Our school is helping all students develop the World Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by providing an enriching educational experience unlike that of typical elementary schools. In order to meet the challenging goals of South Carolina's Profile of the 21st Century Graduate, we have demonstrated our commitment to innovation over the past nineteen years by maintaining our original focus, which places both the cognitive and effective needs of students first.
The climate of Discovery School is unique. We focus on personal excellence at a reasonable pace while minimizing the stress often associated with competition for grades and standardized test scores. Our goal is to make learning enjoyable while creating realistic opportunities for success. We know that students learn best by doing and so our blending of state standards and Core Knowledge standards is geared toward hands-on, project-based and problem-based opportunities for growth where students actively demonstrate their learning on a daily basis..
Students at Discovery School are supported and nurtured by a well-trained faculty and staff with excellent parental and family support. Discovery School students frequently see their parents and other family members at school providing assistance in a wide-variety of ways (tutoring students, reading with children, assisting teachers with bulletin boards, laminating, helping to set up or rearrange classrooms, cleaning, volunteering with PTO projects, working with the Governing or Advisory Boards, etc.). Discovery School students know that they (and education in general) are supported and cared for by an entire community of active stakeholders.
Our students also understand that there are a wide variety of ways to demonstrate learning and understanding within the framework of Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligence. Students at Discovery School learn to appreciate their own particular strengths and those of others. They see that we each have strengths and areas that can be strengthened and they learn that oftentimes the way humans learn is by making mistakes and then figuring out ways to solve the problems that those mistakes bring in daily life.
Discovery School helps all students develop the world class skills and life and career characteristics of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by: adopting and implementing rigorous standards in English-language arts and mathematics provided by the state and by blending those standards with advanced Core Knowledge standards; exposing all students to multiple languages, including Greek and Latin stems along with modern Spanish and Japanese; exploring STEAM (science, technology, engineering, the arts and math); integrating the fine arts (music, dance, drama, and visual arts) into the basic curriculum wherever appropriate; and by emphasizing the social sciences (history, geography, government, leadership, and character education) as well as the cause-effect relationships that impact daily life.
Discovery School faculty and staff focus special attention on: including creativity and innovation in daily lesson plans; explicitly teaching critical thinking through the nationally recognized Thinking Maps program as well as incorporating Kaplan's dimensions of depth and complexity along with Paul's reasoning model; providing opportunities for collaboration and teamwork among stakeholders through project development in concept-based units of study; showcasing a variety of communication formats that include public speaking, media and technology; and using reflection and other forms of metacognition so that our students not only know how to learn, but also can explain how they learn.
Through our annual thematic approach to learning, our students develop leadership skills and characteristics such as: integrity, self-direction, global perspective, perseverance, work ethic, and interpersonal communication. Although the school year was different due to the COVID-19 crisis we are proud of our accomplishments at Discovery School as the Lancaster County School District's first and only public charter school. We embrace the fact that we are a different kind of school and we look forward to celebrating our 21st anniversary during the upcoming school year!
Charles Rivers, Principal
