Academics & Curriculum

Curriculum & Education at Spartanburg Prep

Spartanburg Preparatory School combines strong academics with social and emotional development for each child. Our curriculum respects students’ developing ideas about how the world works and encourages them to question, consider and refine their understanding of the social and natural world. Our character education program is designed to help students develop skills that are central for healthy social and emotional development such as empathy, impulse control, respect, and problem-solving.

 

Spartanburg Prep was the first brick-and-mortar charter school in Spartanburg. We opened to provide an alternative to other public schools, a place where children could thrive academically in a caring environment. Our curriculum goes beyond state standards to challenge and enrich our students. Some unique academic offerings at Spartanburg Prep include:

  • Honors program, QUEST, for students in K-8. We also offer Honors classes in middle school.
  • Spanish and Chinese language lessons starting in kindergarten. 
  • Weekly music and art classes for all students. 
  • In middle school, students can choose their electives.
  • Field trips, including the 5th grade trip to Barrier Island.

Inquiry-Based Curriculum

Spartanburg Prep utilizes inquiry-based teaching methods to develop critical thinking skills while teaching specific content knowledge. We recognize a child’s need for opportunities to ask their own questions, study their answers, and revise or modify their thinking. Our educational philosophy is based upon the following set of principles: 

  • Children must have some control over the direction of their learning. 
  • Children must be able to learn through experiences of touching, moving,  listening, seeing, and hearing.  
  • Children have a relationship with other children and with material items  in the world that they must be allowed to explore.  
  • Children must have endless ways and opportunities to express themselves.

Projects will play a major role in the curriculum. Project ideas are derived from student interest. They involve investigation, expression, reinvestigation, and more expression. Projects are not done because students will be tested and graded on them; they are done because children are motivated to learn.

Social and Emotional Learning

Social and Emotional Learning

Social and emotional learning will be taught weekly/biweekly and is focused on social-emotional development. The curriculum is designed to reduce aggression and promote social competence. Students will develop skills that are central for healthy social and emotional  development such as empathy, impulse control, problem solving, and anger management. The program will also focus on ideals such as, but not limited to, the following: personal integrity and honesty, respect, trustworthiness, patriotism, citizenship, compassion, and pride.

Single-Gender Classrooms

Single-Gender Classrooms

Spartanburg Prep will provide a single-gender education for core instruction*. Research supports that both boys and girls perform significantly better in single-gender classrooms. Students are more likely to be better behaved, find learning more enjoyable, the curriculum more relevant, and have a significantly more positive attitude toward learning. Students are also found to have higher educational aspirations, more confidence in their abilities, develop better organizational skills, and are more involved in the classroom activities. 

*Some middle-school honors classes may be co-ed.

Instruction Advancement & Intervention

Instruction Advancement & Intervention

Each student’s daily schedule will include intervention or advancement time. SPS will provide high quality instruction and intervention matched to each students’ needs. Teachers will monitor progress frequently to make decisions about change in instruction or goals, and apply child response data to important educational decisions, such as need for remediation or advancement. Lack of progress will lead to change in intervention.

 

 

Spartanburg Prep School Report Card

 

ELEMENTARY REPORT 2022-23

MIDDLE SCHOOL REPORT 2022-23

Questions?

If you have any questions about academics at Spartanburg Prep, please email Principal Hannah Holmes.

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