Educational Philosophy

Faith
Ivy Hall Academy recognizes the importance of faith to a person’s well being. Spirituality has a profound positive impact on children’s psychological development and fosters community and cooperation.  To this end, we are an all-faiths school where people from different faith traditions are able to appreciate their common spirituality.

With faith at the core, we foster four key pillars in our students:

Scholarship
Rigorous academic learning and growth are achieved through Socratic and project-based learning and a challenging curriculum. Socratic learning is the oldest, and one of the most powerful, teaching methods for fostering critical thinking.  Students are given a series of questions, rather than answers to develop an inquiring, probing mind. Project-based learning is a student-centered, dynamic classroom approach where students acquire deeper knowledge through active exploration of real-world challenges and problems. Each year, our students focus on answering a school-wide driving question and a curriculum-specific essential question. Classes research, discuss, and analyze text and other material to help broaden their perspectives and shift their paradigms as they dive deep into these questions.  Our challenging curriculum begins with teaching a grade level ahead in all classes; leveled learning in math and language arts ensures students learn at their optimum pace.

Leadership
Integrating and implementing time-honored leadership principles is accomplished through The Leader in Me^® program. Content from Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a key component of the overall The Leader in Me process, which teaches 21st century leadership and life skills to students and creates a culture of student empowerment based on the idea that every child can be a leader.  Timeless principles of personal and interpersonal effectiveness, such as responsibility, vision, integrity, teamwork, collaboration and renewal, become the “common language” of our community.

Citizenship
Inspiring service through global and community awareness includes monthly services projects, in-depth geography and cultural studies programs, and national and international studies tours. Ivy Hall students have traveled to the northeast and southeast United States to understand the foundations of our country, and explored Mexico, China, and Egypt to use their world language skills and provide resources to local schools. Providing opportunities to look outside oneself is crucial to our students’ “leading lives of meaningful contribution.”

Entrepreneurship
Finding our voices and helping others find theirs is the culmination of The Leader in Me^® program and the hallmark of entrepreneurship at Ivy Hall. Crucial skills are developed through a tech-based collaboration lab, coding, app, and web development courses, how to spot a fake rolex datejust and a “Shark Tank” experience. Business leaders visit as guest lecturers to inspire and act as role models. Our entrepreneurial focus enables students to be college and career-ready as innovators who have the opportunity to change lives.