Academics
“How much better to get wisdom than gold, to get insight rather than silver!”
– Prov. 16:16
“How much better to get wisdom than gold, to get insight rather than silver!”
– Prov. 16:16
OUR MISSION
SINCE 1922
Who am I becoming? In a world that encourages students to pursue wealth, reputation, and power at any cost, a Stony Brook education begins with a different set of questions and priorities. What profit is it if we gain the whole world and yet lose our soul? When our students process at graduation, what they know pales in importance to who they have become.
That is why our academic programs pursue intellectual and vocational excellence as part of a larger project to cultivate the moral and spiritual growth of our students. With these parameters, teaching requires far more than a lecture or workbook. Among founding headmaster Dr. Frank E. Gaebelein's legacies is his innovative approach to holistic education in a Christian context. “The day has long passed, if indeed it was ever present,” he says, “when learning meant only what went on in the classroom and nothing more.”
Dr. Gaebelein’s vision has endured to this day. Our rich and textured classroom learning experiences serve as a mere starting point in our “whole person” approach to education. As a boarding school, our students study the world with their teachers in myriad environments and circumstances. Visit our campus and you’ll find students and teachers lingering for conversations about that day's reading or debate on the walkways, the dining hall, or the dorm lounges. Our classes and mini-courses regularly travel together to off-campus events and cultural destinations that add new layers of nuance and enrichment to in-class lectures and discussions. Lessons learned in our arts and athletics programs are brought back to our academic buildings, and vice versa. Frequent chapel services allow our students to digest and reflect upon the week's teaching in a context of spiritual investigation and restoration.
The Upper School
THE UPPER SCHOOL program is designed to provide opportunities to develop the mind in all its facets: analytical, imaginative, and ethical. A student's abilities mature and flower as he or she tackles classic forms of expression: the essay, public speaking, and the visual and performing arts. Creative and analytical skills are further expanded through the exploration of more advanced territories within science and mathematics. Perspective and critical thinking skills are developed through our rigorous humanities curriculum. Finally, the study of the Bible also provides an integration of Christian faith and learning central to the School's mission.
The Upper School faculty members are lifelong learners and passionate educators, chosen for their giftedness in their respective fields and their ability to communicate both their subject and their passion for it. They continue to travel, attend conferences, and do research to teach their subjects at the highest level. Most of our faculty live on campus and are readily accessible to meet with students outside of the classroom. Their contact information is also made available to all parents, since close communication is viewed as a vital part of the educational process.
The Middle School
The Middle School curriculum stresses skill building in a nurturing environment that encourages self-discipline and imagination. This work prepares students for the rigors of our Upper School curriculum and the pace of a college preparatory education. The commitment to small (14-18) class sizes, as well as the structured approach to personal organization, time management, and responsibility, gives Middle School students the environment and skill to thrive on the road to college. Middle School students are also offered the opportunity to be assigned an Upper School mentor, usually a junior or senior. This mentor works with and encourages the younger counterpart, serving as an important role model.
The mini-course program
The mini-course program affords students learning opportunities outside the standard curriculum, allowing students to engage in project-based learning, interdisciplinary studies, research projects, internships, field trips, off-site labs, and academic competitions. During the school year, the school offers three mini-course units, each four days long. Mini-courses change from year to year based on student, teacher, and institutional interests and opportunities. The most popular mini-courses are offered multiple times over multiple years.
Academic Coaching
And Learning Support
The Stony Brook School strives to teach students to be successful independent learners and self-advocates during their time at Stony Brook, throughout their college experience, and beyond. We encourage students to proactively seek the resources available to them, such as extra help sessions with teachers and peer tutoring. However, if additional support is needed, we offer Academic Coaching and Learning Support programs.
Academic Coaching is offered to students who seek to maximize their learning potential. This short-term support program is designed to teach students to “learn how to learn” using researched and proven learning strategies applied across the curriculum. Academic Coaching can target any area of the learning process depending on student need, including organization, time management, study skills, test-taking skills, note-taking skills, reading comprehension, writing, and self-advocacy.
Learning Support is offered to students with documented disabilities that impact learning. Taking into consideration each student’s unique learning profile, Learning Support offers cross-curricular support to improve the student’s ability to implement strategies and manage his/her academics independently.
SBS
CAMPUS LIFE
Boarders and day students share a similar schedule between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5:45 p.m. Classes are in session until 3:15 p.m. each day, and sports and elective programs run for two hours, 3:45-5:45 p.m. Both boarding and day students share in a chapel service each week.
Additionally, all students can enjoy an optional hot breakfast each morning before class begins, and every evening a family-style dinner is served in the Kanas Commons. Faculty members and their families are assigned to a table, while students rotate from table to table every two or three weeks.
Boarders, faculty members, and their families also gather together for Sunday worship in Hegeman Chapel.