our educators allow student choice to creatively express their learning. Additionally, our instructional plans incorporate technology as a tool for research, use of applications, and presentations to enhance learning. Our related arts programs allow our students to express themselves creatively through art, music, media and technology with all teachers working collaboratively together to make connections between their content areas. Our school started the journey to Personalized Learning by attending professional learning sessions with the SCDE's Personalized Learning division. Teachers are truly personalizing the learning to meet our students' academic needs. We will continue that work into the 2021-2022 school year. To meet our school improvement goals, we analyze MAP, SCReady, SCPASS, Fountas and Pinnell, FastBridge Universal screeners and benchmark assessment data to make instructional decisions for our students. Reading and Writing workshop models, using Lucy Calkins units, were used to guide our literacy instruction. This year we added the Lucy Calkins Phonics units in Kindergarten and Grade 1. Math workshop provided structure for our math instruction. Hands-on inquiry based science activities are at the core of our science instruction. Our teachers use multi-tiered systems of support to ensure that students reach mastery of their grade level standards, using data to guide them as they work with each student
At Lesslie Elementary, we offer Gifted and Talented classes for students in Grades 3-5, academic tutoring, school counseling, exceptional student education, and Catawba Family Counseling. Due to COVID-19 we were unable to offer the Challenger Afterschool Program after the shutdown but will re-open for the 2021-2022 school year. We are very proud of our students at Lesslie and make sure that we recognize their accomplishments by celebrating Terrific Kid, Awards Days, and PBIS Celebration Days, just to name a few.
We strive to improve school/home relations by increasing positive, frequent and accessible communication through media such as Twitter, Facebook, our district’s mobile app, e-newsletters, and our school’s website. Community and parent involvement is very important to the culture at Lesslie. Each year, Lesslie welcomes interns from Winthrop University as well as Teacher Cadets from Rock Hill High School that work and observe in our classrooms. We have close partnerships with local churches and businesses that provide supplies and other services for our students and faculty as well as our partnership with the Catawba Indian Nation’s Head Start and Camp Kic-A-Wah. Parents are involved as equal partners in our work with our students. We have a very active SIC and PTO that provide guidance, input, resources, materials and activities for our students and teachers. Due to COVID-19, we were unable to hold activities such as Family Nights, Book Fairs, a Talent Show, Chorus Programs, Doughnuts for Dads, Muffins for Moms, our Volunteer Luncheon, Grandparents Day, 100 Day Celebration, Field Day and Reading with Buzz from the Charlotte Hornets but will reinstate those activities in the 2021-2022 school year. Lesslie Elementary is truly a safe learning environment for the students of our community.
