Academics
At The Wilberforce School, our academics reflect our mission - to equip students in mind and heart so that they can contribute as servant leaders to God’s kingdom. As our school verse enjoins, we accomplish this purpose by focusing on ideas that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy (Phil. 4:8). Our school is a community of learners, together deepening our awareness of concepts, skills, virtues, and creative arts. We infect each other with a desire to know, share, grow, and engage. As Augustine noted,
Every good and true Christian should understand that, wherever he may find truth, it is his Lord’s.
At Wilberforce, our faith in God inspires both our sense of wonder and our depth of inquiry, as our discussion-focused classes examine science and mathematics, literature and history, philosophy and art.
The pursuit of truth, the creation of beauty, and practice of goodness are exciting adventures, but they can be dangerous ones as well. Deep learning and thinking is never safe; instead, it challenges, discomforts, and transforms. At Wilberforce, we allow texts (written and visual) and their authors to stretch, confuse, humble, and inspire. Our education is a process, one that progresses towards maturity of thought and heart. It is not just for a season, rather it is the inauguration of a life.
-Karen Ristuccia, Dean of Instruction
Academic Highlights
- Students are encouraged to cultivate a joy of rich discovery and a love for lifelong learning within a classical framework.
- Explorers 1 students begin with phonograms, and Explorers 2 students learn about language coding in our reading-intensive curriculum. Each provide the building blocks for reading and language.
- Latin studies begin in class three through grade nine, equipping students to understand the structure of language. In the Upper School, students choose Mandarin or Spanish for their world language study.
- Students learn at one grade level ahead, with the trajectory towards calculus in grade 11, and multi-variable calculus in grade 12.
- Individual and class recitations are part of every grade level curriculum, challenging students to study and memorize great and timeless works.
- Capstone projects in the middle and upper school challenge students to think creatively, work collaboratively, and seek academic counsel from faculty and staff.
We invite you to learn more about our academics in each grade: