Accolades

The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States government program created in 1982 to honor schools that have achieved high levels of student achievement or made significant improvements in closing the achievement gap among student subgroups.

West Clay Elementary is located in Carmel, Indiana, a northern suburb of Indianapolis. It is the eleventh elementary school in the Carmel Clay School system and opened in August 2006. The mission of West Clay Elementary, aligned with our district, is to provide opportunities for all students to realize their potential in an ever-changing world. By ensuring we are providing the best possible differentiated instruction, along with best practices to meet the needs of all students, West Clay has continued to see high achievement results based upon standardized testing while being named a Four Star School each year since its inception. Additionally, West Clay is fortunate to have a strong relationship with our community stakeholders. Our supportive parents value education and they play a very active role in the school. Collaborative and shared leadership is the underlying philosophy of the administrative team at West Clay. We have a cohort of teacher leaders in our building who serve in leadership roles, various school committee chairs, and an instructional coach. Not only do we all share the same overall vision of collaborative and shared leadership, within that, we cherish and encourage two beliefs. We believe in a growth mindset and that failure actually is an option. We believe that no matter how good you are, you can always get better. That growth mindset and constantly striving to improve through reflection and staff development, drives us in everything we do. Decisions are always made based on the question, "What is best for kids?" 

West Clay Elementary won the National Blue Ribbon School award in 2016.

The M.A.T.H. competition is a team event with no individual winners. Each of the four rounds consists of three team members working cooperatively to answer eight problems while competing against team members from other schools. Each contest question is graded immediately and an individual scoring chart maintains a running team score as the evening progresses. While students are waiting to compete, they sit in a block to enthusiastically cheer for their teammates.

The teams with highest scores in each of the five enrollment classifications at each site will be recognized with awards after the competition. In addition to local awards, the top 10 teams in each enrollment classification statewide will receive either a plaque or certificate to place in their school.

The competition is administered by Indiana Association of School Principals, Department of Student Programs with the support of Purdue University, to emphasize the importance of mathematics.

WCE has had the privilege of winning the local as well as state Math Bowl competitions several times.

• 2018 Math Bowl Champions
  • 1st Place Regional
  • 1st Place State Champions Class 3
     
• 2009 Math Bowl Champions
  • 1st Place Regional
  • 1st Place State Champions Class 3
     
• 2008 Math Bowl Champions
  • 1st Place Regional
  • 1st Place State Champions Class 3
     
• 2007 Math Bowl Champs
  • 1st Place in Class 3
  • 2nd Place in State Class 3

The Spell Bowl competition will be made up of eight rounds with a different team member competing in each round. Each round shall consist of seven words. Words for this competition come from lists published on this site. Word Lists rotate annually. Teams are composed of eight members. Eight others may be used as alternates. There is no limit as to how many students may come from any one grade level. A student may participate in only one round. There are no substitutions during a round. All full-time students in grades 4-5 (6 where appropriate) are eligible to compete. Within these constraints, schools may select their teams in any manner and with any additional criteria they choose. The competition will consist of eight rounds with each round consisting of seven words, which will be read by the emcee. After the emcee finishes the pronunciation, sentence, pronunciation and says “Begin”, the participant will have twenty seconds to write the word in the correct space on the answer sheet. At the conclusion of the time allowed for spelling, the word will be scored before going on to the next word.

Each year WCE honors two grade five students with a Wolves Award.  The Wolves Award is given to one male and one female student who exhibit characteristics of an all-around outstanding young man and young woman. 

The W in Wolves stands for a Worldly outlook.
The O is for an optimistic attitude.
The L is for laudable personality traits (a laudable person is one who is impressive and brave.)
The V stands for virtuous character (a virtuous person who is one you can trust at all times.)
The E represents an exemplary person (the dictionary defines this as a person worth imitating.)
The S signifies a self-assured person…one who is not afraid to make a difference in the world. 

The winners of this award have their name engraved on the plaque that hangs in our foyer, and they also receive a small plaque themselves.

WCE has been recognized as a Healthy Hoosier School several times.  Here are the certificates WCE has received:

• 2011-2012 Silver Award
   
• 2010-2011 Gold Award
   
• 2009-2010 Silver Award
   
• 2008-2009 Silver Award
   
• 2007-2008 Silver Award