Mt. Gallant Elementary School is helping all students develop the world class skills and life and career characteristics of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by providing a safe, caring, and academically challenging learning environment. In addition to our continuous work as a professional learning community, we are committed to providing our students a strong, well-rounded education through a comprehensive curriculum. Our experienced educators provide the instruction and motivation for all students to perform at high levels utilizing the highest quality teaching tools, methods, and materials.
This year, we continued our journey to improve student achievement in mathematics while focusing heavily on building strong, healthy relationships with our students and stakeholders. Each of our staff members participated in professional learning around Morning Meeting by Karie Aldrich. Our teachers were required to begin each day with Morning Meeting in order to build community and set our Knights up for success socially, emotionally, and academically. We will continue this work next year while focusing more on anticipated student outcomes and what to do, intentionally, when the learning breaks down.
Developing the whole child and developing interest in possible future careers is very important to us. We are constantly seeking ways to challenge and engage our students as they apply skills learned in the classroom as well as soft skills needed to survive in the real world. These programs included Battle of the Books, Science Bowl, Before They Were Movies Club, Noble Knights Peer Readers, Drama Club, Spanish Club, Soccer Club, Unicorn Club, Beyblade Club, Student Council, Knight-o-Bots competitive Lego Robotics team, Students Working to Advance Technology, and Young Author's Club.
We continue to offer opportunities for families to visit our learning community with events like Knight Time Tailgate (new this year to build relationships with our families), Grandparents Day, Math Fest, Cotton Club, Spring Show-off and Art Gallery, as well as various musical events. Spring Show-off was a new event for us this year. Each student in our school was able to choose a topic that through research workshop, he or she would become a proud expert. Spring Show-off was the culminating event where students presented their findings to all stakeholders. Each of these events brought in more than 300 visitors. We are very proud of that!
We are also proud that our extra-curricular opportunities allow students to contribute to our school and local community. Community involvement is a key component to our school's success. We believe that our students should have awareness of the needs of our community and beyond. Throughout the school year, the Mount Gallant family, Student Council, and Junior Beta Club has donated money, time, and support to various local and national charities.
During the 2018 - 2019 academic year, we applied for South Carolina's esteemed Palmetto's Finest Award. While we did not proceed to the final round, the reflection and team work utilized in preparing the application as well as our learning community for outside visitors was paramount to our continuous improvement. We will apply again!
Academic success is the Knight Way at Mount Gallant. We would not be able to do it without the support of our wonderful parents/guardians, the support of our district, and business partners!
Elizabeth Morgan, SIC Chairperson
Jacob Moree, Principal