The 2022–2023 school year marked a decade of excellence for River Bluff High School as we celebrated ten years of tremendous success and student achievement grounded in a strong school culture and thriving school community. Our students continue to outperform in academics, arts and athletics as a result of their development and utilization of power skills outlined by the World-Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate. This year, RBHS graduated 522 students who have secured a total of $37,943,737 in scholarships, with 29 student athletes signed with national letters of intent to participate in college athletics, and completed 856 college courses through our dual enrollment program along with many other tremendous accomplishments in arts, athletics and academics. Our students shine. They are not only college- and career-ready, but are also good people with strong habits of character that put their skills to use as contributors to a better world.
The outstanding success of RBHS students is a testament to the dedication of our talented, innovative staff that works tirelessly to implement a rigorous teaching and learning model focused on student mastery of knowledge and skill, development of character, and the production of high-quality work. RBHS is helping all students develop the World-Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by emphasizing critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity as essential components to every aspect of the teaching and learning model. Further, as an EL Education Credentialed School, RBHS students are engaged in a curriculum that challenges them to develop as effective learners and ethical people who are empowered with the skills and desire to contribute to a better world. RBHS students learn and grow what we define as Habits of Success over their four years as learners on our campus. These habits include collaboration, excellence, growth mindset, citizenship and personal responsibility. The teaching and learning experiences our students are exposed to target skill development aligned with our Habits of Success and engage students in real-world, authentic experiences that challenge them to think critically about relevant issues, collaborate to create meaningful products, and reflect often as owners of their learning and progress.
RBHS students are high-functioning collaborators and leaders of their learning. Our school’s flexible modular schedule design and curriculum structure foster collaboration and allow students to share their voice and skills as they work alongside others in the pursuit of academic excellence. The flexible modular schedule provides students with independent learning time in their day in which students are not in a scheduled class, and have to learn to manage their time and communicate with adults while also being held to high expectations of quality work production alongside their peers. Instructional practices at RBHS incorporate protocols and collaborative structures for daily learning that eliminate teacher-driven lessons and instead engage students in opportunities to develop inquiry questions, research together and produce solutions as a group. Our staff also models this practice in their own professional learning. Teachers are engaged in faculty cohorts that are structured in an interdisciplinary format. These professional learning communities provide space for staff to also practice collaboration and critical thinking as they work together to create innovative solutions and instructional strategies to support the achievement of all students in their classrooms. This year, for example, faculty cohorts worked together to analyze student data and generate instructional goals by team to address theories of action surrounding student engagement in their classrooms. Teachers worked through trial-and-error and feedback cycles with their peers around new strategies they developed and implemented throughout their professional learning cycle. Our students and staff are able to work closely together to consistently push the mold for what is possible in our highly innovative school. We are family and we are stronger together at RBHS.
We are confident our students embody the World-Class Skills outlined in the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate. Despite experiencing three years of COVID-related school shifts and challenges, our students continue to excel and outperform our expectations as leaders of their own learning.
Jacob Smith, Principal
Tyson Bragg, SIC Chair
