If there is one word that can describe Castle Heights Elementary this year it is “busy.”
“The months have flown by,” said Principal Wendy Fluckey. “Of course many people have heard about the success of our archery team. We just got through placing the two new trophies into the trophy case along with a big banner.”
The school’s archers won state in the elementary school division. They also set a state record for the elementary schools for shooting tens. They shot 86 tens from their Team 1. The school also shot what is called more yellows (arrows into the yellow part of the target surrounding the middle) than any school, including all the secondary schools that were competing.
Nationals for archery competition will be held in Salt Lake City this year and the school’s archers will be going there to compete. That will take place in April.
In terms of academics, Fluckey says that the reading program is seeing some very nice gains in student growth.
I have been doing a lot of observations of classrooms that are using the new program,” she stated. “I am actually seeing the gains in reading transferring over into the students writing skills as well as their ability to sound out words.”
She said the reading goal that is posted on the wall in the front foyer of the school is realistic and she believes they will achieve it.
There has also been some reassessment of the intervention groups that teachers have for reading. This will help them to target students who need help more efficiently.
“We run those groups for three or four weeks, then we reassess and change them again based on the data we have concerning students growth,” she said.
The school is also using the districts math programs (Ready Classroom Math and i-Ready curriculum) this year and on the Legislative Day (a day set aside for teacher advancement) a trainer in the programs came to the school to help teachers understand everything better and how to use the data they glean from their use.
“We were able to gear the training toward each grade level by rotating the teachers through the training day rather than have them all sitting through the whole thing where they would be seeing things that pertain to other grades and not them,” explained Fluckey.
She also mentioned that the School Trust Land Funds Castle Heights has are being put to good use in the areas of gifted and talented, art and in supporting the schools reset room, where kids can go if they have having some kind of behavior or emotional problems.
“Those funds allow us to pay for teachers and personnel we wouldn’t have without that money,” she said.
Fluckey also raved about the schools PTA and how hands on they are. A recent event at the school was a family night bingo party where people won tickets to put in a drawing for prizes. She said it was a huge success.
“I couldn’t believe the prizes that businesses donated,” she stated. “There were prizes from 40 or 50 businesses that were given away. The support that the business community gives us is tremendous.”
The school also held their History Fair on March 13 and it was a huge success as well, with dozens of the 476 students in the school participating.