Breaking the Mold

Four local independent schools forge their own pathways in teaching children

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It’s a cliche, and it’s also true: Children really are the future. Every generation has a chance to make its mark, but at some point, the next generation will advance with new philosophies, concerns and approaches.  

So how do we prepare our children for their time as leaders? We checked in with four local independent schools to see how they approach a monumental task.

Lynnhaven School

Lynnhaven School opened in 2012 with a mission of education centered on an acronym: PBL. While the uninitiated might equate PBL with project-based learning, there’s more to it than that.

“We talk about PBL being person-based learning, problem-based learning and project-based learning,” says Head of School Casey Hitchcock. “This is not a one-size-fits-all model, because that rarely works. But because of the environment here, many people can thrive here.”

Over the years, Lynnhaven has offered both middle school and high school classes. Now, the school is focused on grades 9 through 12.

“It’s made a big difference for our students and our teachers,” Hitchcock says. “We go through iterations, which is what we want our students to go through within themselves. Being small means we are able to make adjustments in real time. Our ship is not a cruise ship; we can change the sails if we need to.”

Lynnhaven also wants to go beyond standard course options. “We teach forensic science and microbiology and environmental science — sciences that are relevant to the world our students are going into,” she says.

The school requires students to take algebra — “not necessarily because our kids will be solving problems, but because of the way it teaches you to think,” Hitchcock says — and statistics. “We want them to take [statistics] before college,” she says. “They will be given research articles with data and need to know how to interpret them.”

No Advanced Placement courses are offered at Lynnhaven, but students may take college classes at Reynolds Community College and online through Marymount University and Arizona State University. College counseling begins at the end of ninth grade. While the school’s website touts its 100% college acceptance rate, Hitchcock says college isn’t the only goal.

“Our aim is to give [each] child the room to think critically, to be curious, to understand that they, in order to participate as a citizen, have to evolve and change and grow, and be OK with that,” Hitchcock says. “That’s inherently an uncomfortable process, and it’s easy to dig your heels in. But if that’s your mentality, then you'll get left behind. If something new comes in, I want you to be able to figure it out. Those are future-ready skills. Teaching you [to code] is probably not a future-ready skill anymore. [Artificial intelligence] can do that faster.”

Good Shepherd Episcopal School

Good Shepherd Episcopal School believes in the power of community and belonging.

“Children have to feel welcomed and loved unconditionally, to be allowed to be who they are,” says Lori Jobe, interim head of school. “You have to be comfortable in your own skin to appreciate differences in others.”

The school, founded by Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in 1971, now operates separately from the church. Chapel is held every other Wednesday, and students in grades four through eight also study religion and world cultures, although students need not be Episcopal, Christian or follow any religion. “Our curriculum teaches the Bible as an academic subject, through a historical lens,” Jobe says. “We also want to expose students to other religious traditions.”

Good Shepherd has students in kindergarten through eighth grade and, in 2021, it opened the Nature Preschool for 3- to 6-year-olds. The school takes advantage of its location just a few blocks away from Forest Hill Park for hands-on learning. All grade-school students spend at least one 90-minute class period in the park weekly, and preschool students travel to the park every day, prevented only by the most inclement weather.

This year, for the first time, everyone in the school read — or had read to them — the book “Wishtree” by Katherine Applegate, which has a 216-year-old oak tree as a central character. In addition to discussing the book’s themes of inclusion and acceptance, everyone in the school has been grouped into “tree families” (dogwood, maple, oak, pine or willow) with students learning more about their family trees while on scavenger hunts in the park.

Community spirit at GSES is intentional and broad, Jobe notes. “We hope our families fully believe in our mission and philosophy, but we don’t require them to fit into a specified culture,” she says. “Our goal is to build a community with diverse people who believe in our school’s endless possibilities.”

Middle schoolers move on to a variety of high schools, such as Appomattox Regional and Maggie L. Walker governor’s schools; Collegiate, Trinity Episcopal and The Steward schools; and CodeRVA.

