Mauldin Elementary is helping all students develop the World Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by following our school mission statement "Empower all individuals to explore with purpose, lead with intention, and persevere in seeking solutions." We believe that our children should be challenged, engaged, and empowered through the learning process as they begin now to prepare for college and careers. We accomplish this through the implementation of our state standards and specialized programs.
Mauldin Elementary is a Leader in Me Lighthouse school that seeks to identify the leader in every student. Through Leader in Me, we focus on teaching the whole child and believe that every child has a genius, worth and potential. In addition to whole-class teaching, students are provided with opportunities to learn in small groups or individually to meet their needs. We empower our children to take ownership of their learning by setting personal and classroom Wildly Important Goals (WIGs). Our goals, strategies, and accountability partners helped our school continue to make progress in the area of academic achievement.
Our teachers are always seeking to learn new and effective strategies to use in the classroom such as Balanced Literacy, Lucy Calkins Units of Study for Writing, Guided Reading, Google Apps for the classroom enrichment activities, problem-based learning, Effective Math strategies including small groups, Reading Recovery, and interventionist focusing on researched-based interventions to meet student needs. One of the many opportunities at Mauldin Elementary where our students have to explore with purpose, lead with intention, and persevere in seeking solutions is in our STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) Lab. Our students have opportunities to link what they are learning in the classroom to the lab and the experiences prepare our students with world-class skills. In the lab, students are engaged in hands-on activities that promote problem-solving, collaboration, creating, critical thinking and working through solutions. We are excited to see our classrooms and instruction reflect the 21st Century while preparing our students with college and career skills.
We have various systems and processes at Mauldin Elementary outside the academic world to focus on the development of the whole child. Our students are offered opportunities to participate in classroom and schoolwide leadership roles. They follow an application and interview process for a leadership role. We have students a part of action teams to assist in our school achieving greatness. These teams play a specific role in the school improvement process. We also have a student lighthouse team where these students look for ways to continue our leadership focus from a student’s perspective. Additionally, we continued our partnership with Mentor Upstate to train and match adult mentors with many of our students. This has proven to be a great opportunity for our children to build a relationship with others in the community that cares. Focusing on the needs of our learners, we also implemented a Real Men Read and Lead as well as a Leading Ladies group that met monthly. This was a group of 4th and 5th-grade students (boys or girls depending on the group) who would eat lunch together and would hear from adults in our community who would talk about life skills, the importance of reading, and being a positive leader. Other activities include State and National award-winning Beta club, Robotics team, art club, Girls On The Run, chorus, STEM teams, and an afterschool Extended Day program. We are very proud of our student’s accomplishments.
Our school counselors have continued the implementation of a national award-winning (Recognized ASCA Model Program) Comprehensive School Counseling Program. This program includes our counselors working with individuals, groups, and teaching classroom lessons. Classroom lessons were aligned with our school improvement plan and our school’s focus on Sean Covey’s 7 Habits to Happy Kids. Groups are designed based on achievement data and student needs. This year our counselors lead academic success, anger, I Matter (self-image), resiliency, and friendship groups. The data used to determine the effectiveness of our comprehensive program showed positive results for our students and school. Our school counselors also provided Lunch and Learn sessions for parents on topics parents have identified as areas of interest.
Mauldin Elementary has a very active and supportive Parent Teacher Association (PTA). and School Improvement Council (SIC). Both groups focus on student educational needs. PTA provides additional funds to assist with the implementation of Leader in Me, and funds teacher grants for instructional materials in the classroom. This school year, PTA raised funds to purchase a new school playground. Our school Improvement Committee works closely with school staff and community partnerships to support the school. This year, SIC provided several reading programs to support students throughout the year and received a grant to purchase a school book vending machine for students to earn books for their home library when accomplishing reading goals. The partnership between PTA, the SIC, and the school has had a positive impact on the success of our students.
At Mauldin Elementary we believe the school, family, and community must share the educational responsibility for our children. We are developing world-ready leaders every day. Thank you for all your support in helping in the development of our future South Carolina graduates and world leaders!
Kayla Goodridge, Chair of the School Improvement Council
Jennifer Dodds, Principal
