We are continuing to learn how to be effective Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and continuing to implement a new reading and writing curriculum, Into Reading, school-wide and district-wide. These efforts and areas of progress at Marshall Primary School have positively impacted our school this school year.
This year we provided professional development days for our teachers to engage in PLC planning sessions district-wide. We have also provided training in the area of math instruction. Several staff members also attended PLC workshops/conferences this school year. Additionally, it is worthy to note that ALL of our classroom teachers are comprehensively trained in Orton-Gillingham, a multi-sensory approach to teaching phonics.
In looking at our diagnostic assessment data, our kindergarten through second grade students have shown academic improvement in reading and math. As a part of the PLC process, our certified teachers, school administrators, and instructional coaches meet weekly to identify essential standards, review assessment results, and create action plans for students not mastering skills. Our pre-kindergarten students have also shown academic growth, according to the state-mandated PALS assessment. The hard work by our teachers, staff, and students this year has proven effective and we are so proud!
In addition to our academic success, we continue to promote and support our students’ social and emotional development. We have continued to focus on the acronym PRIDE this year - Perseverance, Respect, Integrity, Discipline, and Empathy, by emphasizing our school-wide behavior expectations around these 5 character traits. We also used these principles to choose our Hall of Fame students each month. This year our School Improvement Council (SIC) subcommittee continued to focus on increasing social and emotional development through several initiatives. Our garden fosters student engagement and excitement. We are continuing to add areas to our playground that will encourage student play, peer interactions, and positive conflict management skills. We included “Buddy Benches” this year during our Kindness Week so that students would always have a friend to play with. Additionally, we are using a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum, Move This World, to help increase students’ self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-esteem through video clips and at-home extensions. We are proud to balance academics with social/emotional learning at Marshall Primary School.
Parent involvement is an area we always seek to strengthen at Marshall Primary School. This year we have sent home free books and materials to promote learning at home. Each grade level has planned two Parent Engagement Activities this school year, inviting families into our building, during the school day, to participate in a lesson alongside their child. We also had two after school family events, Cookies With Santa & Spring Fling. Additionally, each year our school hosts a Free Book Giveaway at the end of the school year so that all of our students receive new books to read during the summer months.
We are excited about the 2023-2024 school year at Marshall Primary School. We will continue to strengthen our PLC meetings and implement common assessments based on essential standards. Additionally, we will continue to analyze the assessment data to strengthen our instructional practices. Finally, we will continue to build strong social and emotional skills within each of our learners on a daily basis.
