‘‘We haven’t found anything yet, but we are anxiously trying to pursue it,” Principal Kim Hogan said. ‘‘We have a few spaces remaining in certain grades, but we typically have a waiting list every year. We’re supported by a church that has less members than we have students, so it’s a unique situation.”
The school is located at 4100 Olney-Laytonsville Road (Route 108).
Hogan said that the school’s strengths lie in its individualized instruction, accommodating all students, ranging from those with mild learning disabilities to those performing above grade level.
‘‘We pre-assess the students in the beginning of the year, and if their needs can’t be met in the classroom, we either pull them out or bring additional instructors in,” she said.
New programs include the institution of Personal Digital Assistants, or PDAs, for students who are not well organized and special workshops for new students.
One of the school’s signature programs, instruction on etiquette, has been expanded to include social skills and interviewing techniques.
The school offers other programs ranging from fine arts (piano and violin) to soccer and basketball teams.
Several community service projects are planned for the school year, including a 6-mile run to raise money, working with the Kennedy-Krieger Institute on activities with disabled children, and a canned food drive.
The school will host a Fall Festival on Oct. 14, open to the community and geared especially towards pre-teens.
‘‘We’re very excited about this school year, and how we have grown,” Hogan said. ‘‘We’ve grown program-wise, but we can’t wait to grow physically.2
St. John’s Episcopal School
Despite competition from other local private schools, enrollment numbers are up at St. John’s Episcopal School in Olney.
Headmaster John Zurn said the school has 314 students in grades kindergarten through eight.
Because of the competition, Zurn said the school is focusing on ‘‘defining themselves more tightly” to create an even better school, and in doing so have visited 23 schools across the country as part of a national school research project.
‘‘We have great teachers, great academics, a strong sense of community, a strong sense of building character, and are focused on preparing our students for the future,” he said. ‘‘We try very hard to focus on continual improvement.”
The school is also focusing on technology this year.
The students will communicate with students in 15 different countries.
‘‘They will engage other cultures and work together,” he said. ‘‘This is just one way will use technology to enhance learning.”
The school recently received three grants that will be used for the global technology program, developing a writing program and improving differential instruction to reach out to students with different learning styles.
The seventh-graders are looking forward to a four-day field trip to Wallops Island in Virginia, following six weeks of class preparation studying the ecology of the barrier island, he said.
Zurn said that all students would work on community service projects throughout the year and continue to attend regular chapel services.
‘‘We have a lot of exciting things going on in our church right now for youth and families, so we want to also focus on better connecting the church and school,” he said.
Sandy Spring Friends School
Sandy Spring Friends School began the school year with 560 students, the highest enrollment in the school’s history.
‘‘We’re very happy about that,” said Karl Gedge, assistant head of external relations. ‘‘We’ve seen a significant increase in boarding and international interest, which I attribute to the educational environment in Asia being unreasonably competitive, causing a lot of those students to flock to America.”
The student population in pre-kindergarten through grade 12 includes approximately 40 boarders and 32 international students this year.
The school, which was founded in 1961 on Quaker principles, reports that 78 of the students consider themselves Quaker.
Gedge said that all of the major campus construction projects are now complete, with the exception of a new entrance on Norwood Road.
Construction on the new entrance, which will feature additional lanes and decorative stone walls, is expected to begin later this fall.
‘‘We’re also adding a butterfly garden and a meditation garden, and other beautification projects,” he said.
School officials are awaiting approval to build an Earth House, which will serve as a new faculty house.
‘‘It will be built from bricks made on our campus, and will be very green,” he said. ‘‘It will rely on solar energy and have a landscaped roof.”
Gedge said that the school’s program offerings remain the same, but the intersession projects that the students choose to participate in will offer different opportunities.
‘‘We have very local projects such as Habitat for Humanity, or very distant projects, such as group that is planning to go to the Amazon rainforest,” he said.
For more
For more information on Olney Adventist Preparatory School, located at 4100 Olney-Laytonsville Road, call 301-774-7733 or visit www.olneyprep.org.
For more information on St. John’s Episcopal School, located at 3427 Olney-Laytonsville Road, call 301-774-6804 or visit www.stjes.com.
For more information on Sandy Spring Friends School, located at 16923 Norwood Road, call 301-774-7455 or visit www.ssfs.org.
