Throughout the Northern Virginia area are several extraordinary private schools dedicated to superior learning across all grades. Whether a family is seeking rigorous instruction, more individual attention or specialized programs, there are private schools that offer opportunities that may not be readily available through public schools. While the following is not an exhaustive list of schools in the area, they represent schools that have earned a reputation for quality instruction and nourishing development of inquisitive young minds.
Bright Horizons
Bright Horizons creates developmentally appropriate learning opportunities building upon individual strengths and talents that empower children to be confident, successful, lifelong learners.
Early childhood is a time of remarkable growth, when children are experiencing rapid development, learning new skills, and progressing steadily towards physical, intellectual, and social-emotional milestones. Children at Bright Horizons are assured of getting the care that they need, the creative learning experiences they enjoy, and the intellectually challenging opportunities they deserve.
Regional Manager Vallerie Tribble says “Bright Horizons has an extreme commitment to the growth and development of our children who are the center of our efforts. We focus on the whole picture, providing the best learning [environments and highly-qualified teachers and administrators in an effort] to create the best partnerships with our families. It is this connection among all groups that makes Bright Horizons stand out as a leader in early childhood development.”
Brooksfield
Brooksfield was developed to offer a Montessori curriculum enhanced by the power of discovery through the arts and the great outdoors. The Brooksfield philosophy is rich in exciting adventures and opportunities to develop abilities such as self-confidence, independent thinking, risk-taking, and curiosity.
Brooksfield encourages children to be confident in who they are and who they are becoming. Everyday provides a range of opportunities for children to grow into their potential and to express themselves in a natural, spontaneous fashion.
Congressional Schools of Virginia
Congressional Schools of Virginia offers a welcoming environment for families interested in providing the best possible education for their children.
Through an innovative and accelerated curriculum, the Congressional Schools prepare children to embrace the opportunities and responsibilities they will face as global citizens. The core curriculum is enriched with foreign languages, fine arts and athletics.
Congressional’s unique approach to education includes integrating study across disciplines as well as across grade levels, building relationships and a reassuring sense of continuity in their education.
Flint Hill School
A Flint Hill education focuses on the learner. Within a context of strong relationships, we create developmental experiences that embrace the best practices of traditional and contemporary education.
Different learning styles are recognized and personalized attention given; Learning how to learn, through mastery of critical thinking, problem solving and writing skills, is given as much attention as mastery of subject matter.
The Flint Hill School experience is not merely a stepping stone to college, but one that has lifelong meaning and deep satisfaction. Headmaster John Thomas explains, “Flint Hill’s dynamic learning environment prepares students for success in a rapidly-changing world. Our teachers are committed to inspiring, encouraging and supporting every student to think deeply, engage in substantive interactions, and participate in meaningful conversation. Our students are nurtured toward achieving their personal best while remaining mindful of others and building lasting relationships with their instructors and peers.”
Green Hedges School
Green Hedges School provides an experience that emphasizes core academic subjects, foreign languages, the arts and athletics, while supporting the overall growth of the students.
A balance between academics and the arts and a whole child approach permeates the school culture. Headmaster Bob Gregg adds, “Children enter schools with diverse sets of skills, perceptions and experiences. Yet, an independent school, by virtue of its “independence” from external governing forces, has the unique ability to celebrate these differences within the context of the school’s clearly defined core values. At Green Hedges, these values include Achieve Distinction, Commit to Character, Explore Opportunities and Become Yourself. The collective efforts at GHS embrace these themes and facilitate the creation and preservation of an environment where preschool, elementary and middle school children comfortably grow intellectually, emotionally, physically and spiritually.”
The Langley School
The Langley School creates a child-centered environment that is academically challenging and uniquely engaging. The curriculum is integrated across disciplines, developmentally appropriate, and multicultural.
The students blossom in a safe, structured, and academically rigorous community that enables intellectual risk-taking while promoting positive social and personal development. The Langley School celebrates the middle school years to ensure they are not simply a sandwiched transition between elementary and high school.
For every child the innovative and differentiated teaching is tailored to the different learning styles of the students. Students learn so much more than how to read, solve a math problem, speak Spanish, or use a microscope. Langley prepares students for a life of intellectual engagement and responsible citizenship.
