Mauldin Elementary is helping all students develop the World Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by following our school mission statement "Empower all individuals to explore with purpose, lead with intention, and persevere in seeking solutions." We believe that our children should be challenged, engaged, and empowered through the learning process as they begin now to prepare for college and careers. We accomplish this through the implementation of our state standards and specialized programs.
We are a National RAMP Award winning and Leader in Me school. We focus on teaching the whole child and believe that every child has a genius, worth and potential. We not only preformed well academically, but our students are also provided with opportunities to learn in small groups or individually. We empower our children to take ownership of their learning by setting personal and classroom Wildly Important Goals (WIGs). Our goals, strategies, and accountability partners helped our school continue to make progress in the area of academic achievement. Our students in 2nd – 5th grade preformed ten percentage points higher on district reading/ math benchmarks each time the assessments were administered.
Our teachers are always seeking to learn new and effective strategies to use in the classroom such as: Balanced Literacy, Lucy Calkins Units of Study for Writing, Guided Reading, Google Apps for the classroom, Genius Hour, enrichment activities, problem based learning, Effective Math strategies including small groups, Reading Recovery, and interventionist focusing on researched based interventions to meet student needs. One of the many opportunities at Mauldin Elementary where our students have to explore with purpose, lead with intention and persevere in seeking solutions is in our STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) Lab. Our students have opportunities to link what they are learning in the classroom to the lab and the experiences prepare our students with world class skills. In the lab, students are engaged in hands-on activities that promote problem solving, collaboration, creating, critical thinking and working through solutions. We are excited to see our classrooms and instruction reflect the 21st Century while preparing our students with college and career skills.
We have various systems and processes at Mauldin Elementary outside the academic world to focus on the development of the whole child. Our students are offered opportunities to participate in classroom and schoolwide leadership roles. They follow an application and interview process for a leadership role. We have students a part of action teams to assist in our school achieving greatness. These teams play a specific role in the school improvement process. We also have a student lighthouse team where these students look for ways to continue our leadership focus from a student’s perspective. Additionally, we continued our partnership with Mentor Upstate to train and match adult mentors with many of our students. This has proven to be a great opportunity for our children to build a relationship with others in the community that care. Focusing on the needs of our learners, we also implemented a Real Men Read and Lead as well as a Leading Ladies group that met monthly. This was a group of 4th and 5th grade students (boys or girls depending on the group) who would eat lunch together and would hear from adults in our community who would talk about life skills, the importance of reading, and being a positive leader. Other activities include: State and National award winning Beta club, Lego club, Robotics team, art club, Girls On The Run, running club, chorus, STEM teams, and an afterschool Extended Day program. We are very proud of our student’s accomplishments.
Our school counselors have continued the implementation of a national award winning (Recognized ASCA Model Program) Comprehensive School Counseling Program. This program includes our counselors working with individuals, groups, and teaching classroom lessons. Classroom lessons were aligned to our school improvement plan and our school’s focus on Sean Covey’s 7 Habits to Happy Kids. Groups are designed based on achievement data and student needs. This year our counselors lead academic success, anger, I Matter (self-image), resiliency, and friendship groups. The data used to determine the effectiveness of our comprehensive program showed positive results for our students and school. Our school counselors also provided Lunch and Learn sessions for parents on topics parents have identified as areas of interest.
Mauldin Elementary has a very active and supportive Parent Teacher Association (PTA). PTA has many dads or dad-like figures as Watch D.O.G.S, (Dads of Great Students). When a Dad or dad like figure is a Watch D.O.G.S. he spends a day volunteering at the school. PTA also partnered with the School Improvement Council (SIC) for a Family Science Night and a Family Reading Night. Both of the family nights were designed to enhance student knowledge of science and reading while enabling them to interact with their parents. Our PTA focuses on student educational needs. This is evident by the funding the PTA provides to purchase books for our leveled book room, funding the staff for before school tutoring, providing funds to assist with the implementation of Leader in Me, and funding teacher grants for instructional materials in the classroom. One example of how our PTA seeks to meet the personal needs of our students and families is through a back pack program – through which students who need them receive bags of food. The partnership between PTA and the school has had a positive impact on the success of our students.
At Mauldin Elementary we believe the school, family, and community must share the educational responsibility for our children. We are developing world ready leaders every day. Thank you for all your support in helping in the development of our future South Carolina graduates and world leaders!
Ms. Melissa Creazzo, Chair of the School Improvement Council
Dr. Jamie Spinks, Principal