One way the teachers, staff and PTO at Ball’s Bluff Elementary have tried to make learning more relevant to students is by encouraging them to write letters. At Ball’s Bluff, there is a student post office with student mail carriers and sorters who deliver mail to other students. But be careful – a poorly addressed envelope will be returned to its sender.

“It even happened to me once,” principal Jerry Hill said, laughing.

Of course, lessons in letter writing are not just limited to the old-fashioned pen and paper. Students spend a considerable amount of time learning technology skills. Technology lessons are integrated with the classroom curriculum. Teachers in grades one through five will schedule time with the technology resource teacher to bring their class to the computer lab to focus on special lessons.

“How do we reach all of the students -- including ESL, gifted, special ed? I think a lot of that comes with building relationships with those students and making learning relevant to them,” Hill said.

Like all public schools in Loudoun County, Ball’s Bluff focuses heavily on increasing student achievement. According to data from the school improvement plan, 90 percent of third-grade students passed the math portion of the SOL exam, which is the highest pass rate from the past three years. Conversely, only 66 percent of fifth-grade students passed the math portion of the SOL, which is the lowest pass rate for the past three years. The district-wide pass rate goal for all SOL exams is 90 percent.

Teachers prepare their lessons nine weeks in advance and share them with all the area specialists at the school to help integrate lessons. For example, for a classroom unit on Virginia history, students might learn dances or games from that period in gym class. A math unit might be integrated with music class so that students are learning fractions and time signatures at the same time.

The PTO works to provide students at Ball’s Bluff with extracurricular opportunities. In the past, it has organized after-school art, hands-on science and sports activities for children to participate in. There is also a Virginia Standards of Learning homework help club.

Plans for the future include continuing to encourage student achievement and also raising enough funds to build a walking track outside the school.

“Our focus here is student achievement. With the diverse student population that we are seeing, we have student achievement on the rise,” Hill said.