Our Mission: Guiding gifted children toward a life of discovery, empowerment, and innovation
Our vision: Personalizing education by creating authentic learning experiences
for our gifted children
WE UNDERSTAND GIFTED CHILDREN, MEET THEM WHERE THEY ARE, THEN CHALLENGE THEM.
We embrace the characteristics that make our students unique in this world while kindling their willingness to reach beyond their current abilities and world views.
WE NUrTURE STRONG MENTAL HABITS THAT BUILD CONFIDENCE AND LEAD TO THE ABILITY TO IDENTIFY AND SOLVE PROBLEMS.
By helping gifted children adopt strong habits of mind, Vanguard teachers enable students to find authentic pathways to solving problems using their own ideas and devising their own plans for achieving their goals. Students are poised to become confident, resilient adults by learning to identify, manage, and internalize targeted, positive mental traits. These practices lead to personal success and satisfaction, empowering our students to act on opportunities to better their world.
WE ARE DEVOTED TO FOSTERING STRONG CHARACTER TRAITS THAT ENABLE EVERYONE TO WORK WELL TOGETHER.
Emphasizing the importance of community, thoughtful actions, and personal growth throughout each and every day inspires students to appreciate their own qualities and those of others. This palpable community spirit is the foundation upon which personalized learning, collaborative problem solving, and consensus building are developed.
WE MODEL FLEXIBILITY AND ENCOURAGE INNOVATIVE THINKING, LEADING STUDENTS TO BROADER DISCOVERIES.
Working in a purposefully flexible space complements our open-ended learning model. We adapt our environment as dictated by our studies; we adapt our lessons to suit the various pacing needs of our students, who are grouped in multi-aged bands to honor and meet the need for both social and academic peers. Exposure to this level of flexibility minimizes illusions of knowledge and expectations of perfection, leading students to embrace a range of possibilities and accept others’ perspectives.
WE OFFER STUDENTS OPPORTUNITIES TO ENGAGE WITH AUTHENTIC AUDIENCES WHO AFFIRM THE VALIDITY OF THEIR LEARNING.
Our Showcase Nights are joyful events that afford students an authentic audience for sharing complex applications of new understandings. These events, to which the larger community is invited, provide students opportunities to practice communicating learned ideas and extend their learning through the personal expertise and questions of visitors.
Unique to Vanguard
VGA professionals team to provide for seamless bridging of skills, concepts, and trait development across the years the student attends the school. Specialty areas such as robotics, engineering, Spanish, and the design process are integrated daily.
“As I see it, the aims of education are to enable students to understand the world around them and the talents within them so that they can become fulfilled individuals and active, compassionate citizens.”
The Vanguard Model is…
Collaborative
Learning is integrated across domains for a full spectrum understanding of academic concepts.
Students learn together in work spaces best suited to the task rather than at small, inefficient desks.
Learning develops from shared ideas and teamwork, preparing students for future workplace requirements rather than the departmental and assembly line models of the past.
Students develop an appreciation for different ideas and the interpersonal skills to integrate peers’ ideas to reach success.
Personalized
Students are grouped to best serve their abilities, needs, interests and potential, rather than by age.
Technology offers students immediate feedback on learning and allows teachers to effectively plan personalized learning experiences.
Assigned homework and the myriad rationales for it become obsolete.
Metacognitive
Students reflect on their personal traits and develop strategies for success.
Students realize how concepts are transformed from ideas to applications.
Students evaluate and balance personal needs with the needs of the community.
Students develop an understanding of their own learning profiles.
Creative
Students work to find innovative solutions to problems, which contribute to the school and local communities.
Students interpret concepts through the lens of their personal strengths, revealing new perspectives and creative applications.
Technology enables the exploration of innovative ideas.
Students generate original ideas for how to best exhibit their learning.
Analytical
Students delve deeply into content areas, asking probing questions and building complex understandings.
Students make connections between the past, present, and future.
Students debate multifaceted issues.
Students investigate solutions for “messy” problems.
Students are overtly taught decision making skills.
