Gaffney Middle School is helping all students develop the world-class skills and life and career characteristics of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by providing a safe, nurturing, and academically challenging learning environment. We provide such an environment by challenging our students with best practices to reach their full potential and by the continuous professional development of our teachers. GMS teachers are always seeking to learn new and effective strategies to use in the classroom, such as Project Lead the Way, Project-Based Learning, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, Academy of Reading & Math, and Advancement via Individual Determination. These opportunities and resources, along with our Lego Robotics team offered after school, help our students develop their creativity, innovation, critical thinking and problem-solving. At GMS, we also have various programs outside the academic world to focus on our adolescent learners' emotional and social well-being. We have focused on the Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) framework. This program enables students to develop and learn social, emotional, and behavioral competence, supporting their academic engagement. We are proud of our staff's dedication to our students and their families as we work together to foster academic success for all learners. When students are taught to use social skills effectively for themselves and others, school climates are more optimistic, learning environments are safer, and student-educator relationships are more trusting and respectful. We believe our students must learn what it means to make positive contributions to the lives of others and to contribute to their communities by edifying those around them and strengthening the entire system. These are skills that we believe are embodied by the life skills component of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate. At Gaffney Middle School, we believe the school, family, and community must share the educational responsibility of our youth. This program rewards our students for displaying positive behaviors, and we celebrate these behaviors with our students during quarterly incentives.

Thank you for your dedication and support in assisting in developing our future South Carolina graduates and world leaders!

Lyman Dawkins III, Ed.S., Principal