Mission Statement
Waimea Country School’s mission is to educate children to become confident, responsible, and compassionate people.
Core Values
Child-Centered Learning
Waimea Country School sustains a developmentally appropriate teaching and learning environment in which the individual student is nurtured and supported to become an independent thinker, self-disciplined and self-reliant, yet always aware of the needs of others and the common good. Both playful and serious, the School’s program encourages each child’s creativity and resourcefulness, guided by skillful and dedicated teachers, enhanced by small class size.
Inclusion
Diversity and inclusion keynote the Waimea Country School education, including an appreciation for all people and cultures and for different learning and teaching strengths and styles. Inclusion builds on the foundation of the family, emphasizing communication and cooperation between the School and the home. Inclusion also recognizes the importance of harmonious relations with other schools and with the community, acknowledging that a spirit of collaboration best utilizes the impressive resources of our region to enrich the quality of a Waimea Country School education.
Respect
Waimea Country School’s learning program includes a deep respect for and growing knowledge of Hawaiian culture, as well as regional and global awareness and preparation for world citizenship. Respect for fairness and compassion underscore the School’s commitment to make a positive difference in children’s lives and to increase all our capacities to make a difference in school, community, society, and the world.
Our Learning Program
Child-centered learning focuses on the child as the learner and not on the adult as a teacher. Children make sense of their experiences in a natural manner. They approach life as thinking, growing, contributing individuals. In a child-centered classroom, student individuality is encouraged. The program begins with what the child can do and allows individualized opportunities for further growth.
Multiage Learning
In a multiage classroom, everyone fits in.
Multiage is…
- a philosophy of education that puts the child at the center
- classrooms intentionally designed to include children of different ages and grade levels to realize academic and social
- benefit over time
- creating a rich, diverse community of learners
- supportive of a wide variety of learning styles
- family-based, with parents as partners in education
- utilizing differentiated instruction to meet the needs of each individual learner
- geared toward everyone on their individual path, not just those in the middle of the learning curve
A multiage learning program does not use grade level designations for students or classes. Progress is reported in terms of an individual child’s growth and ability to do certain tasks rather than through a comparative rating system. Teachers work with students who are regrouped according to needs, interests or the requirements of particular tasks. Multiage classrooms find heterogeneous groups of children pursuing complex problem-solving activities, often through the study of interdisciplinary thematic units.
Our children are inspired to learn creatively in a safe, healthy, and academically challenging environment which honors and embraces childhood and the love of learning.
