Vail Mountain School

"DEVELOP CHARACTER; SEEK KNOWLEDGE; BUILD COMMUNITY". To achieve this goal, faculty at VMS are singularly focused on one thing--your child. They bring their passions into the classroom and develop deep, caring relationships that inspire a true love of learning. Our teachers pay close attention to the social, emotional and academic needs of each individual, adapting curricula and lessons that fuel the fire more than fill the bucket. Put simply, a good school knows your child by name, a great school knows your child by heart.

VMS is the only independent K-12 school in Eagle and Summit Counties and we embrace the freedom this provides. Our rigorous, globally inspired, college preparatory curriculum readies students for challenges both in and out of the classroom. The experience is enriched by athletics, independent projects, service learning, in-depth intraterm classes, winter hut trips, outdoor education, and Ski Fridays. We believe teachable moments are everywhere and we are bound neither by belief nor government mandate to teach in only one way. One size does not fit all, one size fits one.

Our community works and plays together, sharing a love for the active mountain lifestyle that defines us and that has converted countless visitors into lifelong residents. Our location is truly unique, enabling us to provide an education that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Outside our front door lies the world famous Vail ski resort. Just steps from our back door are trails that lead to majestic 13,000 foot peaks, mountain meadows filled with wildflowers, pristine waterfalls, and diverse ecosystems. Interstate 70 provides quick access to the learning opportunities of Denver and Boulder and the sublime desert playgrounds and rivers to the west.

Matching the beauty and elegance of our natural setting, our school community is housed in a state-of-the-art facility with design inspired as much by our beliefs about how learning best occurs in a K-12 environment as by aesthetic considerations. Lower, middle, and upper school classrooms are mixed throughout with abundant open common spaces to encourage cross-age interaction and give students room to move.

Operating on the principle that emotional stability is a requisite for academic success, students start each day at VMS with Homebase, a unique advisory forum designed to build community, strengthen character, and encourage ethical decision making. In partnership with parents, teachers help students confront problems, and set positive, proactive examples, challenging students to be their best in the classroom, on the playing field, online, and outside the school. We pride ourselves on celebrating individual achievements and supporting each other's struggles. The result is a caring community of engaged learners that supports the greatness in one through the strength of many.

Service to others is at the core of the VMS mission and one of the most important lessons we teach. Service is woven throughout our curriculum, with projects ranging from a second grade read-a-thon that raised money for a school in Uganda, to volunteering with local non-profits such as Habitat for Humanity. Other longstanding service traditions include serving at a Denver soup kitchen feeding the homeless and spending two days during the ninth grade Costa Rica trip helping improve conditions for residents of an extremely impoverished neighborhood in the nation's capital.

Many VMS students pursue interests outside of school that demand significant commitments of both time and energy. VMS faculty willingly work with students, parents and coaches to ensure that ski racers, athletes, musicians, and artists can compete, train, and perform without compromising academics. These students are expected to be scholars as well as athletes or artists, and we are committed to supporting the highest level of achievement in and out of the classroom. Students and parents keep up with schoolwork and grades via an online course-management system, and by working with two full-time support staff, one of whom is a former ski racer.

As a formal partner of of Ski and Snowboard Club Vail, VMS is staffed, prepared, and accustomed to ensuring the academic success of snowsport athletes, and to helping their parents with the logistics of competing while keeping abreast of schoolwork. VMS’s dedicated liaisons can assist with communication as much as with tutoring, and help students compete or perform internationally, stay on top of academic demands, and make friends at the same time. Few schools offer this level of attentive, proactive support.