Creating Scholars
Officially defined as “one who is devoted to learning, showing much knowledge and critical ability,” the concept of scholarliness is a key piece to our mission. A scholar is one who is able to think, transfer knowledge, and make connections versus simply memorizing facts and formulas. At Trinity we believe that scholars are lifelong learners, individuals who value learning for the sake of learning.
We believe in authentic academic rigor by teaching depth over breadth, setting high expectations for all learners, integrating and differentiating the content, and providing built-in supports.
Students who actively explore, research and solve complex problems are committed to academic rigor in its truest sense. Endless hours of homework, worksheets and rote learning are not the real goals of a school that values big concepts and the importance of process versus product. Our experienced and well-trained teachers provide an environment that is developmentally appropriate, progressively minded and differentiated. They devote themselves to shaping students who will be intelligent, participatory, open-minded members of society.
| Chris Weiss | Mary Kluttz | Tracy Onze |
| Academic Dean | Assistant Academic Dean |
Assistant Academic Dean & Learning Catalyst |
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Want to know more about Trinity’s academic program?
Our workshop model for instruction allows teachers to present whole-class mini-lessons before students apply those lessons in independent work sessions that involve different books, writing, or problems that are “just right” for each learner. Digging deep into high level concepts like change, cause and effect, or power allows students to do more than just cover the surface of a given curriculum. Rather than view each subject as separate and finite, teachers integrate content across disciplines and grade levels. A third-grade student will discover the hierarchy of roles within a Castle while planting and growing medieval herbs in their own garden. Fifth-graders connect their service learning partners at the Carolina Raptor Center to their physics study of flight, all during Writer’s Workshop as they construct literary non-fiction books on birds of prey.
Our lower school students learn in a self-contained classroom that features a daily ritual of Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop, grammar and word study, Investigations Math, Science and Social Studies through StoryPath, a problem-based learning approach. Two teachers are charged with delivering this progressive curriculum and instruction in each lower school classroom.
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Middle school students have five core subjects with ongoing integrated units: Language Arts, Social Studies, Math, Science and Latin or Spanish, along with exploratory classes including Faith Studies, Art, Music and Healthful Living/Life Skills.
