New private school opens in Annandale church

The sign on the right invites parents to enroll their children in the Village School.

Classes will be held at leased space in St. Alban’s Episcopal Church on Columbia Pike. The first day of school is Sept. 4.

The Village School is connected to the Acton Academy network, which uses a mixed-age approach. It will have about 10 kindergartners and first-graders in one studio and about 10 students in grades 2-5 in another.

Every year, students will explore a different question through their learning activities, says Director Lauren Quinn, a former teacher at Parklawn Elementary School. This year’s question will be: “What does it mean to be human?”

Teachers, known as “guides,” will direct elementary students through a series of “quests.” The first quest this year will be “building the tribe,” Quinn says, which will focus on community building and will include a field trip to an outdoor park with a challenge course.

For the second quest, on entrepreneurship, the school will host a children’s business fair. Additional quests will focus on coding and robotics, writing and performing a play, designing a playground, and creating a community garden.

The younger students will learn to “manage themselves independently,” Quinn says. “We will do some projects that emerge from students’ interests.”

Local artists will come the Village School throughout the year to serve as art guides. The first one will be painter Nataliya Gurshman.

The school day is 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Quinn is working on setting up before and after-school childcare. Tuition is $12,420 for all ages

Friday afternoons will be set aside for “passion projects,” such as outings and optional workshops in music or other programs. Incorporating those activities into the school day will mean more family time for parents, Quinn says. And here’s something children will like – there’s no homework.