Meadowridge inspires students to see life from multiple perspectives to be both participants in, and observers of, a complex, information-rich world to have the audacity and flexibility to grasp opportunities and the generosity to share their understanding.
Our school is an International Baccalaureate (IB) Continuum World School, accredited through multiple organizations. Understanding, collaboration with families, creative teaching, and inviting and open facilities. We live what we teach and model what we believe – and we do it together with our families.
This allows learning through inquiry, learning through experience, learning which becomes personalized, and learning about ourselves, our community, and our world. It develops young adults who, as leaders, understand that the way to excellence involves understanding and working with and for others, and who have developed the skills, knowledge, and dispositions to be able to engage with complex issues in intercultural settings, with a foundation of fairness and just treatment of all.
To become knowledgeable and fair and balanced requires that their school continually models a commitment to knowledge, fairness, and balance. To become adults who know how to work alongside others from many cultures requires that, in their school, they learn and live within an intercultural community. Our school is designed to help families encourage children to aspire to become the leaders of tomorrow, to be people who love complexity, who insist upon excellence, and who live in kindness and understanding towards others.
As you first encounter our school, I want to encourage you to speak with our children, teachers, staff, and families. Ask about how we engage children and the ways that we structure experiential learning. Please inquire about the balance in our classroom timetables with time for athletics, arts, service, play, and social engagement. We are a school that values academic achievement and insists on our children living well, living balanced lives, and flourishing within a community.
Students must learn to care for others, as an increasingly interdependent society can fragment and become dangerous if we do not share concerns for the welfare of all. That is why we value and insist on a vital service component in our school, and that is why we have developed a robust travel program.
We have created a just community within the school – one shaped by caring and trust, and the clarity of expectation and rules. We commit to supporting communities worldwide because we know that social justice depends upon communities becoming self-sufficient and educated. We want to build a just society.
People are drawn to our school from around the world. In the spirit of active collaboration with teachers, peers, and our community, we learn how to care for ourselves and others. Knowing that change is the only certainty, we engage with challenging and complex questions effectively and creatively. Through outstanding teaching, programs, and facilities, Meadowridge develops in us the confidence to meet the future and create it.
Our program challenges our students to find out more about their own beliefs, bodies, and society. When students graduate, they are equipped to deal with the complex realities of life, where critical thinking is at a premium. There are trained to question: how could this be better? Meadowridge offers a learning space, unlike anywhere else here; you will find a west-coast playground where students and teachers have over 27 acres designed for experiential learning, practical exploration, physical activity, and mental wellness.
The inquiry is developmental and is tied to more traditional learning – sometimes through rote, sometimes through practice, sometimes through listening. The difference is in the way that learning is framed. Inquiry learning is guided by larger questions, which frame the direct instruction. In every unit of instruction, the children have a guiding question which they seek to answer. In the younger grades, the teacher generates the question, and smaller questions arise from the students. In older grades, we expect students to generate their questions and to personalize their learning.
Students learn through creative expression: they learn to understand and to analyze, to problem solve, and to self-express, and they learn about themselves and the world around them. Our program is designed for students to get hands-on – to function both artist and learner of the arts – through a robust visual and performing arts program. At the heart of all, we do at Meadowridge is our Mission Statement, learning to live well, with others and for others, in a just community. We have created a just community within the school – one shaped by caring and trust, and the clarity of expectation and rules. We teach our students how to care for themselves because a balanced and happy life is critical to their future. Students also learn to care for others because a prosperous future is one in which all share common welfare.
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