Comprehensive High Standard Curriculums
The Willows Preparatory School curriculum incorporates comprehensive instruction in literacy, mathematics, history, and science, supported by current educational research; creative self-expression through the visual and performing arts; and fitness and physical skills, including athletic competitions with other area schools. Multiple technologies are incorporated for enriching the classroom experience; in addition to our elaborate Mac computer lab and 3D Printing Station, students are also working 1:1 with Surface Tablets and OneNote in each course to amplify learning and collaboration.
Global Leadership And Character Education: International Baccalaureate Programme
Willows Prep is an official Candidate School through the International Baccalaureate (IB) Programme. We are excited to offer our longstanding, unique and challenging curriculum through the framework set forth by the IB Organization. Continuing on the road to authorization, we will work closely with our IB Consultant and further our teachers’ understanding of the IB Programme by sending each one to global workshops specified for their discipline.
Character education is essential and is at the core of the Willows experience for our students. The requirement of sound moral principles and basic respect for peers and all human life is the foundation for all of the other skills we teach. We know that the skills that society demands of our students will continue to change. Therefore, Willows Prep will also continue to evolve and stay current to ensure that students possess the tools that are essential to becoming productive members of a global society. Our students and teachers are guided by the IB Programme’s Learner Profile to encourage effective and powerful character traits on a daily basis.
Giving back to the community is an essential element of being a responsible world citizen. Service learning is an opportunity for students to gain insight into the challenges facing communities near and far. Throughout their years at Willows Prep, children will be offered many opportunities to become involved in projects that demonstrate care for others and foster social responsibility. Our 8th Graders will work collaboratively in groups to identify a need within the community and execute a plan to fulfill the need. This project is called the Community Project. With the guidance of a teacher mentor, each group will go through the process and then present their community project to the WPS school community.
Dynamic Instruction To Meet Each Child’s Needs
Students are better served when curriculum decisions are driven by the goal to truly prepare them for their future rather than the temporary goal of yielding acceptable test scores. At WPS, the leadership team, along with the highly qualified instructors, work collaboratively to ensure comprehensive curriculum through all weekly courses. This big-picture thinking also ensures that the weekly load for each student is balanced and well thought out.
Striving to educate students with the ability to think critically is a fundamental skill embedded in our school’s core curriculum. With voluminous information saturating students’ screens at warp speed, the ability to process and evaluate information is made even more relevant. Rather than memorize and recite information, our students at WPS are encouraged to discover and creatively express information and view points.
Design, Innovation, And Effective Presentation Skills
Communication, in addition to the mastery of traditional literacy and mathematics skills, now encompasses the most advanced and sophisticated forms of information and media literacy. At WPS, we have the responsibility to empower students with mastery of a broadening array of communication skills, from traditional ones to fluency in social media, and Cloud usage. We approach communication skills from a multicultural and multilingual perspective.
Rapid and exponential growth of knowledge renders collaboration as essential to success. New technologies provide immediate access to exponential amounts of information and instant connectivity. This has expanded, enhanced and, in effect, democratized information sharing. As a result, academic institutions have created a global network of mass collaboration where students are able to gain the advantage when taught to navigate intelligently.
Complex and changing environments have made “right brain” creative thinking and the ability to innovate essential to student success. Ultimately, the purpose of transformative teaching should be to move students from passive recipients of information to active creators of new knowledge. The more open-ended and “outside-the-box” problem-solving assignments students are introduced to, the more likely they are to hone their ability to think creatively.
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