Points of Pride

• Southern Hills M.S. prides itself on challenging all students to achieve their academic, physical and creative potential through a rigorous varied curriculum.
• Southern Hills M.S. prides itself on communicating with students and parents through a daily homework/announcement e-mail and principal messages.
• Southern Hills M.S. is proud to have advanced SmartBoard technology in every classroom along with a growing use of the Clicker assessment system.
• We are proud to be a leader in RTI and Positive Behavior Support, with an engaged faculty who meets the needs of any student through our Student Support.
• Southern Hills M.S. students take pride in their success with their participation in Global, National, and Local competitions such as Spelling and Geography Bees, Math Olympiads, Math Counts, Math League, Sports, National History Day and Destination Imagination(DI) whose purpose is to provide skills in creativity, problem solving, and teamwork - something much needed today as they investigate and explore careers in the global marketplace. Last year our DI team went to Globals and placed 18th out of over 70 teams from around the globe.

Achievement and Growth Goals
Southern Hills has a long tradition of producing both strong achievement and growth with its students.  And while the Southern Hills staff prides itself on serving all students to reach these results, we are required to follow state guidelines in establishing Achievement and Growth Goals that target subpopulations in our school.  For 2011-12, we are targeting improved Achievement and Growth for both our Special Education Free and Reduced Lunch students.  The targets reside in the core content are of Reading, Writing and Math.  As always, our professional development plan, as well as all available school resources, are specifically targeted to support our staff in achieving these goals.

School Profile
Southern Hills Middle School has a distinguished tradition of high academic standards and outstanding student achievement. We take great pride in providing students a solid foundation of academic excellence, a caring and nurturing environment, and a place rich in personal relationships. We value creativity and growth, friends and laughter, and most importantly, mastery learning. A John Irwin School of Excellence, SHMS students excel in every facet of academic achievement.

This is a school that benefits from a dedicated and gifted staff. Faculty members have distinguished themselves on a local and state level with numerous awards and acknowledgements. Southern Hills also depends a great deal on a very supportive parent community with marvelous volunteers and stellar home-school communication. Survey results from our parent community indicate a very high level of satisfaction with our school and with student achievement.

SHMS students are among the best in Colorado as evidenced by a number of categories. In addition to very high test scores, students have been recognized for outstanding achievement in local, state, and national competitions in science, history, math, and music. Students have at their disposal a wide range of curricular offerings in addition to the rigors of the traditional core program. Moreover, we offer accelerated and honors classes in math, language arts and foreign language. The school has an outstanding safety record and receives the highest marks from surveyed parents when compared to other middle schools in the Boulder Valley School District.

Finally, Southern Hills is a welcoming environment and we encourage parents to learn more about the school with a short visit, a phone inquiry, or a tour of our web site. We take great pride in our school and love to talk about it!