About Sterling School
Our School
The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
The mission of Sterling School is to provide a differentiated, challenging education to meet the distinctive intellectual, social and emotional needs of our students.
Sterling School serves as an elementary school of choice (4K – 5th grade) with children from the school’s surrounding neighborhoods provided first choice to attend. Sterling School also continues as the home of the county-wide gifted center, named in honor of Charles Townes, a choice program for highly gifted students in grades three through eight who qualify for the program.
As a school community, we are grateful for our wonderful, diverse context. Our unique situation provides us an amazing opportunity to capitalize on things we all value: kindness, collaboration, creativity, and an appreciation of differences. To read more about our unique school community, check out this 2019 article, "Students form tight bonds at Sterling School", published by the Greenville Journal.
2018-2019 Board Approved Strategic Plan and School Portfolio
Contact Information
99 John McCarroll Way, Greenville, South Carolina 29607
Phone: 864-355-4480 Fax: 864-355-4490
School Hours: Elementary 7:45 a.m. - 2:15 p.m. Middle School: 7:45 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Sterling School
Sterling Elementary serves 4K - 5th grades, comprised of students from the surrounding neighborhood, who get first choice. Remaining slots are filled by requesting special permission.
What Makes Sterling Unique?
Sterling School is home to two programs: Sterling elementary, serving students 4K-5th grades, and the Charles Townes Center, a select program for highly gifted students (grades 3-8). The programs operate within a single school and will be guided by unified beliefs, vision and mission. The uniqueness of each program is in large part to the manner in which we modify the content, process, product and learning environment in order to meet the specific needs of each child.
Both programs take advantage of the opportunity to experience education at its highest level. By participating in a joint endeavor, all students deepen their understanding of issues which influence our community and country, and they gain perspective regarding the diversity that characterizes our world. There are frequent opportunities for students to contribute to school and the community through interactive relationships.
Regardless of instructional programming, students must be afforded a challenging and enriching curriculum that emphasizes higher order thinking skills and complex problem-solving, while ensuring that their social and emotional needs have been met.
As a school community, we are grateful for our wonderful, diverse context. Our unique situation provides us an amazing opportunity to capitalize on things we all value: kindness, collaboration, creativity, and an appreciation of differences. To read more about our unique school community, click here to check out this recent article published by the Greenville Journal.
Admissions
Information on how to attend the elementary school program at Sterling.
Charles Townes Center
The Charles Townes Center serves 3rd - 8th grades with 75 students per grade level. Students are chosen from a three-tiered criteria designed to identify highly gifted students from throughout the district.
Beliefs
To support an excellent education for our students we believe:
- Students of exceptionally high intellectual potential do not simply learn faster, they often learn in a qualitatively different way; they deserve appropriate rigor, complexity, and depth in what they learn, as well as opportunities to demonstrate significant academic and intellectual growth,
- Fostering a love of learning is a shared enterprise among home, school, community and student and that we will communicate openly and work together to support the intellectual curiosity and active participation by students in managing their learning,
- Students will obtain personal academic growth through self-evaluation of their approach to learning,
- Self-esteem, honesty, fairness, respect, empathy, integrity, and cooperation are essential in our dealings with one another,
- We should offer our students opportunities for service, leadership, appreciation of cultural diversity, creative expression, and activities that enrich their learning.