School Approach and Philosophy

We will serve “The Whole”: the Whole Child, the Whole Family, and the Whole Teacher.

Whole Child Approach

  • Children are the center of our model: their wellbeing, education, and social and emotional health
  • Providing the best education
  • Supporting the integration of PT, OT, Speech, Exec Functioning, Social Skills

To unlock our student’s Promise, we must unlock and overcome some of their challenges

  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Low Self-Esteem
  • ADHD

As such, our approach incorporates and accommodates their growth in other key areas including, but not limited to

  • PT, OT
  • Speech and language
  • Executive functioning
  • Social skills
  • Counseling

What does early, and integrated intervention for Learning Differences help to deliver?

  • Improved academic outcomes
  • Greater opportunity for higher education and better-paying jobs
  • Those with (learning disabilities) learning differences can Earn 33-50% less than peers without LD.
  • Reduced need for long-term, costly services
  • Increased productivity: being better equipped to succeed in the workplace.
  • Improved quality of life and greater economic and social stability

The Whole Family

Parenting is stressful and that stress elevates as you look to support your children’s unique needs. These forces often collide into what we call, “The Stress Web”

  • Finding the right educational home
  • Affording the education and other required interventions
  • Emotional challenges and blame (for passing on dyslexia)
  • Social Isolation: many folks don’t understand the challenges of supporting dyslexic learners and their developmental needs. As such, we often pull back rather than having to explain or compensate.
  • Other siblings can be impacted by our children with LD—frustration, lack of attention etc.
  • Navigating the complex web of healthcare needs and services is hard.

To help support parents, and caregivers, we are building some basic parent supports. These include, but are not limited to

  • Navigation services and support for the areas most trusted providers
  • Parent Education/O-G Bootcamps
  • Incorporating other services and support during the school day and immediately following to reduce stress.
  • Parent support groups
  • Date Night: Monthly activity at school so you can grab some much-needed socializing without kids!
  • Open to additional ideas and suggestions.

Whole Teacher

We must treasure, respect, develop, and compensate our educators to our fullest ability. Research demonstrates that happy teachers produce

  • Better academic outcomes
  • Higher attendance
  • Improved behavior

We also know what drives teacher happiness?

  • Smaller workloads
  • Job autonomy
  • Professional development
  • Competitive compensation

Our educator model is built to deliver

  • Competitive wages and benefits
  • Small classroom
  • Multi-layered professional development
  • On-going paid O-G training

Teacher Experience

  • We will hire the best teachers and administrators.
  • We are hiring teachers with a depth of experience. This includes but is not limited to public and private schools, Orton-Gillingham, and Montessori instruction.
  • All our teachers are or will be credentialed and trained by several local Orton-Gillingham Academy Fellows.
  • Our staff consists of Classroom Educators, Associate, and Certified Level teachers. We are passionate about continuing OG training for our staff. The Promise will ensure the standards of OGA are upheld.