Mission Statement
Our Mission: KingfisherAcademy, a HumanScaleEducationSchool, serves the Northeast DeKalb-West Gwinnett (Tucker, Clarkston, Lilburn, Smoke Rise, Norcross, Stone Mountain) areas and provides a place-based, project-oriented curriculum; targeting gifted students ages 3 to 14.
We use the acronym PEACE to sum up our beliefs here at Kingfisher.
P is for our stance for peace and justice. We are a member of the Peace Schools Movement. Our middle school students meet annually with other middle school students to talk about anti-bullying and to learn to handle conflict. We believe in kindness and fairness and we encourage kids to seek the kindest way to communicate.
E is for our environmental focus--we always seek the earth-friendly considerations of any subject or activity and we believe in living "lightly" upon the earth. We recycle. We compost. We watch our energy usage.
A is for our belief that children must develop an authentic, autonomous self and we encourage self-reliance from the little ones on up. Our 3-year-olds know how to wipe their own noses, and our 6-year-olds know how to pack their own book bags. Our elementary students organize their own school work, belongings, and social affairs.
C is for our community-oriented, place-based curriculum. We try to build community both inside and outside the school through numerous community service projects--we’ve planted trees, collected food, sung holiday songs in the village, taken blankets to the Open Door Community, participated in parades, and adopted parks and streams. For several years, we’ve had a garden plot in a community garden.
E is for our educationally rigorous curriculum. We attract those bright, bored kids that are often identified as "gifted" in the public schools. They are active, alert, interested and willing to look deeply into subject matter for solutions to problems. Our teachers work hard to keep every student moving forward on individual paths and that means that kids don’t "fall through the cracks" at Kingfisher. Everyone is encouraged to put forth their best efforts at schoolwork.
