Throughout the school year, we present an article in the bulletin each week providing updates from St. Margaret’s School, written by a member of our school staff.
SMOS School News
by Patrick Holley, Principal
A couple of weeks ago, we were visited by our school improvement visiting team. This group of teachers and principals from around the diocese visited classrooms, joined us at Mass, and reviewed our proposed strategic planning goals. They have also provided commendations for our school in the areas of Catholic identity, academics, and institution.
This week we will focus on commendations in the area of Academic Issues.
COMMENDATIONS – Educational Issues
The Visiting Team commends St. Margaret of Scotland School for:
- Commitment to differentiating for a diverse group of learners, as evidenced by a learning lab, learning support staff, and flexible workspaces.
- Pursuing sustainability and creating meaningful real-world connections through the Green House Venture partnership and commitment to urban agriculture on campus.
- Developing curriculum, as evidenced by work with national curriculum experts and the Office of Catholic Education and Formation as well as continued faculty work in the Chalk/PowerSchool curriculum platform.
- Embracing the Science of Reading in their primary grades’ reading instruction along with explicit instruction of phonics and phonemic awareness.
- Providing an abundant amount of aides to support teachers with classroom efficiency.
- Offering parents the choice of a Montessori or traditional preschool classroom.
- Committing to mindfulness and social-emotional learning by establishing dedicated roles of a counselor and a mindfulness teacher to work with students and providing teachers with tools to use in the classrooms, as evidenced by calm down corners, fidget devices, and flexible seating.
- Offering a variety of middle school electives for the students to choose from that meet their desired interests.
- Being committed to teacher growth and collaboration by scheduling common plan periods across all grade levels.