Lower School
Ambitious Thinkers, Courageous Explorers, Creative Collaborators, Joyful HumansStudents’ educational journey is a spirited exploration rooted in discovery, community, inquiry, and an aspiration to know themselves and their world. We endeavor to nurture students' natural curiosity through interdisciplinary studies, integrating the arts and outdoor education across the curriculum. We meet each child where they are in their development and provide the tools and learning provocations for them to reach their highest potential. Using a balance between direct teaching and a structured inquiry approach, we pose questions and build skills and knowledge while providing students voice and choice in their learning. Students are able to make connections between their learning, various disciplines, and the real world. They are active in their learning community, participating in collaborative problem-solving, and productive struggle that creates tenacious life-long learners. Intentional social-emotional learning complements the vigorous academic and co-curricular program ensuring that children thrive socially and emotionally as they build their academic skills. Students’ time is divided between our indoor and outdoor spaces and the vibrant city around us. Our learner-centered indoor spaces are warm, uncluttered environments that allow children, their thinking, and their work to be the focal points. Our inviting outdoor spaces encourage students to participate in deep work and play. Everything we do is grounded in knowledge of developmentally appropriate practices.
Our Program
Students engage in experiential place-based learning, spending significant amounts of time outside of the classroom, in nature and in Northwest Arkansas, punctuated by periods of reflection where students set goals with their teachers and have opportunities to transfer their learning into different contexts. Stand-alone explicit instruction in language arts and math is reviewed and applied in integrated inquiry-based learning units ensuring that students’ learning is enduring. They spend time in flexible small groups, whole group and individual learning configurations. Learning experiences are relevant and meaningful to children so they cultivate the passion that drives motivation for deep learning.