Ashley Hall students are proud to have taken part in the IB Loves SC Week of Service, Learning, and Citizenship, a new statewide initiative led by South Carolina IB Schools (SCIBS). This coordinated week brought together IB students across South Carolina to live out the IB mission by engaging in meaningful service and active citizenship within their communities.
At Ashley Hall, both Lower School and Middle School students celebrated IB Loves SC through hands-on experiences that connect learning to real-world impact and encourage students to care for the world around them.
Middle School: Learning Through Environmental Stewardship
Ashley Hall’s Middle School marked IB Loves SC Day through a series of learning and service experiences focused on environmental education, restoration, and community care. In partnership with The M.A.R.S.H. Project and other local organizations, students explored how thoughtful stewardship can protect Charleston’s natural ecosystems.
Our students learned about native plants, sustainable gardening, and the role these plants play in supporting pollinators, birds, and healthy waterways. Through hands-on gardening and seed-starting activities, students developed an understanding of their local growing environment while contributing to the care and maintenance of Ashley Hall’s campus gardens.
Students are also engaged in community cleanups, helping remove litter that threatens wildlife and pollutes waterways. These experiences emphasize responsible citizenship and encourage students to see themselves as caretakers of their community. In addition, Middle School students learned about composting and waste reduction, discovering how small changes at home can significantly reduce household waste. By sharing what they learn with their families, students extend the impact of IB Loves SC Day beyond campus. Grade 7 and 8 students are pictured below with the trash they collected.
Lower School: Caring for Our Coast
Ashley Hall’s Lower School launched the week with a coastal conservation experience rooted in service and curiosity. Fourth grade students partnered with Charleston Waterkeeper for a marsh cleanup and learned about the impact of microplastics and other pollution on local waterways, pictured below.
Through this hands-on experience, students saw firsthand how caring actions—both big and small—help protect Charleston’s coastal environment. “Our girls loved getting their hands dirty while caring for a small section of our local marsh,” said Elizabeth Flowers, IB PYP Coordinator and Lower School Faculty Member. “Beyond the cleanup itself, it was meaningful for them to learn about Charleston Waterkeeper and the important work the organization does to protect our waterways. We talked about the family-friendly events and volunteer opportunities Waterkeeper offers, and how this small act of service at school can spark even bigger action at home.”
Living the IB Mission Together
IB Loves SC highlights the power of service learning at every age. Across divisions, Ashley Hall students are learning that making a difference starts with awareness, grows through action, and thrives when communities come together.
We are proud to join IB schools across South Carolina in this celebration of learning, service, and citizenship, and to see our students lead with care, purpose, and compassion.
This week, Ashley Hall wove special celebrations into daily life across campus to honor the birthday of our extraordinary founder, Miss Mary Vardrine McBee.
In 1909, Miss McBee founded Ashley Hall with a bold vision: to educate girls and young women to be independent, ethically responsible, and prepared to meet the challenges of their world with confidence. Her courage, determination, and forward-thinking spirit still shape our community today.
At a time when women were not even allowed to vote, Miss McBee passed the rigorous entrance exams for Smith College, marking the beginning of her distinguished academic journey. She went on to earn a master’s degree from Columbia University and was later awarded three honorary doctorates. Beyond her academic accomplishments, she was a tireless leader in the Charleston community, championing initiatives such as Charleston’s first free Kindergarten, the Free Library, and the city’s very first Girl Scout troop. Even during the Great Depression, she found creative ways to keep Ashley Hall thriving, taking on multiple roles to ensure her faculty were paid and the school endured.
Her remarkable legacy gave us much to celebrate this week:
In the Classroom: Dr. Weston, Head of School, visited with Kindergarten students to share stories about Miss McBee’s life. The girls eagerly asked thoughtful questions about Ashley Hall traditions—from how many bears lived in the bear cave, to how purple and white became our school colors, and even why we wear uniforms. They crafted special birthday celebration hats, just for the occasion!
On Campus: Upper School Student Ambassadors gathered in front of McBee House to sing “Happy Birthday” to our founder, while students across divisions created handmade cards in her honor.
Special Touches: Highlights of Miss McBee’s accomplishments and interesting facts about her life were displayed on monitors throughout the campus, reminding everyone of her impressive achievements and lasting impact.
In celebrating Miss McBee’s birthday, Ashley Hall carried forward the traditions, spirit, and vision she instilled when she first opened our doors in 1909. It was a joyful reminder of the enduring influence of our founder. PQV!
