Learning

Reading unlocks the door for all future learning and provides a lifetime of opportunities. Strong literacy skills are necessary for all, starting with the very youngest of learners and continuing into the lives of students after high school, including postsecondary education, immediate entry into the workforce, military service or other types of career development.

Through structured literacy and targeted instruction, our teachers are able to fill holes in students' reading skills to narrow the gap in their learning. 

Our reading instruction includes:

• Heggerty (hearing sounds in words and playing with them)
• Phonics First (learning letter-sound relationships in reading and writing)
• CKLA (building knowledge of the world through reading and writing).

Our phonics program is accredited by organizations that research best practices for helping people with dyslexic tendencies learn to read.

Read more about Sidney City Schools Reading Instruction

Sidney City Schools recognizes the importance of early childhood education. As educators, it is our goal to support the whole child by providing learning opportunities in all areas of development including social-emotional skills and academic foundations. 

We strive to provide a fun, safe, and exciting culture that encourages students to take risks, problem-solve, and move toward independence.

Children develop an excitement for learning through a play-based, multi-sensory approach and meaningful interactions with others. We strive to provide a fun, safe, and exciting culture that encourages students to take risks, problem-solve, and move toward independence. Our program provides learning experiences that incorporate student interests and address individual needs. Additionally, we believe that our relationships with students and families are central to the advancement of each child’s development. Our intent is to build a strong beginning for future learning and empower children to reach their highest potential.

Through hands-on, project-based investigations, teachers will build children’s confidence, creativity and critical thinking skills, and promote positive outcomes. The curriculum aligns to Ohio’s Early Learning and Development Standards. Within this context, children with disabilities receive play-based, individualized, developmentally-appropriate  interventions, including child- and teacher-directed activities.

All program services are operated according to the Ohio Department of Education Rules for the Education of preschool children with disabilities and state licensure rules.

Learn more about preschool at Whittier Early Childhood Center

Gifted and talented students and those with high abilities need gifted education programs that will challenge them in regular classroom settings and enrichment and accelerated programs to enable them to make continuous progress in school.

Our gifted education services seek to meet the needs of students through acceleration. Acceleration occurs when students move through traditional curriculum at rates faster than typical. Among the many forms of acceleration are grade-skipping, early entrance to kindergarten or college, dual-credit courses such as Advanced Placement and College Credit Plus programs, or subject-based acceleration (e.g., when a fifth-grade student takes a 6th grade math course). 

Our district uses a three -stage approach to screen and identify students who perform or show potential for performing at high levels of accomplishment in the areas of superior cognitive ability, specific academic ability, creativity, and visual and/or performing arts. If students are identified as gifted, our curriculum department works to 

Read more about Sidney City Schools gifted services.  

Sidney City Schools has reached a 1:1 device status, where every student will have a school-issued device to use. Because of this, our students and teachers are able to leverage the Chromebooks as a tool for creative instruction and learning.

At the primary level, though there is one device per student, those devices are kept at school. At the intermediate school level, devices mostly remain at school with some chances for them to be taken home depending on the situation. In middle school, students are issued a device at the beginning of the year to keep and use between school and home; this practice continues through high school. 

Being 1:1 with devices has allowed greater access to technology while preparing our students to succeed in the ever-changing, and increasingly-technological, world. It has also eliminated both the need for teachers to schedule computer lab time at school and the need for students to have a device at home.

Many educators and education experts stress the importance of college and career readiness in students, particularly at the high school level. Sidney administration and teachers have worked to institute this important concept into the curriculum at SHS. Sidney High School partners with Edison State Community College to offer college courses on the Sidney High School campus through Colleges Credit Plus. These courses are taught by teachers during the regular school day, meaning students do not have to leave the school building to receive both high school and college credit simultaneously. Students are also able to take classes off school campus on the college campus of Edison State Community College. Sidney High School counselors work directly with Edison State to ensure student success. 

Sidney City Schools works with the local Workforce Partnership of Shelby County to support career readiness for students. A Career Coach, supported by the Sidney-Shelby County United Way and Workforce Partnership, works 1-on-1 with students who may not have post-secondary education plans, are not enrolled at the Upper Valley Career Center, and are not planning to enlist in the military, to assess their skills and interests, and provide employers who are hiring which match their skill set. The goal is to ensure those students who do not have plans following graduation are linked with local employers for suitable and sustaining employment.