Wheaton Academy

Wheaton Academy was founded in 1853 and continues as one of the oldest and most respected private Christian high schools in America. Wheaton Academy is characterized by high academic standards, Christian growth, a mature student culture, opportunities for leadership, a focus on service, a beautiful 50-acre college-style campus and consistently positive parent and student feedback.

Offering a rigorous college preparatory curriculum, an innovative January term, and comprehensive co-curricular programs. Students come from over 50 different denominations and nine different countries, offering diverse perspectives and insights that enrich student learning and Christian growth.

Students are spiritually challenged through the entire curriculum, weekly chapels, and co-curricular activities , as well as numerous opportunities to practice their faith through serving others. Our distinctives guide our curriculum as we seek to help students develop a biblical worldview and experience the integration of faith and learning in the various disciplines of study.

The mission of Wheaton Academy is to nurture growth in our students through relationships, excellence, and service to the glory of God.

• Growth: The Bible uses agricultural pictures to illustrate Christian growth and education. This organic imagery contrasts with the factory model of education that spawned the modern day high school. Our school’s roots go back to the colonial tradition of the academy. This was a specialty school focusing on life preparation for the individual student. In this context of a Christian Academy, we seek to see each student develop individually and uniquely so that they will, with God’s help, grow into the likeness of His Son.
• Relationships: We desire that each young person have a growing and personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. We desire that each student have caring relationships with parents, peers, and teachers. We believe that if a student is in a right relationship with God and those around him, then he can truly be in a right relationship with himself. These relationships also help young people to make the right choices during their high school years as they emerge from the turmoil of adolescence to the challenges of adult life.
• Excellence: Excellence in God’s eyes is doing one’s best. This is in contrast to the world’s standard of having to be the best. It is important in the development of self-esteem that goals be set at a challenging, but not impossible, level. As a young person experiences success from his or her best effort, even more, effort is exerted toward continued success. We believe in challenging students with this model of excellence so that they can achieve the goal of doing their best in their academic pursuits, extra-curricular activities and in their service to others.
• Service: Here we follow the example of Christ in helping each student toward a truly Christian world-view. The witness of Jesus Christ who came “not to be served, but to serve” stands in stark contrast to a society often characterized by indulgence and self-gratification. We believe that only in following God’s call to service can one find true fulfillment. It is also in following that call to service that one can also demonstrate leadership. Christ again becomes the model of a leader to whom we point our young people. As a school, we attempt to teach this by serving the students that are entrusted to us. We then can challenge them to serve others in their home, church, school, and community.
• To the Glory of God: The Bible instructs each believer to do everything to God’s glory. As a Christian school, we too must measure every activity by this high standard; does it bring glory to God? While the world may hold out many standards and definitions for relationships, excellence, and service, we have the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Spirit to help us define these missions in terms of what will ultimately grow young lives to the glory of God.

Our school’s tradition goes back to colonial times, long before the factory model of education spawned the modern high school. These early academics were “specialty ” schools providing for broad life preparation. We believe that this is still our responsibility – to provide broad life preparation spiritually, relationally, and academically. In order to do this, we have adopted rigorous standards to measure student accomplishment and challenge them to do their best in both the traditional core curriculum as well as more broadening educational components.

As a private school, we have tremendous flexibility in designing a curriculum that will meet the particular spiritual, social, as well as, academic needs of our students as they meet the ever-changing demands of the world in which they live. In designing this innovative curriculum, we continue to draw upon research and experience that helps us understand how different teaching styles can be used in the classroom. This combination of innovation and sound practice reflects our commitment to doing one’s best academically and helps us maximize the time spent with students both in and out of the classroom.