At Free Union, learning is...
everywhere
At Free Union, learning is...
joyful
At Free Union, learning is...
challenging
At Free Union, learning is...
independent
At Free Union, learning is...
shared
At Free Union, learning is...
messy
At Free Union, learning is...
eye-opening
At Free Union, learning is...
for all ages
At Free Union, learning is...
outdoors
We are a progressive, independent elementary school, serving eager learners in preschool through fifth grade near Charlottesville, Virginia.
The school philosophy begins with the child at the center. Natural curiosity, creativity, and eagerness to explore are powerful forces that drive learning.
Our goal is to spark a love of learning and provide an academic and social foundation that will serve each student today and well into tomorrow.
Progressive education at Free Union is distinguished by a number of research-based ideas: students who learn by doing, teachers who ask rather than tell, a community that nurtures growth in character as well as intellect, and a fundamental understanding that students are individuals who arrive with their own interests, preconceptions, and preparedness to tackle certain tasks.
When your kid hops in the car after school and wishes you a very happy Poem in Your Pocket Day and hands you this little scroll of sweetness & sanity and you feel your whole body relax, that’s when you realize that a "place" can be a hero. My kids’ school is one of my heroes - consistently bringing happiness, peace, love, & community in the smallest, humble ways that matter immensely. (Repost courtesy of @twiggsphoto)
This spring in tangents class, students explore some of the properties of water. They've used a kiddie pool to test the hydrodynamics of various boat designs. It’s an exciting example of learning-by-doing as students build boats powered by rubber bands and wind, and wade into elementary physics and mechanical engineering.
The Free Book Bus, encouraging kids to have home llbraries and book collections, is a perfect entree to third graders' study of what it takes to make a difference in their communities. Students interview local "change makers," consider how their areas of service overlap their own interests and passions, brainstorm ways of raising start-up capital, and begin to devise tangible ways of helping and putting their ideas into the world.
The purpose of any club (rocketry, chess, ecology) is to bring students together to learn about something that matters to them. The Free Union Book Club gives kids the chance to discover what types of books interest them most. Often, children are slow to make reading an integral part of their lives because they simply are not aware of what is available to them. When they discover a genre that excites them, they welcome spending time in those new literary worlds.
A plant sale is a way for students to understand up close the growth cycle of living things and the math behind a business: cost to grow, price to sell, and profit to use responsibly. Students also learn about customer service and begin to understand entrepreneurship.
In order to sharpen their writing skills, fifth graders have been researching and writing a school newspaper. Different from storytelling, news reporting offers essential information at the top, often in the first sentence. This straight-forward approach is called the inverted pyramid model of writing, where instead of ending with a conclusion as in a story, you start with one. See more at our Instagram account or Facebook page.
How does a teacher come to understand the uniqueness of each student? Kindergarten teacher Christine says it takes time. The first step is coming to really know and understand children as individuals. She uses authentic, ongoing assessments to determine where each child is academically and socially so she can meet them where they are and help them stretch to take their next steps. See more at our Instagram account or Facebook page.
As important as reading and writing are to kindergartners, so is encouraging them to use their minds to create and perhaps build their own inventions. Marisa prompts kids to solve problems through innovative thinking, whether figuring how to prop open a window, how to stay dry in a rainstorm, or how to build a playhouse from scraps. Creative problem solving, improvisation, flexibility, and tinkering drive the inventive spirit.
In John's class, we learned of Johannes Kepler's discovery of elliptical planetary orbits. How do you find the two foci of an elipose? All you need is chalk, some rope, a little elementary algebra, and a few willing students. You can find more posts by following our Instagram Account or liking our Facebook Page
Something you may not know about Tim from Alison Lubin's excellent introduction (read more) is his belief that student academic and social growth is enhanced when they feel they belong. During his interviews for the position, Tim observed quickly that Free Union creates immediate avenues to belonging by enabling students to refer to staff by their first names. In the coming days we will share with you Tim's experience in education leadership and pedagogy. But first...
Illustrated and dictated by Kindergarteners and read by 5th graders, this video book in four entertaining minutes reveals the heart and soul of our School.
... in subsequent indoor classroom engagement. Although it was once thought that time outdoors, even recess, would leave students keyed up and unable to focus when they returned for indoor classroom lessons, precisely the reverse seems to be true. The research paper suggests that schools like Free Union and many in Scandinavia confer advantages to growth and learning across the curriculum through instruction outdoors and indoors that the vast majority of schools in the United States are yet to embrace. More to follow!
Planning to enroll your child in a new school is a complex decision that typically is motivated by the following advantages found in private elementary schools:
Among the best advice about changing schools that we have read is included in the 4 reasons your child may be ready to switch schools.
Journey Group, a local consulting entity with clients like The Nature Conservancy, the US Postal Service, the Smithsonian Institution, and now Free Union Country School, helped us understand ourselves and create a logo or symbol that sums up:
The bright pop of color, the design element that echoes block shapes, and the quickly recognizable nature of the graphic coupled with the list above made sense.
P.O. Box 250
Free Union, VA 22940
Send us email
Phone 434-978-1700
Fax 434-214-6503
Copyright , Free Union Country School. Website by Anne Campbell Design. Staff Login
Free Union Country School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or national or ethnic origin in its staffing, admissions, tuition assistance, educational policies, and extracurricular or other programs.
Free Union Country School is a member of the Progressive Education Network.