Virtus Academy of South Carolina is a free public charter school founded in 2018 and authorized by the Charter Institute at Erskine. In the 23-24 school year, we served students in the Pee Dee communities of Florence, Darlington, and surrounding areas. Since 2018, we have continued to grow by adding a grade level per year of operation. In the 24-25 school year, we will be a 5K-11th grade school and look forward to graduating our first class in the 25-26 school year.
Virtus Academy operates under our school motto Consectatio Excellentiae; we are pursuing excellence! To this end, we focus on student-centered learning through educational experiences that are project-based and community-service-oriented and provide our students with leadership opportunities. To pursue professional excellence, the staff of Virtus Academy have engaged in rigorous training to increase their pedagogical approaches to literacy and student acquisition of content knowledge in the 23-24 school year. These practices will continue. Virtus Academy is assisting all students in developing the World Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by providing learning opportunities that are authentic, engaging, and rigorous in correlation with the South Carolina Academic Standards and Performance Indicators.
Our goal at Virtus Academy is to teach the whole child to assist each student in reaching their full potential. During the 23-24 school year, new initiatives included monthly recognition of student character across all grade levels. Additionally, VASC leadership rewarded student success as measured by growth in ELA and Math MAP tests at the end of the year. Student success and areas of need are monitored and attended to using various instructional strategies, including whole group, small group, push-in intervention, intensive pull-out intervention, and acceleration groups. These initiatives will continue in the 24-25 school year as they led to many students achieving new levels of growth.
Teachers participated in professional learning community meetings to analyze data and match instructional strategies to students' needs. These meetings also provided a time for teachers to learn from each other in a collaborative and supportive environment. Common formative assessments helped teachers dive into data and determine the needs of our students. We will continue the data-rich, student-centered professional learning communities in the coming year.
Virtus Academy offers extracurricular activities through organized sports, student leadership opportunities, and student clubs. Our athletic programs include basketball, volleyball, cheerleading, and soccer at the middle and high school levels. VASC also offered soccer at the elementary level in 23-24. Students participate in activities such as completing the morning announcements, daily flag patrol, and school beautification. Additional programs geared to student interests and enrichment included a Garden Club. We look forward to expanding these programs in the coming year. We also pride ourselves on allowing students to lead events like the PBL Showcase. We competed at our second state-level Beta Club Convention this year at the junior and senior levels, taking home many awards and earning many invitations to the National Beta Club Convention. Our students also received praise from the local community food bank, Harvest Hope, for contributing nearly 3 tons of non-perishable food items during the 23-24 school year.
Virtus Academy will continue to pursue excellence for students and staff in all we do.