Elementary School Studio
Our Elementary Studio is a mixed-age educational experience for 6-11 year-olds that builds on your child's natural drive for curiosity, creativity, and the ability to ask good questions. Young people who are new to the Elementary Studio soon find themselves part of a tight-knit community of independent learners who find great joy in learning together, upholding the highest standards of excellence.
Participation in the Elementary Studio is a wonderful way to preserve your child's natural love of learning and belonging during the elementary years as well as optimal preparation for Middle School, both academically and socially. There is no homework or frequent testing, and we nurture the school community with fun and enriching family activities.
In the Elementary Studio, young people use the philosophical framework of the Hero's Journey to increasingly see themselves as heroes in the story of how they bring their unique gifts to the world. Every day, students work to discover and hone these unique gifts by participating in Socratic discussions, upholding covenants that they helped create, setting and reflecting on goals for self-paced work, and engaging
in hands-on projects to build real-life skills.
Learning at Acton
Learn to Do
Hands-on learning for Science, Entrepreneurship and the Arts prepare your child to tackle real-world challenges with gusto.
Learn to Learn
Socratic Discussions and self-paced challenges equip your child to be an independent lifelong learner.
Learn to BE
The Hero's Journey philosophy, relational contracts, and authentic consequences transform your child's difficult decisions into virtuous habits.
Every year at Acton, we build small businesses from the ground-up.
21st Century Learning
- The latest in educational technology for self-paced mastery of reading, writing and math skills.
- Deep Socratic discussions about heroes, history and self-governance to hone critical thinking skills and the ability to powerfully think, write and speak.
- Hands-on project based Quests to master the tools and skills needed to solve problems in the real world.
- Written promises and contracts that form a tightly bound community of individuals learning to form authentic friendships and honestly resolve interpersonal problems.
Our Philosophy of Learning
We believe that:
Clear thinking leads to good decisions,
Good decisions lead to the right habits,
The right habits lead to character and
Character becomes destiny.
A Learner-Driver Community
- Students create and sign a Contract of Promises describing how each individual will act and the consequences for violating community norms.
- Mentor teams encourage younger and older students to listen, affirm, set goals and hold each other accountable.
- "Learn to Be" badges celebrate character and leadership skills.
Measuring Mastery
Young people celebrate the mastery of tools, skills and character by earning badges, assembling portfolios and taking part in public exhibitions.
- Parents use badges to track academic progress in Core Skills like reading, writing, math and spelling and character development in “Learn to Be” Badges.
- Electronic and hard copy Portfolios capture rough drafts, photos, video and other creative work.
- Public exhibitions at the end of most Quests allow young people to present work to experts, customers or the public for a real world test.
Personalized Tools
