Welcome

SFCS – A School By Design

Have you ever wondered what our schools would look like if we were given a clean slate to "invent" the idea today? I suspect the final concept would be very different than the way students are taught in many cases. Both public and private education today, is the result of years...decades if you will, of quick fixes and add-ons. There are notable exceptions of course, but by and large schools are based on an inherited organization instead of a model that is based on the best research across disciplines. It is school by default.

The vision we have here at Shannon Forest Christian School (SFCS) is to have a school by design. This means that the steps we take to create this design are carefully considered, based on current research and are those that address the needs of today's students. The challenge we face is to constantly strive to ensure that what we do is relevant to helping us produce the results we desire – students prepared for life. The big question, however, is...how does a school founded in the last century stay relevant in 2010 and into the future? At SFCS we work daily to achieve the following:

1. Build innovation into our school's DNA
2. Encourage, require and reward teachers to stay current on the best practices in their content area
3. Continually benchmark our student's performance against local, state and national levels
4. Emphasize quality in everything we do.

Obviously this is a large undertaking, but we are committed to improving, molding and succeeding in our school's design. An ancient Chinese proverb says "the longest journey starts with a single step." SFCS has taken the first steps and we would love to have you join our journey.

Sincerely,

Bob Collins
SFCS President

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Dear SFCS Parents:

June has been an extremely hectic, but productive month as commitments made to enhance the learning environment for our students are well underway. The following enhancements will greet our students when they begin the 2010/2011 school year:

•   Increased technological efficiency, capacity and innovation.
•   Independent Study opportunities for our seniors will provide new academic challenges
    and a means of pursuing their academic passions.
•   SFCS parents and junior/senior students will be provided opportunities to be a
    component of the evaluation process utilized for courses and faculty performance.
•   The playground relocation for our youngest students has begun and the
    Early Childhood Building has undergone a much needed facelift.
•   The consolidation of parent and student services to enhance efficiency and ease of
    access to constituents is being launched.

As we seek to shore up and enhance our four pillars of Academic Excellence: Fine Arts exposure; Athletic competitiveness and Service, we will re-implement the seven period day in both the Middle School and the High School for the 2010-2011 school year.
There are several factors that have led to this decision:

• We have found the 90 minute period to be largely underutilized. Block scheduling has not been covering two times the material, but in some cases has watered down the content of the curriculum.
• Longitudinal studies comparing the traditional and block methods of scheduling are also providing mixed results. Although students have a very positive perception of the block schedule, the actual impact on student achievement has been mixed and in some scenarios student scores actually went down.
• Cognitive research by Frank Emptier and Roger Farris (1990), Walberg (1993), Czaja and McGee (1995) and Wild (1998) found that students learn more effectively in smaller instructional units with time in between units of instruction.
• A national study by Adam Maltese, Kersten Dexter, Robert Tai and Philip Sadler (2007) found that classes meeting on a block schedule had on average, 22% less in-class time than those in the traditional schedule.
• SFCS students are heavily involved in extra curricular activities. Class absences from the 90 minute block have become cumbersome. In the fall and spring, when nature often leads to additional missed classes, our students often face missing a literal week of class in a two-day period.
• Research shows that the attention spans of students are actually reducing, creating an incompatibility with the 90 minute block schedule.
• We continue to battle the amount of homework students become encumbered with, even though the evidence suggests we have not covered two times the material, it appears that students often received two times the homework.
• Size does matter. Shannon Forest Christian School is committed to placing qualified professional instructors in front of your children. For a smaller Middle School and High School program, the 7 period day is academically practical, fiscally responsible and in the current best interest of our students and faculty.

 2010-2011 Upper School Bell Schedule

High School				Middle School
1st	8:00 am – 9:00 am	60		1st	8:00 am - 9:00 am	60
2nd	9:05 am – 9:55 am	50		2nd	9:05 am – 9:55 am	50
3rd	10:00 am – 10:50 am	50	CHAPEL	3rd	10:00 am – 10:50 am	50
LUNCH	10:55 am – 11:25 pm	30		4th	10:55 am – 11:45 pm	50
4th	11:30 pm – 12:20 pm	50		LUNCH	11:50 pm – 12:20 pm	30
5th	12:25 pm – 1:15 pm	50		5th	12:25 pm – 1:15 pm	50
BREAK	1:15 pm – 1:30 pm	15		6th	1:20 pm - 2:10 pm	50
6th	1:30 pm - 2:20 pm	50		BREAK	2:10 pm - 2:25 pm	15
7th	2:25 pm - 3:15 pm	50		7th	2:25 pm - 3:15 pm	50

Chapel Schedule

Chapel will be held during third period on Wednesdays.  The bell schedule will remain the same except the classes will rotate.

Sincerely,

Brenda K. Hillman
Director of Academic Affairs