Dr. Elinor Scully, Head of the School remarks, “What distinguishes Langley is our commitment to pre-school through eighth grade children. These are foundational years that can position a child to thrive at work and in the community. We underscore the intellectual, social and emotional development and have a curriculum that is designed to ensure each child’s success.
Tutoring Club
Tutoring Club of McLean provides tutoring in reading, writing, all levels of math and sciences, history, English, foreign languages, study skills, SAT/ACT prep and more. The friendly tutors and positive atmosphere are the perfect choice for helping students strive academically and gain self-confidence.
Parents and students have quickly grown to appreciate Tutoring Club of McLean’s warm, fun and nurturing environment, and frequently comment on the flexibility, customer-focus and results. Through daily actions and involvement in the community, the Tutoring Club also strives to educate children on how they can make a difference in the world in which they live.
Montessori of McLean
General objectives of the Montessori program are to: nurture self-confidence, independence, concentration, co-ordination, a sense of order, and an awareness of self, community and the world, to encourage and direct the natural desire to learn, choose and solve; and to provide a carefully prepared environment and personnel to support learning as it moves from the concrete base to greater abstraction.
The Primary (preschool/kindergarten) environment is divided into four main categories: practical life, sensorial exploration, language, and mathematics. The academic program also includes art, music, geography, science, history, foreign language, and physical education.
The rich Elementary curriculum includes mathematics, language, reading, grammar, writing, spelling, geography, history, technology, foreign language, and science.
Co-Head of School Meredith Wood offers, “Our mission is to nurture the whole child and to inspire an enduring love of learning that prepares children to live joyful lives as responsible, compassionate citizens, therefore contributing to a peaceful and benevolent society.”
Nysmith School
Combining “serious fun” with exceptional academics, Nysmith School motivates students to become their best selves academically and socially. Nysmith teachers have created an active, hands-on program where students role-play in social studies, dissect in science labs, discuss in language arts, and create in computer class. Methods are lively, engaging, and take advantage of students’ innate joy in discovery and learning. Classes are small so teachers and students can truly collaborate.
Ken Nysmith comments, “The reason people drive their children from Bethesda or Arlington to our school in Herndon is that we are so committed to diversifying the academics for the children to flourish. They typically perform at four levels above grade level. Nysmith School really meets the needs of our children in a loving and nurturing environment.”
Oakcrest
Oakcrest educates the whole person. Inspired by the teachings of the Catholic Church and the spirituality of Opus Dei, they weave together a rich liberal arts curriculum, character development, one-on-one advising and service to create a vibrant environment that graduates confident young women who will make a difference in all they choose to do.
Students at all-girls schools report having higher aspirations and greater motivation, being challenged to achieve more, engaging more actively in the learning process, feeling more comfortable being themselves and expressing their ideas. showing greater gains on core academic and life skills, being and feeling more supported in their endeavors.
Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic School
The School provides a Catholic education instilled with the spirituality of St. Francis de Sales. It is intended to “make your child’s faith a living, conscious, and active one through the light of instruction.” The integration of religious truth and values with life is the focal point of the curriculum. OLGC School strives for academic excellence, encourages appreciation of the fine arts, fosters self-respect and respect for all life, and attempts to develop responsibility for the total community.
Potomac School
The Potomac School prepares students to achieve academically and to live healthy, principled, and successful lives. Potomac faculty truly get to know each child – their interests and passions and what lights their intellectual fire, challenging students with a rigorous program of inquiry and study. Potomac graduates develop a framework for understanding the world and the skills and traits to succeed in it.
Head of School John Kowalik notes, “A Potomac School education is distinctive in many ways. I think immediately of the excellence of our teaching and the beauty of our wooded, 90-acre campus. One of our great strengths is the fact that Potomac is a K-12 school with all grade levels in one location; this creates exciting opportunities for collaboration and contributes to the strong sense of community for which our school is known.
“In addition to academic achievement, Potomac emphasizes character development and excellence in all dimensions of a student’s lifeThis is the promise of our mission– to prepare students to achieve academically, and to lead healthy, principled, and successful lives.”
