Your child is ready for more than they're being asked.
An intentionally small independent K-8 school in Berkeley.
The Academy at a Glance
1969
Year Founded
K–8
Grades Served
5:1
Student–Teacher Ratio
116
Students
~ 12
Students per Class, K–5
64%
Students of Color
81%
Faculty with Advanced Degrees
3
Languages: French, Spanish & Latin
Our Values
Challenge is a Gift
We ask a lot of our students, in their work and in how they treat each other. Then we stay right next to them while they learn to meet it.
A high bar on its own is just pressure. Ours comes with a second try, a teacher who knows exactly where a child got stuck, and the steady assumption that they can get there. Kids tend to rise to what the adults around them believe about them.
Free Thought
We care that a child can build a case and then change their mind. At the Academy, it's not about teaching them what to think, it's about teaching them how to think. A kid who can hold an idea, test it, and let it go when the evidence says so is a kid who's going to be okay out there.
Which is why our teachers ask a lot more than they tell. What a child comes to believe belongs to them. Our part is making sure they got there by thinking it through.
Tech Intentional
Technology here has to earn its place. In the youngest grades that means you won't see much of it. A six-year-old learns to read, to share, and to sit with a hard problem through paper, people, and each other.
As they get older we open it up, and we're excited to. There's a lot worth exploring with them, and they should learn to use these tools well. The question before a screen comes out is always the same: what is this for?
"The teachers respect the students and strive to get them to be thinkers."
- Academy Parent
Come see a classroom in motion.
Tours run on weekday mornings by appointment. The fastest way to understand The Academy is to stand in it.