“Of course we want to prepare [students] academically, and I think we do that,” Jobe says. “We also want them to listen to what their calling might be, to have a feeling of belonging and of being seen and heard. We want to prepare them to be good, kind humans [who know how to] effect change in their community and in the world.”

Seven Hills School

Walking past a classroom at Seven Hills School, you might see a student leaning back in his chair, feet on the table, another taking notes at a standing desk and yet another walking in slow loops with a fidget spinner in his hand. All are middle school boys, and all are engaged.

“So often, the first question we get is, ‘Are they troubled?’ No, they’re not,” says Dagan Rowe, Seven Hills’ head of school. “They’re bright and active. We have room to give them to move. We always ask, ‘Is the thing they’re doing disruptive to themselves or others?’ If either answer is yes, then we deal with it. If the answer is no, then we’re fine.”

Founded in 2001, Seven Hills’ total population is fewer than 100 students, which includes a “bridge” class of fifth graders. These years are a time of tremendous change, note Rowe and Assistant Head of School Will Murphy. “We are focused on middle school boys and where they are,” Rowe says, “being cognizant of their needs and skill-building over time.”

“We offer a safety net,” Murphy says. “We want to make sure [boys are] in a place where we can help them learn how to handle conflict resolution, where they can jump from one sport to another without judgment. We try not to ascribe characteristics to a kid, because he’s going to change.”

Of the school’s 15 teachers, 13 are men, and they engage with students in the classroom and beyond. Seven Hills is known for its monthly excursions to the James River and also taking advantage of its acreage north of Virginia Union University to have daily outdoor recreation, where students can throw or bounce balls, nibble from garden plants, or enjoy a book under a tree. When the weather is foul, a nearby shed offers table tennis, foosball and air hockey. Teachers often join in, which fosters healthy relationships.

While the school hasn’t ruled out expanding — someday — into high school grades, administrators hear from alumni and parents that its focus on the middle school years is working. “They’re ready to go to high school,” Rowe says. “We’ve equipped them with skills by building scaffolding around them to support them and then taking that scaffolding down slowly.” 

Murphy adds, “It’s a gradual release of responsibility, which allows them to further stake their claim that they are the protagonists of their own learning.”

St. Andrew’s School

Founded 130 years ago by Richmond philanthropist Grace Arents, St. Andrew’s School continues to live its mission of providing a free education for children that speaks to the whole child.

“Our mission, as it’s written, is to end the cycle of poverty by creating access to opportunities,” says Hannah Barr, acting head of school. “We want to think about what it means to be successful, how to help children identify their emotions, how to give them the tools to advocate for themselves so others can listen.”

St. Andrew’s has just under 100 students enrolled in kindergarten through fifth grade. Families whose gross annual income does not exceed 200% of the federal poverty guidelines may apply to have their children attend; every student receives a scholarship covering the full cost of tuition.

Small classroom sizes encourage relationships between students and teachers, who follow a “warm demander” approach to help students see their own potential. “We want to show and model the ways in which by holding high expectations, kids will meet those expectations,” Barr says. “It’s about being comfortable naming opportunities where there’s room [for the student] to grow.”

Seeking to make up ground lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, the school is now teaching reading through multigrade cohorts that meet four times a week. Students are grouped according to their reading levels, not their ages, with no more than six students to a teacher.

Every faculty member in the building now teaches reading, including the physical education teacher. “[That teacher] thought I was crazy, but if you can read, you can teach reading,” Barr says. “Even if the only thing that changes is that kids learn to like reading, it’s worth it.”

Shelley Thompson, the school’s director of development, notes that the partnership between school and home is critical. “We are trying to make sure we recognize that a lot of our parents chose us because of maybe their own trauma that they experienced in public schools,” she says. “We try to show them the love and care we show students, because they are truly partners in their kids’ education.”

“Love is one of our values,” Barr adds. “We show love by saying, ‘I believe in you and will hold you accountable; to do otherwise is to indicate that I think you’re less than capable.’ That’s not what we believe.”