At Ashley Hall, we know that reading is more than decoding words on a page or memorization—learning to read is a joyful, inquiry-based journey. Rooted in our Reggio-Emilia inspired curriculum in the Early School and supported by our International Baccalaureate approach in the Lower School, reading begins with children’s natural curiosity and love of story.
The first stages of reading development are full of discovery. Just as our daily routines emphasize belonging, exploration, and reflection, children’s early encounters with books foster independence, connection, and imagination. Because every child develops differently, we allow ample time and space for reading readiness to unfold naturally.
Stage 1: Pre-Reading / Emergent Readers
The earliest stage of reading begins when children show an interest in books—voluntarily picking one up, turning the pages, or talking about the illustrations. These early gestures form the foundation for a lifelong love of reading, and in the Pre-Primary and Primary years, we devote special attention to nurturing this stage.
In pre-primary, one way we build reading skills is through songs and nursery rhymes, which help enforce skills such as rhyming, pattern recognition, rhythm, sound recognition, and a larger vocabulary. While learning fun songs like “Five Green and Speckled Frogs,” they are also building the foundation for reading!
– Katie Paulson, Early School Faculty Member
In our classrooms, books are about so much more than reading. When they pick up a book, the children are imagining, questioning, discussing, and opening whole new worlds of possibilities.”
– Katherine Banks, Early School Faculty Member
At this stage, children:
Understand that print has meaning
Become familiar with handling books and turning pages
Comment on illustrations with guidance
Start to recognize letters and their sounds
Pretend to “read” a story aloud
Begin to rhyme and make playful connections to oral language
Relate stories to their own lived experiences
How families can support at home:
Read aloud exciting and dynamic books
Share nursery rhymes and poetry with repetitive text
Take a “picture walk” before reading to notice illustrations and story structure
Model predictions and wonderings as you read together
Ask questions and encourage your child to connect the story to their own world
Read wordless books to nurture imagination and storytelling
The goal of this stage is simple yet powerful: to help children fall in love with books so that reading feels like joy, not a chore.
Stage 2: Emergent / Early Readers
As confidence grows, children begin to see themselves as readers. They experiment with memorizing, predicting, and making sense of what they see on the page. We tend to see this happening more in our Pre-Kindergarten classes, with children beginning to recognize letters on signs around campus or spotting sight words they come across regularly.
Play doesn’t have to connect directly to a literacy activity to support literacy development. Play is naturally so literacy-rich–whether it’s a tea party in the classroom’s dramatic play area, superheroes on the playground, or building homes for animals with blocks, children are creating narratives and storytelling, which is a key component of emergent literacy. Even something as seemingly simple as engaging in conversation with teachers and peers–perhaps taking turns sharing what they did over the weekend supports literacy skills, as children are recalling and retelling events. They are building comprehension, practicing sequencing, and developing phonemic awareness. In my classroom, I often like to use a big sheet of paper to write down the things the children say. It’s important that we (adults) model writing. I may gently point out “this is an “A,” and identify children whose names start with the letter A, and tell them the sound the letter A makes. Later, during a nature walk, the children will autonomously identify letters on signs around campus. I also love to offer wordless picture books in my classroom. These are fantastic literacy tools that teachers can use regardless of what age group they teach. When a child looks at a book with no words, they are encouraged to practice a crucial literacy skill–the skill of inferring. They must examine the setting, the characters’ facial expressions, and other implicit details to understand what’s happening and predict what may happen next.
– Annie Bellettiere, Early School Faculty Member
At this stage, children:
Memorize favorite parts of stories
Take risks by attempting new word
Begin to recognize common sight words
Use illustrations and context clues to tell the story
Read for meaning and predict unknown words
Play with sounds through rhyming and phoneme changes
How families can support at home:
Continue reading aloud daily
Introduce new vocabulary naturally, in context
Focus on letters in meaningful words, like their own name
Read signs, labels, and print in the environment together
Encourage guesses and predictions—mistakes are part of learning!
Beyond the Stages
Reading is more than word recognition. It is about constructing meaning, making inferences, and engaging imagination. Children are developing strategies such as:
Using prior knowledge
Predicting and visualizing
Asking and answering questions
Summarizing and synthesizing ideas
These strategies mirror the inquiry-driven learning of our classrooms, where children’s voices and interests shape the direction of study.
At Ashley Hall, we see reading as a shared adventure—between child, teacher, and family. By celebrating each step of the journey, we empower children to see themselves as capable, joyful readers who are ready to explore the world of ideas.
Following three years of dedication and hard work from our incredible Lower School faculty and staff, and with the support of our students and families, we are proud to announce that Ashley Hall is now an authorized IB World School for the Primary Years Programme of the International Baccalaureate. We look forward to focusing our efforts on developing the IB learner profile attributes with our students, along with the habits of heart and mind that predict success in our rapidly changing global world. Becoming an IB World School will further distinguish Ashley Hall as a place of educational excellence and provide a framework for maintaining that excellence across all divisions.
