About Our School
Location
Flower Hill Elementary School is located on Flower Hill Way, a residential thoroughfare linking Woodfield Road (Maryland Route 124) with Snouffer School Road in Gaithersburg, Maryland, 17 miles northwest of Washington, D. C.
A Little About Us
Flower Hill Elementary School opened in September 1985. By 1987, the enrollment grew to 924 students, requiring the use of 14 portable classrooms. Today, the school’s total enrollment of 503 students, Pre-K though grade 5, includes two resource rooms for children receiving Special Education services and six portable classrooms.
The student population is racially, economically, and educationally diverse. The student population is approximately 19.6% white, 33.9% African-American, 14.6% Asian-American and 31.3% Hispanic. The student mobility rate is 31.7%. All of this diversity enriches the school community and gives students, parents, and staff on-going exposure to a variety of experiences for educational growth.
Mission
The Flower Hill Elementary School mission is to build a community of lifelong learners. Together, we will:
- Focus on Learning
- Work Hard
- Have High Expectations
- Use data to Set goals
Education and perseverance will make
our dreams a reality.
Vision
Flower Hill Elementary School community promotes confident, creative, and successful learners.
The 3 P’s at Flower Hill ES
Passion
Practice
+ Persistence
Achievement
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Flower Hill Handbook
Cluster Information
Flower Hill Elementary School is part of the Magruder Cluster. Students feed into Shady Grove Middle School and then to Magruder High School.
Magruder Cluster Literacy Goal
Magruder Cluster will develop and implement a data driven literacy plan to be infused across all content areas that will lead to increased student achievement.
What’s Happening at FHES
Math
- Regrouping in grades 1-5
- Math A in grade 5
- Accelerated math in grades K-4
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Reading
- Jr. Great Books in grades 3-5
- William and Mary in grades 2-5
- SOAR to success in grades 3-5
- Reading Intervention in grades 1-5
- Book-It Reading Incentive in grades K-5
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Writing
- Reading-Writing Connection
- Young Author’s Writing Incentive Programs
- 6 Traits of Writing
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Social Studies
- Implementation of new curriculum K-5th
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Science
- Preparation for addition of science MSA
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Parent Nights
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FHES SGA (Student Government Association)
Baldrige
What is Baldrige?
Baldrige is a way of focusing our efforts to help all students become independent learners, make good decisions, solve problems and take responsibility for their learning. It requires that we:
- involve the school community, including students, staff and parents
- have measurable goals and plans for achieving the goals
- make sure goals and plans are communicated and understood
- monitor our progress and make changes to improve results
- More on the MCPS main site
(FHES SIP) Flower Hill Elementary School Improvement Plan
The Lotus diagram is an organizational tool for breaking broad topics into smaller parts which can then be prioritized for implementation. At FHES we have two lotus charts: one for math and one for reading. The nine boxes in the center are our focus areas. Each of the center boxes then becomes the center of the outer sets of nine boxes. Here we show what we are doing in our school. This is a working document and additions or deletions are made when appropriate.
The linkages chart shows categories that represent programs we have in place at FHES that enables us to focus on performance and continuous improvement. At Flower Hill we have used the linkages chart to represent our school improvement plan (SIP).
Gifted and Talented
All second grade students are screened for gifted and talented during the second semester of the school year. Students in grades 3-5 who are new to MCPS or who have been recommended for re-screening (by parents and/or school staff) are screened during the first semester of each year. Gifted and talented screening occurs at the student’s school. The data gathered on each student is used to provide appropriate differentiated instruction.
All students have an equal opportunity to be considered for identification regardless of special needs, language, or cultural differences.
Grading and Reporting
All schools in MCPS are using a standards-based grading system. Next year all 1st and 2nd grade classes in MCPS will be implementing the new standards-based report card. Currently, there are 19 schools in the county that are field testing the new report card. Standards-based grading and reporting helps to improve student achievement by focusing on four critical questions:
- What do students need to know and be able to do?
- How will we know that they have learned it?
- What will we do when they haven’t learned it?
- What will we do when they already know it?
Grades based on curriculum standards become triggers for action. Standards-based grades help teachers plan their instruction so they can challenge and support all students. They help parents know the academic areas in which a student meets or exceeds expectations, needs challenge or needs support.