Grassy Pond Elementary School is building an ethic of excellence. We are instilling the world class skills and life and career characteristics of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate in our students by working throughout 2023-2024 as a team. Teachers are inspiring, motivating, and equipping students with the learning experiences they need to be successful in school and beyond. The school continued to work with community stakeholders in an attempt to provide as many opportunities for all students to be successful. Grassy Pond Elementary encouraged the support of the community as volunteers, mentors and monetary/food (Backpack Buddies) to help support and foster learning. Our PTO planned several successful fund raisers this year, as well as provided incentives for students and activities within the school day to help build a positive learning environment. Field trips were strategically planned throughout the school year to support lessons taught in the classroom to enable students to make life connections with their learning. In addition to academics, Grassy Pond helped students build life skills through our Character Education program. In this program, valuable character traits are taught on a monthly basis and students are rewarded for exhibiting these traits. The use of technology increases each year with one to one devices provided by our district, iPads for Pre-K - first grade and laptops in second, third, fourth and fifth grades. Many online subscriptions were purchased to ensure the effective use of our technology. Several programs were continued this year to ensure student growth. The district supported ELA curriculum was practiced in all classrooms to build consistency within our small group instruction. We utilized Title 1 money to purchase leveled literature of varying genres in all grade levels to support the ELA instruction and aid in its effectiveness. Grassy Pond implemented district benchmark assesments to assist teachers in identifying areas of strength and areas in need of improvement, as well as, learning pathways specifically designed to meet the individual needs of each student (remediate and/or enrich). Books of varying interests and levels were purchased to build classroom libraries. Interventionists were used on a part-time basis to provide additional support for struggling students. Teachers analyzed student data throughout the year and used this data to differentiate instruction according to student's needs. They monitored data with the effective use of data walls and data notebooks. Teachers and staff participated in meaningful staff development to transform teaching at GPES and meet the needs of 21st Century learners. Throughout the course of the school year, our students were recognized and received numerous awards for their many accomplishments. The GPES school family has enjoyed celebrating these successes along with them through virtual platforms as well as face-to-face. The following highlights some of those accomplishments:  Martin Luther King Jr. Art and Essay Contest Winners; District Young Writer's Gala Award Winners; Ginger Lipscomb, Principal and Tessie Bridges, SIC Chair.