What is the IB, and what does PYP mean?
The International Baccalaureate (IB) is a globally recognized and respected educational framework, designed to develop inquiring, knowledgeable, confident and caring learners who are empowered to take ownership in their own education. The goal of the IB is to develop students who are ready to take on this ever-changing world, who understand the role they play in it, and who have a set of future-ready skills that enable them to meet the challenges of modern life. If that sounds familiar, that’s because it is; the core IB values are very closely aligned with the mission of Ashley Hall, which is to educate girls and young women to be independent, ethically responsible, and prepared to meet the challenges of their world with confidence.
The IB Primary Years Programme, or PYP, is geared toward Lower School-aged students and is the foundation of an inquiry-based, student-centered approach to education. It made sense to pursue the PYP designation first as we continue building on each IB programme — becoming a fully authorized IB World School. Our Lower School students are already experiencing the benefits of the PYP framework today, and we encourage you to visit the LoDome to take in some of the incredible learning we’re seeing every day.
Why did Ashley Hall pursue this designation?
The IB provides us with a framework—a way to organize the excellent education we’re already providing our students and, most importantly, a way to maintain consistency across subjects, divisions, and the entire school. It’s essential that our students learn to apply the same set of critical thinking skills across all disciplines and understand that asking questions, discussion, practice, and failure are part of the learning process in all areas. PYP learners are encouraged to take ownership of their learning, working directly with their teachers to gain confidence and deepen their understanding of the subjects they’re engaging with. This collaboration leads to higher confidence and self-motivation, helping to create self-regulated and efficient learners. An IB school has a reputation for academic rigor and also places an emphasis on preparing students for a globalized world with the human skills they’ll need in life: empathy, critical thinking, and a love for learning.
What does it mean for our students and families?
You won’t notice much change overnight because the IB PYP framework closely aligns with how we already teach our Lower School students. You will notice that your children might ask more questions, wonder aloud, and make connections. We encourage you to lean into those conversations, help them explore, and encourage connection-making. Lower School parents will see new formats in our Report Card structure to align more closely with the IB learner profile’s 10 attributes which align with twenty-first-century learning skills, including creativity, collaboration, and curiosity.
Where do we go from here?
Our dedicated staff and faculty are engaged in the early stages of pursuing authorization in the Middle Years Programme for our Middle School students. We’ll share more on that as the timeline evolves, but we hope you’ll join in our excitement to explore how this new framework will benefit our students. Ultimately, we look forward to pursuing our accreditation as an IB World School, offering both an Ashley Hall diploma upon graduation and the option for an IB diploma as well.
We invite you to dig deeper into the IB PYP by engaging with the following resources:
At the start of the 2023-24 school year, Lower School students fell in love with a new face in Pardue Hall: Echo the owl puppet. But don’t let his cute and cuddly appearance fool you – he joined classrooms to bring some serious learning through the Fundations® program, an educational system helping Lower School students learn phonics, spelling, and handwriting in a whole new way.
“The Fundations® program is designed to provide direct systematic sequence phonics instruction at a pace that’s accessible,” says learning specialist Mary Allen Edgerton ’87. “The children learn sound by sound in order to learn to build them into words, then build into sentences, then build into fluency.”
With their new curriculum, classroom teachers spend a 20- to 30-minute block each day explicitly teaching a phonics principle, explains Lower School librarian and literacy specialist Allison Bischoff. Students will learn the name of the letter, a keyword, and a sound. For example, in Emily Matus’ kindergarten classroom, one of the three letters they were learning at the start of the year was T. “T. Top. Tuh,” she articulated for her students. This is where Echo comes in.
“When Echo is facing the teacher, that’s her time to talk,” Bischoff says. “Then as soon as students see Echo facing them, that means it’s their turn to repeat her. It’s a visual cue for when it’s their turn to participate. It’s a lot of repetition, but repetition is what gets it from their short-term memory to their long-term memory, which is our goal.”
After learning as a group, each student picks up their own magnetic white board on which they practice letters and eventually build words. “What I love about this program is that it is more systematic and explicit,” Bischoff says. “It builds in a lot more vocabulary and really word study to teach kids the basic building blocks of language.”
This year, Fundations® is being used in kindergarten and first grade, then next year it’ll transfer to second and third. “The other thing that I love about this curriculum is that there’s only a small handful of activities and they never change from kindergarten to fourth grade,” Bischoff says. “The only thing that is changing is the actual phonic skill that is being taught. It’s the same character the whole way through to reinforce procedures and help our students learn.”
