FAQS
You’ve Got Questions. We’ve Got Answers
Check out a few of the most common questions our school has received below. Hopefully you can find the answer you’re looking for. If not, let us know and we’ll do our best to find out for you. Every question and comment is important to us, no matter how simple or complex, so don’t hesitate in contacting us.
WHY SHOULD WE CHOOSE YOUR SCHOOL?
Choose Ambleside School if you want to foster a robust learning experience and self-discipline in your student. From detailed Science diagrams, rigorous Mental Math and Grammar, to Composer and Artist Studies and our annual Shakespeare Festival, students grow mentally, socially, and emotionally into young people who look adults in the eye and carry themselves with poise.
Ambleside School of Marion partners with Ambleside Schools International a community of educators practicing a Charlotte Mason pedagogy. There are over 20 schools around the world using a similar curriculum and sharing training and leadership resources.
HOW IS AMBLESIDE DIFFERENT FROM A CLASSICAL SCHOOL?
In the use of great books, profound thinkers, and foundational skills for learning, Ambleside is similar to classical schools. Our view of the child’s mind is different from that of many classical schools. Is the mind a vessel to be filled, or a spiritual organism with an appetite for all knowledge? The trivium used in many classical schools approaches the mind as a vessel to be filled, and segments knowledge into a grammar stage, a logic stage, and a rhetoric stage. At Ambleside, we see the mind as an immature, but complete spiritual organism. Our curriculum emphasizes ideas, not information, and integrates the elements of the trivium into every grade level. While we acknowledge the developmental sensitivities as children pass from one stage to another, we believe the child is capable of acquiring skills and cultivating higher order thinking throughout childhood.
WHAT DIFFERENTIATES YOUR SCHOOL FROM ALL OTHERS?
We use the Charlotte Mason philosophy to develop habits of learning in a non-competitive but stimulating academic atmosphere where students are guided to be in relationship with God, self, and others.
Daily oral or written narrations allow each child to think about a text. Through asking why and how, students are active, not passive learners. Memory retention and mental focus improve and each student feels valued under this method.
Each grade is capped at sixteen students, so every child talks and is known by the teacher and their peers.
Few students own a cell phone and none are permitted in class.
Our students work hard during the day so their afternoons are free to enjoy time outdoors, participate in sports, or pursue a hobby. Any work at home is purposeful and limited.
HOW DO AMBLESIDE STUDENTS DO ON STANDARDIZED TESTS?
As a whole, students at Ambleside perform two grades above their level.
HOW DOES AMBLESIDE CHALLENGE THE GIFTED CHILD?
Our books contain rich vocabulary and complex ideas. We cover over 16 subjects a week in each grade. The curriculum at Ambleside is challenging for students and adults alike. We do not define our students by their gifted areas because our focus is to educate the whole person, both strengths and weaknesses.
Ambleside is founded on the belief that all children have the ability to take something from the rich feast of ideas offered by our curriculum; if the food for the mind is nourishing and abundant, the gifted mind will flourish all the more.
WHAT CURRICULUM DOES AMBLESIDE USE?
A collection of the best editions of a wide variety of books has been assembled by an international team of educators. Each year our resources are further critiqued and evaluated through a collaborative effort of all schools within the Ambleside Schools International network. Our curriculum includes classical literature, biographies, poetry and primary source material for history and science in addition to narrative. Math, grammar and other disciplinary subjects are taught sequentially, precept upon precept, through the aid of quality textbooks.
WHAT IS NARRATION? WHY IS IT EMPHASIZED SO MUCH?
Narration, in simplest terms, is “telling back” whatever has been read, seen, or heard. A student who narrates is asked to use the author’s own language, sequence and detail in their retelling, not in a parroted way, but in a way that makes the material their own.
Narration is used in all subjects, including the disciplinary ones. Narration is a simple, yet powerful tool for the development of the mind. As a result, children learn to listen to the thought of the author and acquire knowledge from books; select, sort, and classify ideas; supply both the question and the answer; visualize; express themselves readily, fluently and with vitality; assemble knowledge into a form that can criticize, hold an opinion, or bring one thought to bear upon another.
We narrate — in some way — most lessons. Examples of narration include using manipulatives to illustrate equivalent fractions; diagramming the parts of a dissected mushroom; or providing examples of “prevarication” in a class on ethics.
WHY DOES AMBLESIDE COVER SO MANY SUBJECTS?
Ambleside covers 16 subjects a week because our philosophy is to spread a rich feast, to offer many avenues for learning, and to allow the mind of the child to appropriate knowledge. Subjects are taught in short lessons so that the habit of attention can be developed. Poetry, literature, phonics, read aloud, dictation, composition and grammar might, in another school, be grouped under Language Arts. In the same way, World and American history, citizenship, geography might all be grouped under Humanities.
WHY DO YOU NOT GIVE GRADES?
Actually, we give more than grades at Ambleside. Teachers assess students daily in narration and conduct, and weekly in math and writing. Our students receive an extensive narrative evaluation of their academic as well as their character development twice a year. In addition, twice yearly our students have essay exam periods that are an important educational evaluative tool at Ambleside. The reports of progress and the exams are further supplemented by Parent/Teacher conferences where the parents and teachers discuss strengths and weaknesses and strategize on ways to partner and support a student’s growth.
Our goal is for students to be engaged learners, more interested in gaining knowledge than in getting a good grade. We have found greater understanding and learning happens when our students search their papers for teachers’ comments rather than glance at the grade and feel satisfied or discouraged. We would rather put before our students the challenge of doing their best work, than the contentment of getting the grade they wanted. In our classrooms students rarely ask, “Do we need to know this?” They simply apply themselves to learning.
HOW MUCH HOMEWORK CAN I EXPECT?
All students are required to complete 30 minutes of reading every day. In addition, students may have other work (math, phonics, grammar).
HOW DO YOU HANDLE DISCIPLINE ISSUES?
We have a school-wide discipline policy that is published in our handbook. Students are expected to come to school ready to learn and respond to the authority of the teacher. Our desire is to train students in habits and to support their weakness in every way possible. Natural consequences are used as much as possible for inappropriate behavior (for example, undone homework results in after school study hall) with a goal of reconciliation and restoration.
Classroom interventions, a conversation in the hall, jogging instead of playing at recess, a visit to the principal are all strategies used in training our students. If a student is unresponsive to the teachers or administration, the child may be sent home. Consistent difficulties in discipline generate a broadened discussion to determine whether the partnership between the school and the parent is strong enough to continue to educate the child.
WHAT GUIDELINES DO YOU USE IN HIRING TEACHERS?
Teachers who wish to apply at Ambleside are required to have an undergraduate degree and complete a rigorous application and interview process. Knowledge of the Ambleside philosophy is a great benefit. In general, teachers at Ambleside must be hard workers, organized, creative, thoughtful, engaged learners with broad interests and educational knowledge. Teachers who thrive at Ambleside enjoy ideas, read regularly, and are passionate about our philosophy.
WHAT KIND OF TRAINING DO INCOMING TEACHERS RECEIVE?
Teachers are required to undergo intensive training in the Ambleside Method of education through amblesideschools.com. In addition, we offer frequent classroom observations, in-service training, and peer mentoring.
WHAT IS YOUR REQUIREMENT FOR PARENT INVOLVEMENT HOURS?
Our parent volunteers are a critical aspect of our community. We desire to give the parents an opportunity to partner in the education of their children and to give students the opportunity to interact with the broader school community. There is a broad range of opportunities that fit each family’s gifts and abilities. Parents are asked to volunteer twelve hours a year.
