At Lake Murray Elementary School, we provide all students with opportunities to develop the World-Class Skills, and life and career characteristics, of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by creating an innovative learning environment that focuses on leadership and self-directed learners. The campus exemplifies student learning and growth by emphasizing collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking. Our vision is to help develop self-directed, global citizens who lead and learn with excellence. Through this culture, the LMES faculty aspires to provide the highest level of teaching by making decisions based on what is best for each child. We invest in relationships and provide support while celebrating the success of all students. One way we do this is through our morning meetings and closing circles that are held across campus at the start and completion of each day. We use this time to focus on Lexington District One’s power skills of critical thinking, collaboration, communication, integrity, perseverance, willingness to take risks, accountability and interpersonal skills, and how these skills can support each individual in everyday life. In addition, school counselors provide lessons around self-awareness, self-management, relationship skills, social awareness and responsible decision-making. Further, they collaborate with the teachers to support students and families who need guidance with available resources both in and outside of school.
In regards to our school-based literacy plan, the literacy coach worked with each grade-level team to examine the data collected on each child. They used this information to create individual growth targets, as well as monitor their progress on the priority standards of our feedback-driven reporting system. The intentional focus on text demands, purposeful small groups as well as phonics instruction was pivotal in moving our students forward as readers. Our literacy coach held writing professional development leaning on the text, Teaching Writing in Small Groups by Jennifer Serravallo. To see this learning in action, we offered labsites, in the fall and spring, where teachers were able to observe a colleague instructing a small-group writing lesson. The overarching goal of these labsites was for the teachers to take the lesson they viewed and replicate it with their own students.
For the second year in a row, we have focused on the progression of our students who are in special education for reading. Last year, we targeted how students were grouped to receive services, then matching curriculum to those skills. This year we monitored the full implementation of the curriculum to ensure these changes resulted in student growth. The literacy coach, administrative team and the district curriculum specialist worked very closely with our special education teachers to collaborate around both resources and strategies to grow our most fragile readers. For our Reading Recovery and Response to Intervention teams, communication between these programs and the regular classroom teacher was again at the forefront. Data meetings and overall student progress were reviewed extensively to monitor the mastery of the skills and strategies taught in the RtI small-group setting. We also discussed how they were being carried over to the classroom setting. All of this could not have occurred without the planning and leadership of each of our teams in making certain all students received quality instruction, regardless of setting. We are proud of LMES staff members, and their dedication, love and willingness to do whatever it takes to meet the needs of our students.
In closing, we were overjoyed for LMES to be named Palmetto’s Finest! This is a huge honor, and it speaks to the hard work and dedication of our students, staff, parents and community members! LMES is now recognized as one of the top elementary schools in the state for student achievement, instructional programs, professional learning community and school culture. In addition to Palmetto’s Finest, we were recognized by the American Heart Association Kids Heart Challenge for raising $177,817 across the years our school has partnered with them. We also raised $3,493 dollars for Relay For Life during our spring “egg sale” event as well as $1,800 for the Special Olympics. We are very fortunate to have so much to celebrate at LMES for the 2022–2023 school year!
Jennifer Stanley, Principal
Kathryn Zellers, SIC Chair
