West District Elementary School
West District Elementary School, serving kindergarten through fourth grade students, is located in a country-like setting in the Unionville section of Farmington. Over 25 percent of our 280 students live in proximity to West District and walk to school daily. Recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in 1997 and awarded Blue Ribbon School status, West District is an exemplary school, characterized by a strong sense of community and high standards in all that we do. We are honored to work in partnership with Central Connecticut State University as a Professional Development School and serve as a training site for future teachers as well as a research and development site for improving educational practice.
We are committed to small class sizes (an average of 20 students to each teacher), high standards and quality support services, which all lead to high student achievement. Our students consistently exceed the state goal scores in reading, writing and mathematics, as measured by the Connecticut Mastery Test, and are among the top scorers in the state. As a result of student and teacher effort, academic support programs and an outstanding partnership with parents, our students are achieving at some of the highest levels in the history of our school.
Mission
Our school mission is to engage students in significant learning experiences that inspire them to achieve high standards through consistent effort. Our school's vision is to create a learning-focused community in which all students can develop their talents in a caring and collaborative atmosphere that values diversity and promotes kindness, responsibility and service to others. We want West District students to feel individually known and respected and have an important voice and role in our school. Through continual inquiry into our teaching practice, we seek to have each child succeed at significant learning tasks and achieve high standards through the combined efforts of students, teachers and West District families. These essential ingredients are the heart of our school's mission:
Belonging + Significant Learning Experiences =
Engagement = Effort = Success
and Through our eyes, they see themselves. |
Our teachers are dedicated and well-trained professionals who set high expectations for themselves and their students. Teachers participate in job-embedded professional development and continually use student work, student assessments and collegial conversations as the basis for improving and adjusting instruction.
We are proud of the quality support services that we offer. We have a successful Reading Recovery program for first graders and offer a specialized reading tutoring for students in grades two through four. Students reap the benefit of enrichment programs such a Math Olympiad Club for grade four accelerated math students, annual programs that bring authors and illustrators to West District to work directly with students and teachers, a cross-grade reading buddies program, an inclusive student council, monthly celebration assemblies and theme days and several Sister School projects with students from urban districts. We provide a rich program in the arts, a carefully selected, diverse and well-maintained library collection of over 20,000 books and a strings program with over 100 students in grades two through four enrolled. We offer an inclusive fourth grade chorus as well as before- and after-school programs for all kindergarten through fourth grade students in physical education and music.
In fourth grade, formal instruction in keyboarding begins, and we use technology at every grade level to enhance instruction and motivate students. Ten of our classrooms are currently being equipped with SmartBoards, which will enhance instruction. At every monthly assembly we use technology to display and celebrate student work with the entire school. Our parent publishing center is in the process of expanding publishing formats to include PowerPoint to publish student work on CDs, complete with the student author fluently reading his or her own work, as well as the more traditional hard copy of a student's book.
Our school enjoys the full support of the community, and parent-teacher collaboration is at the heart of West District's success. Parents support our school library, publishing center, technology program and classrooms. We have an active parent-teacher organization (PTO), which in recent years has provided a new play structure for the school playground, stage curtains, a new piano, a new bass, computers and a yearly series of cultural programs for our students, including authors- and illustrators-in-residence. Our parents work in partnership with school personnel and actively support children's learning at home and at school. Working parents are supported with a comprehensive school-age care program.
More information about West District is contained in our Strategic School Profile, Results and Outcomes, and School Development Plan, viewable with Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Directions To West District School114 West District Rd.
Unionville, Connecticut
(860) 673-2579
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