Deerfield Elementary School is helping all students develop the world-class skills and life and career characteristics of a 21st century learner. We embrace the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by staying true to our mission of creating a caring community that develops lifelong, successful leaders and learners.
DES is in its fourth year as a Leader in Me school. The Leader in Me philosophy focuses on developing student leadership skills through setting goals and leadership opportunities. Staff members of DES have undergone training in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People through Franklin Covey. This training enables them to equip students with the skills they need through the 7 Habits. These habits will prepare our students for the 21st-century global workplace and community. DES students continue to maintain a Leadership Notebook where they track personal and academic goals. Students applied for various schoolwide leadership roles such as Safety Patrol, Student Lighthouse Team and our DES News Show. We established our first Parent Lighthouse Team this school year. All students had the opportunity to showcase their leadership skills during Leadership Day in the spring.
This year, we expanded our German Partial Immersion program into third grade. Our German immersion students learn mathematics and science in German while learning English language arts and social studies in English. All spoken language and print text in mathematics and science are in German, while all materials in ELA and social studies are in English. DES is proud to be the only elementary Schools: Partners for the Future (PASCH) school in the United States. The PASCH initiative is designed to encourage interest in and enthusiasm for modern-day Germany and the German language. A global network of partner schools is being created; the schools become part of an international community of learners through shared activities and exchanges.
Within our proficiency-based learning model, our students and staff took additional steps in our customized learning system that allowed students to progress through grade-level standards as they mastered them. We accomplish this through flex grouping within and across grade levels and through the use of programs such as Achieve3000, SmartyAnts and Front Row. Mastery is recorded in our personalized-learning standards-based report card, designed to track students’ learning and progress in lieu of a traditional report card. Our 1:1 mobile computing model, through the use of iPads, allows students to personalize his/her learning, create and evaluate their work.
Students, staff and community members have many opportunities to contribute through involvement. DES continues to put an emphasis on having our children understand how to help our world. Students of all grade levels take part in multiple service learning opportunities throughout the year. Our Planet Heroes were involved in heading up our school-wide recycling program. Other examples of opportunities that students and families can participate in include school-wide leadership roles, Student Lighthouse Team, Watch D.O.G.S. program, Deerfield Diplomats, Artsonia, TNN News Crew, Deerfield Deputies, Veterans Day Assembly, Leadership Day, Leadership Track Meets, Spanish, PTO, Run Hard, BOWS Choir, Planet Heroes, Field Experiences and Honors Choir.
During the 2016–2017 academic year, DES showed academic successes in many areas. Students in third grade showed strengths in math (71% scored Meets or Exemplary on SC READY). Our fourth-graders excelled in social studies (89% scored Meets or Exemplary on SC PASS). Fifth-grade students also shone in the area of social studies (86% scored Meets or Exemplary on SC PASS). Our staff is in year two of using Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study — Reading as part of our ELA curriculum to accompany the Units of Study — Writing. This reading series builds on decades of teaching and research in literally tens of thousands of schools. The spiral curriculum of Everyday Mathematics helps ensure students master key concepts by continually revisiting content in a variety of contexts over time. Much of our professional development was focused around our challenging areas in order to improve our students’ achievement, develop lifelong successful leaders, foster a community of collaboration, and provide instruction that is relevant and rigorous.
Jan Malone, Principal
Beth Quick, SIC Chair