Our district and school is helping all students develop the World Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by implementing a rigorous and student-focused academic program that works to meet the needs of all students on our campus. The mission statement of RC Edwards Middle reflects this as we create the preferred future of "promoting high standards of academic achievement, personal achievement, and career preparation, in a safe environment." We accomplish this in a caring and nurturing environment that strives to help each student reach his or her maximum potential with a growth mindset. We achieve this by providing all students opportunities to be creative, think critically, collaborate, and communicate throughout the day as part of our instructional and extracurricular activities.
This year at RCE we implemented our Huddle Team initiative as part of year one of our initial Olweus implementation. In this system, each student is assigned to one of four Huddle Groups (Altruism, Integrity, Perseverance, and Prowess). The grade-level Huddle Groups are then broken down into smaller Huddle Team groups of 15-20 students who meet each Monday morning. In these Teams, an emphasis is placed on developing a growth mindset, implementing the practices of the Olweus program, and reinforcement of the sense of community that the faculty and staff wish to foster in the culture of our school. Similar to a “house system” our Huddle Teams earn points for academic success, attendance, intramural competitions, Students of Excellence recognitions, Huddle Rally competition, Excel Cent exchange, and showing weekly Huddle spirit. This year alone over 43,000 points were earned by all Huddle Teams! We are very excited to see how our Huddles continue to positively influence the culture of our school and help provide a sense of community to our students.
Creativity is fostered at RC Edwards Middle School through our robust Related Arts course offerings that focus on providing students choice and encouraging students to select a variety of courses in areas of interest. From specialty course offerings in PE including leisure sports and archery, to our award winning Orchestra and Band programs, to multiple PLTW Gateway courses in our STEM Lab, students have the opportunity to choose courses that meet their personal needs and interests. We are very excited about continuing to expand these programs in 2019-2020 with the addition of German 1, Intro to Spanish class, and Spanish 1. Creativity is also fostered through our variety of after-school opportunities including Robotics, Math Counts, Odyssey of the Mind, Chorus Club, Chess Club, Science Club, and Festival Band.
Our focus as an instructional team is on best practices in education that emphasize creating opportunities for student collaboration in small groups through project-based and problem-based instruction while realizing that constructive conversation and analysis are key components of solving problems and building understanding. As a school, we look forward to continuing to meet the diverse needs of our student population with the help of our parents and community as we help prepare students to be 21st Century Graduates. #teamRCE
