We base our academic philosophy on this community aspiration from our school's mission:

"As a community, we aspire to engage in lifelong learning and the critical use of information. To this end, we are committed to an integrated, experiential, and differentiated college preparatory curriculum designed to enable students with diverse learning styles to be active learners who make meaning out of the world around them."

This reflects a few key convictions:

1. Learning should be meaningful.

Students who are not engaged do not truly learn. Students become engaged in learning through meaningful experiences. Thus our curriculum provides experiences in each area so that students can make real connections and thus make meaning happen. We sum this up by saying that our students enjoy a meaningful experience of knowledge and apply it in new and different contexts.

2. Connections and meaningful learning happen best in an integrated, experiential, and differentiated curriculum.

We are building a curriculum integrated around our unique location on the Rappahannock River. The river, its diverse watershed, and the Chesapeake Bay estuary provide unique and local opportunities for our curriculum, both physical and thematic. Physically, the river provides resources for experiential education in and across all disciplines. Thematically, the river and its connection to the Chesapeake Bay and the broader world serve as a metaphor for the growth our students experience as they navigate the journey to self-confidence, purpose, and identity. Based on grade level teams, our new curriculum will enable students to learn by experiences that combine and apply traditional academic disciplines, rather than just through lessons in the classroom. Our curriculum and teaching are differentiated, intentionally recognizing that each student learns differently and that we must use a variety of instructional methods and styles. It's all about making it meaningful for each student.

3. College preparatory education means much more than SAT scores. To us it means developing the habits of mind, self-understanding, relational abilities, and skills for success in college and in the global future.

Habits of mind are the characteristics of successful learners, such as inquisitiveness, acceptance of feedback, and adaptability and resilience in facing new challenges.

Self-understanding allows students to discern personal learning styles and strengths, to develop a sense of self-confidence, purpose, and identity, and to sharpen the self-management and self-advocacy skills needed for success. In discovering their strengths and pursuing their passions, students will develop individual initiative for learning.

Relational abilities include the emotional intelligence to work effectively with others and to apply strengths and skills as students live and work in community.

Skills are the academic abilities students will need in a world that is changing exponentially. Learning for the world of the future is about building skills that students can apply in many different contexts. Content can and does change, but a well-educated person possesses skills that equip him or her for new situations. These skills include:

•Accessing, analyzing, evaluating, and connecting information
•Fluency with ever-changing technology
•Effective collaboration
•Effective communication and conflict resolution
•Reflection and informed judgment on the moral, environmental, and spiritual implications of actions and events.
•Adaptability and resiliency
•Creativity
•Critical thinking and problem-solving
•Effective study habits
•Global interaction and awareness of its implications for local, national, and international environmental, political, economic, and social issues