Parker School

Deciding where to send your child for his or her education can be a challenge. Our goal is to provide you with an authentic view of what the Parker School option is all about. The Parker experience is designed to prepare students for college and for life, in an environment where they feel accepted and supported.

Our faculty has worked hard to create an effectively integrated curriculum. This integration works vertically, where students progress smoothly in a particular subject from one year to the next. It also works horizontally, where the subjects that a student encounters in a particular year have been designed to fit together in a complementary way. We expect our graduates to be successful at the college level and beyond, so we accept the responsibility to provide the academic background to make this possible.

You will find that in the area of technology, Parker School is innovative and committed to providing students with the skills to succeed in the modern world. Students are first introduced to one-to-one technology in kindergarten, and personal tablets form the core of our educational methodology in grades 6-12. Our approach is to blend the substance of traditional education with the creative potential offered by technological learning tools. Every student learns differently, and technology provides significantly greater options to meet different learning styles.

At Parker School, every student is known, valued and nurtured. Our small-school setting and dynamic program foster confident, compassionate individuals who are thoroughly prepared for college, who enthusiastically engage in life and who positively contribute to an ever-changing global community.

Excellence, integrity and compassion are the cornerstones of Parker’s mission. We create an environment that cultivates the qualities necessary to succeed in an interconnected world: creativity, curiosity, resilience, constructive risk-taking and teamwork. Parker School graduates are lifelong learners who have the skills to work independently, yet are valuable team members who are compassionate and embrace diversity.

At Parker School, we believe that if nurtured in a positive, supportive environment, students are more apt to develop a love of learning and to strive to reach their highest potential. In a small school with small class sizes, students benefit from individualized attention and close relationships with our excellent, accessible teachers. Students are set up for success from the beginning and given clear expectations and encouragement every step of the way.

Along with our rigorous academic program in the classroom, kindergarten through 12th grade students frequently enjoy hands-on, experiential learning opportunities. Whether it’s the third graders on a whale watch adventure, middle schoolers learning about ocean safety on a field trip to the coast, or an upper school biology class taking soil samples high in a rain forest, we continually take advantage of our amazing island environment as an outdoor living classroom. Though the academic bar is set high at Parker, we believe in balance and encourage students to get involved and find their passions in athletics, arts, clubs and organizations, and community service opportunities as well.

Supported by iPads in middle school and by the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) program in upper school, our initiative allows students to enter the classroom anywhere, anytime and can readily meet the need for multiple learning styles. Our teachers use digital resources, educational apps, and interactive modalities as primary teaching tools.

All teaching at Parker aligns with national standards, a focus on excellence in all subject areas, and a specific progression of academic development. Teachers work with their department chairs to ensure that all enhancements and new strategies afforded by electronic devices continue to meet and enhance the scope and sequence for each subject area. As always, teachers work diligently with the tools they have to execute curriculum most effectively.

Our culture of empathy and responsibility begins in the lower school, where the Conscious Discipline approach is interwoven into the K-5 experience. Teachers guide students in communicating thoughtfully with one another, so that they become increasingly adept at navigating disagreements and self-regulating emotional responses. By fifth grade, students act as mediators for younger students’ disagreements, helping each other to resolve disputes compassionately and fairly.

Everyone matters in our school family. When disagreements arise, students endeavor to work out their differences or “give each other space.” New students are welcomed with excitement, brought into the fold and acculturated to the “Parker Way,” which eschews gossip, cliquiness and teasing. Our students convey our culture of patience, tolerance and celebration of individual differences to those new to the community. Our students feel a great warmth for one another and for their school, and this is the heart of Parker School, the cornerstone of the Parker School experience across all grades.