WHAT WE DO

Sunshine Smart School educates students in Kindergarten – Grade 8. For the 2024-25 school year, we are educating students in Kindergarten – Grade 8. Grade 9 will be added in 2025.

Sunshine Smart School’s educational philosophy reflects a commitment to improved teacher efficacy, meaningful collaboration among all stakeholders, and a learning community that attends to students’ social-emotional and academic needs. Our core values reflect ideas that will drive day-to-day practices, and will be taught, celebrated, and modeled by all stakeholders. Our leadership team and staff will work to ensure students are provided with the necessary support and learning experiences that lead to each student’s achievement of Tennessee Academic Standards (TAS) in Kindergarten – Grade 8. Sunshine Smart School’s academic plan works in support of these efforts and contributes toward making our mission a reality. ​​​​​​

SUNSHINE SMART SCHOOL’s CORE BELIEFS

• We believe in teaching and supporting the whole child.
• We believe that when students are significantly behind, they must exceed expected growth.
• We believe reading and writing are life-changing.
• We believe in failing forward.
• We believe in the power of Collective Teacher Efficacy to change lives.
• We believe in a decision-driven data culture.
• We believe that leaders model the practices they want to permeate classrooms.
• We believe in the power of collaboration and teamwork but equally value independent learning by fostering student ownership of learning.
• We believe great schools enroll families, not just students.

SUNSHINE SMART SCHOOL’s 6 CORE VALUES

From our philosophical beliefs, 6 Core Values will be taught, celebrated and modeled. The Core Values are concepts that all members of the SUNSHINE SMART SCHOOL community will strive for – teachers, leaders, students, and families.
Excellence – We value striving for excellence every day; we know that excellence is the result of intentional planning and deliberate practice.

The Power of We – We value collaboration and teamwork to accomplish shared goals. Together, we learn, do and achieve MORE.

The Power of Me – We value the contributions of every member of the learning community and want all to develop the academic and social and emotional skills to be their best selves.

Focused, Continuous Improvement – We focus on our strengths and opportunities for improvement. We get smarter and smarter through hard work, taking risks and learning from failure; we value the small, persistent steps that it takes to be great; we know that greatness in anything is the result of continual, intentional planning and practice over long periods of time.

Student Ownership & Choice – We value the power of student ownership so that all learners in our community can be self-directed, life-long learners. We value student choice, so they learn how to chart their own path in school and in life.

Family – We deeply value making SUNSHINE SMART SCHOOL a second “home” in the community where teachers, leaders, students, and families feel safe, supported and loved. SUNSHINE SMART SCHOOL prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, national origin, religion, ancestry, disability or need for special education services.

SUNSHINE SMART SCHOOL welcomes and serves students regardless of English language proficiency, disability, or need for special education services.