The oldest independent co-educational day school in Michigan, University Liggett School, is among the state's preeminent PreK-12 institutions. Enrolling more than 600 students, Liggett offers a rigorous and innovative academic framework that allows students at every grade level to find their passion and explore it in depth while developing five higher-order skills: creativity, critical thinking, teamwork, adaptability, and universalism. A rich array of co-curricular programs supports this guiding philosophy. It empowers students to drive their own academic experience, preparing them to flourish at some of the country's most vital colleges and universities.
Limited class sizes and challenging academics shape students, giving them a keen sense of self while simultaneously fostering a lifelong appreciation for and understanding learning. The Liggett instructional method is based on critical thinking, creativity, teamwork, adaptability, and universalism. These foundational characteristics are woven in at all levels of instruction and in all academic areas, including reading and writing, mathematics, science, technology, and affective and emotional intelligence.
Liggett's education model encompasses three phases: Elements (Pre-K – Grade 5), Foundations (Grade 6 – Grade 10), and Horizons (Grade 11 – Grade 12). Each phase builds upon the previous one. The result is a well-rounded student prepared for further education and fulfilling life. Every one of Liggett's graduates goes to college – many to their first choice and many to highly selective institutions, where many follow an academic passion first discovered as a Liggett student.
Our mission is to empower students to develop intellectual curiosity, leadership, and confidence to contribute to a complex and changing world. We challenge students to excel and to achieve their highest potential. We create opportunities for discovery and achievement by developing a faculty who foster the strengths of each student through the Curriculum for Understanding. We teach and practice the values of respect and responsibility in an emotionally and physically safe environment.
At the center of that belief is Liggett's curriculum, which allows students to drive their academic growth. From Pre-K3 through 12th grade, students become active participants in their learning experience. They discover their passions. They uncover questions. They propose answers. And, in doing so, they turn information into understanding.
This forward-thinking approach allows students to apply their learning, absorb it, and then demonstrate what they have learned, both inside the classroom and out. Our guiding philosophy comprises five core tenets — critical thinking, creativity, teamwork, adaptability, and universalism. The curriculum covers three phases of learning and development in the Lower, Middle, and Upper schools.
Liggett is fortunate to have vocal and instrumental teachers who are regionally prominent music performers, arrangers, and composers in their own right. From primary school through grade 12, Liggett students have myriad opportunities to sing and to participate in instrumental music. Instrumental offerings include strings starting in grade 3 and band instruments starting in grade six. From the Lower School choir – which annually performs at numerous community events – to the Middle School band and chorus, to the Upper School chorale, advanced choral and instrumental music ensembles, the joyous sounds of music ring throughout our campus. Each year, Middle and Upper School students earn local and state honors in vocal and instrumental music.
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