- We
are committed to small class sizes and a friendly over-all school size. We want our classes to be as diverse as
possible—we seek out a variety of families for our school and celebrate
our differences, while keeping an awareness that people tend to be more
alike than different.
- Our
curriculum is project-based, meaning that students will have a variety of
ways to meet the objectives—writing, drawing, singing, moving around,
building, etc. We expect kids to move around and to work under a looser
structure and with more freedom than in a larger school.
- We
are family-friendly—we want to meet our families’ schedules and needs and
we don’t expect parents to do fundraising beyond paying the tuition. Our fees are structured to cover most
details—with a few separate fees for certain books for literature, some
art materials, special field trips, etc.
We expect families to sacrifice to pay for school, but try hard to
keep our tuition affordable for our middle-class working families.
- We
don’t require uniforms because we don’t believe that making everyone look alike will cause everyone to be alike. Instead we encourage
individual expression, including the way we dress. We do believe that children should dress
for school—wearing clothing that will allow them to move freely and
participate actively in class projects.
T-shirts that carry slogans that are offensive are not appropriate
for school and we expect pants to be kept at no more than 2 inches below
waist level.
- Our
curriculum and philosophy are research-based and come from both Harvard’s
work in multiple intelligences and some of the new brain-compatible
research. This includes drinking
water throughout the day, using different lighting, helping the students
use music to aid memory, etc. Our
classes are in multi-age groupings allowing for peer tutoring and
teamwork. Research has shown this to be one of the best learning methods
to help children retain concepts.
- Every
child is honored and unique at Kingfisher.
If Johnny isn’t a great reader, but is a wonderful soccer player,
then Johnny’s talents are valuable and useful to the community and to
himself. Every child has strong and weak areas, and we work with these to
help the kids grow more confident in school.
- Our teaching system changes over time as we add new
experiences and new ideas to our repertoire—you won’t see the same
bulletin boards or themes year after year.
We try to “stay fresh.” We
think doing “real” activities helps to cement learning—planting real seeds
in real dirt is much more meaningful than reading a chapter in a science
book about seeds.
- We
don’t label children and we don’t diagnose physical or medical
problems. We can refer a family,
who asks for help, but we concentrate on what we are experts in—teaching
children. We relish our differences and we expect children to grow at
their own unique rate—not using yardsticks designed for “everyone” but not
serving “anyone.” Our typical
student is the gifted child who has been slightly bored at school and
seems to enjoy project-based, real-world learning.
- Our
assessment tools are individualized and may include portfolios,
scrapbooks, samples of work, narrative reports, etc.
- We
honor and respect various family traditions and holidays. Therefore, rather than ignoring or
squelching celebrations and holidays, we encourage and offer activities
for many of the holidays that are left off of standard calendars. We love to add new traditions.
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