King, and U.S. Department of Education representative Jonava Hawthorne were treated to a special song, "Go for the Blue," created by Honey Creek faculty member Tina Davis.

"We give our best, our brightest. We go for the blue!" sang the students, who signed along with the song.

Contest winner and fifth grader TJ Wilson, noted the things that made Honey Creek such a success in his essay on "Why HCE is a Blue Ribbon School."

"The teachers, they help us learn by getting us into the subject and using other materials than textbooks," he said. He also credited the school’s clubs, parents, and, of course, the students. "I mean those kids are hard working and determined. And they get good test scores," he said.

Cox congratulated the school and picked up where Wilson left off in his essay.

"We’ve got all kinds of acronyms and programs in education. But the singlemost thing you’re doing to ensure success?"

"READ!" the kids shouted back in unison.

"I love stirring the kids up and handing them back to their teachers," she said, laughing.

Ormsby said the trip to Washington D.C., helped her understand what it meant to be a Blue Ribbon school. "To be there around such outstanding schools, and realize Honey Creek was one of them…They challenged us to go back and help other schools become blue ribbon schools."

Honey Creek was one of eight schools in Georgia among all public elementary, middle, high schools and private schools to win the award.

Honey Creek was also recently named one of 27 Georgia Schools of Excellence in Student Achievement for 2009, which goes to schools that have shown the greatest improvement or highest achievement across the state.