Hammond Hill Elementary is helping all students develop the World Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by implementing the Leader in Me - an evidence-based, comprehensive school improvement model. Through the framework of the Leader in Me, we are creating well-rounded learners by developing the whole person and preparing students to become life-ready leaders. Our school unites students, staff, and families around a common goal to prepare our 660 students with college, career, and life-readiness skills that are necessary to thrive in today’s ever-changing, fast-paced environment. During the 2017-2018 school year, we focused on teaching our students The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People which are: Habit 1- Be Proactive, Habit 2- Begin with the End in Mind, Habit 3- Put First Things First, Habit 4- Think Win-Win, Habit 5- Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood, Habit 6- Synergize, and Habit 7- Sharpen the Saw. Teachers taught the meaning of each habit, how to apply each habit, and then modeled the habits for the students. While we continued teaching and reinforcing the 7 Habits during the 2018-2019 school year, we focused on setting goals. Based on the book The 4 Disciplines of Execution, the staff participated in professional learning sessions on how to create Wildly Important Goals (WIGs). We wrote a school-wide WIG for reading, and then based on that school-wide goal, each grade level created a goal. Based on each grade-level goal, each teacher along with his/her students created a classroom goal. Based on the classroom goal, each student created an individual goal which he/she kept, tracked, and monitored in a Leadership Notebook. Using this process, the entire school contributed to reaching our school-wide goal which was to read and pass 22,500 books as measured on Reading Counts. In addition to focusing on goal setting, we had our first Leadership Day which was an opportunity for our community to come to our school to see our students as leaders and to see the great work being accomplished at Hammond Hill Elementary. During the 2019-2020 school year, we continued our focus on the 7 Habits and added Habit 8 which is Finding Your Voice and Inspiring Others to Find Theirs. Unfortunately, several of our events and activities had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When our Governor ordered all schools in the state to close their buildings, we offered a blend of distance learning packets and virtual learning. Throughout the closing of our school building, teachers stayed in touch with their students and continued providing instruction. This school year of 2020-2021 we had to redo all of our routines and procedures due to the guidelines to stop the spread of COVID-19. Our focus this school year has been the social and emotional well being of the students and staff. Everyday at least 30 minutes of the day was dedicated to provide direct instruction to address the social and emotional needs of the students. Our school used the Leader in Me curriculum The First 8 Days of School and the Leadership Guides to address the social and emotional needs of our students. To keep the community involved and connected, meetings and celebrations were held virtually. While this was an unusual and challenging school year, our students grew academically and their social and emotional needs were met. A two-story classroom building is being built for our 2nd through 5th grade students to occupy in January 2022. After that is complete the older parts of the school and the portables will be demolished which will make way for a new cafeteria and kitchen to be built which will open in January 2023. During the construction phases new car stacking lanes will be created to address our dismissal challenges. Thank you to the HHE community for always supporting our school. Thank you for making it a buzztacular school year even in the midst of the pandemic! Bees Lead!
Eric L. Jeffcoat, Principal
James Wilson, SIC Chairperson