Research shows that if girls do not develop interests in science, technology, engineering, arts, or math (STEAM) before or during their middle school years, they will most likely avoid future classes and careers in these areas altogether. At Ashley Hall, STEAM activities are an integral part of the Lower School curriculum to give girls the chance to fall in love with STEAM–and they don’t just happen in the classroom.
Science and math start inside the classroom and are a large part of students’ core studies. But students get a secondary layer of learning outside of the classroom by attending weekly enrichment classes designed to apply their new math and science concepts. Once a week, students also come together as an entire grade for a special STEAM class. “We do hands-on science and hands-on math to enrich what they’re doing in class,” says Lower School STEAM and science teacher Meghan Ward. “It’s seeing those skills that students are practicing, and saying, ‘Now let’s put it in place in the lab.’ It’s actually really cool to see both disciplines.”
Last month, the School opened a brand-new beautifully renovated 2,100-square foot Lower School STEAM Lab designed to host these enrichment lessons. Inside are stations for experiments, moveable furniture, risers for presentations, a sound-proof room for break-out teacher instruction, and so much more. But the added space and state-of-the-art tools for hands-on experiments and collaboration is just the start of how the STEAM education is evolving at Ashley Hall.
More Space, More Collaboration
Research by UNICEF shows that studying STEAM helps girls develop skills in collaboration and self-development which gives girls tools with which to become informed citizens and effective leaders. The new Lower School STEAM Lab, which can support a whopping four classes at one time, was designed specifically to be able to support the opportunity for girls to work together.
“Why STEAM is so powerful is it is focused on giving the girls a challenge to try and solve a problem,” Ward says. “We always have them begin the process by sketching their own idea, then they collaborate with a group and come up with one design. They always have minimal materials, just a little bit of time, and they have to problem solve. They debate the best design and have to learn how to bring each other together and come up with one idea. But then on the other side, they support each other, too.”
“They’re learning to communicate and be respectful communicators,” adds Lower School Math Specialist Allison Jordan. “It’s hard for them. It’s such a hard skill for anyone to learn. But they are doing it every day.”
A New Perspective on Mistakes
According to the Goodman Research Group, girls’ school graduates are 6 times more likely to consider majoring in math, science, and technology compared to girls who attended coeducational schools. Why?
“We’ve created a safe place to make mistakes so that young girls can learn,” Ward says. “We call them ‘oops-ortunities’ or oopsies that you can turn into opportunities. They happen all the time in STEAM. A student will say something is not working. Okay. So we go back and try again, try it differently.”
The confidence that comes with not being afraid to make mistakes is everything, explains Jordan. “All you need is confidence. We have a lot of tears in the lab. It’s sometimes due to frustration with your team, but a lot of the time it’s because students don’t have the faith in themselves. If they get a math answer wrong, it makes them feel bad. But if they have the confidence to say, oops, I made a mistake, and ask for help, then there goes all that intimidation. That’s my biggest goal in here with math at least is to make them feel safe to figure it out. This is your safe space to make mistakes.”
Integrating a Empathy
Science, technology, engineering, arts, and math are at the core of our STEAM education in Lower School. But as the program continues to grow, so do the pillars of Ashley Hall’s STEAM curriculum. “One of the things we’re adding is the idea of empathy,” Ward says. “Everything we’ve done in STEAM, we’ve encouraged them to think with empathy.”
For example, when Lower School students studied the body, they had to create a stethoscope out of basic materials like cups and paper towel rolls. Then Ward asked the girls a question: Who would use a stethoscope? “We talked about people who take care of us who use stethoscopes. Then I took it a step further and asked if they thought everybody in the world uses a stethoscope. We have great medical devices in our country, but does everyone have that? And what if you lived in a country where they didn’t have stethoscopes and these materials were all you had to work with to hear a baby’s heartbeat? Suddenly, we were talking about real people and real issues in the world.”
“Learning to think and solve problems like scientists and engineers can equip girls with the knowledge, confidence and creativity to address major challenges in their communities, such as generating sufficient energy, preventing and treating diseases, maintaining supplies of clean water and food, and solving the problems of environmental change.”
By adding a focus on collaboration, confidence, and empathy throughout every level of STEAM education in the Lower School, Ashley Hall is creating not only future scientist and engineers, but girls equipped to be the best version of themselves.
Ashley Hall is a K-12 independent school for girls, with a co-ed preschool, committed to a talented and diverse student population. We consider for admission students of any race, color, religion, and national or ethnic origin.
