Third Place, Middle Division, Middle Schools
Brian Bass, Principal
7200 Cumberland Drive
Fairview, TN 37062
Williamson County Schools
Website here
Recipe For Success:
The secret to our success at Fairview Middle School can be attributed to a common simple belief that we can always improve. There will always be students who can learn more than they are currently learning. I like to say that it takes three P’s: Passion, Purpose, and Perseverance.
First and foremost, administration, guidance, teachers, and support staff are passionate about the opportunity we have to positively influence the lives of adolescents. Relationships are the key to everything we do. We want every child to feel personally connected to our school. Establishing a safe, structured climate with consistently enforced, school-wide rules and expectations is a prerequisite for success. Our Positive Behavior Support (PBS) program has evolved over the past five years to use engaging and relevant means to reinforce our school-wide rules and encourage respectful, empathetic interaction among students. Every student has the opportunity to meet weekly in mentoring groups with a staff member to foster personal relationships with a caring adult and peers. In addition to continually strengthening a our climate, it is equally important to ensure the culture of FMS recognizes and reinforces the notion that individual student academic success is our number one priority and therefore our most important and celebrated accomplishment. Students must see education as an investment in their own futures that will pay dividends their entire lives. Otherwise, you will hit the glass ceiling of compliance, which inevitably leads to complacency.
Second, we must approach our work with a clear purpose. Teachers who teach the same subject and grade level should have clear common learning targets aligned with state standards and then develop common assessments to formatively assess student mastery. Data must be purposefully used and disaggregated to identify our weaknesses and build upon strengths. Breeding true collaboration instead of competition among teachers will allow the fly wheel of professional growth to gain momentum.
Finally, it takes perseverance to overcome the challenges and adversity that will steal our focus away from teaching and learning if we’re not careful. Some of our most challenging students bring issues from home that must be addressed here over time through counseling, behavior plans, or just tender support and understanding. Students are given opportunities during the school day and after school for tutoring and to make up missing or poorly done assignments. We must embrace a “whatever it takes” to help students succeed.