Often Asked Questions About Grove Christian School
At GCS, we meet and exceed state standards for each class and course and we do so with a Biblical worldview for our K-12 students. For our preschool students, we use the Virginia Foundation Blocks for early education and we also meet and exceed these as well with a Biblical worldview. Throughout our program, the Bible is taught as a class and incorporated with discipleship and service experiences. As we design for instruction we have four pillars we address to meet the needs of the whole child – spiritual, intellectual, social and physical. We define ourselves as a specialty school – a Leadership Academy for Christ. Our vision is to develop leaders for Christ to transform generations and nations. To facilitate this vision, we incorporate 21st Century learning skills directly into our plan for instruction.
The Virginia Council for Private Education recognizes that Grove Christian School is accredited by the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) and AdvancED and is recognized as fully accredited by the Virginia Council for Private Education as authorized by the Virginia Board of Education. Please see our FAQ’s about Accreditation if are interested in learning more about GCS accreditation.
All teachers have at least a bachelor’s degree and over 1/3 of our faculty have advanced degrees. All teachers are required to achieve licensure through ACSI as a condition of employment and the teachers are strongly encouraged and supported to achieve and maintain state licensure in Virginia.
Our school day starts at 8:10 and ends at 3:15 for our Prek-5th grade students. Half-Day preschool students leave at 12:15. For our 6-12th grade students, the school day ends at 3:30. Before and aftercare are available.
Our lower school students enjoy specialty classes that include art, music, STEM, physical education, and world language study. Our upper school students have options that include creative writing, linguistics, worship arts, fine arts, culinary and practical arts, STEM, media arts, strength and conditioning, American Sign Language, and yearbook/journalism. Technology is an integrated tool for learning at GCS. Beginning with the 2020-21 school year, GCS K-12 students will be one-to-one with technology. Upper school students own or rent laptops; 4th and 5th-grade students utilize Chromebooks; and K-3rd grade students use tablets. Students are taught digital literacy and digital responsibility through a prescribed technology use policy.
We offer student services support through guidance support that facilitates partnering with parents for individual student needs as well as middle school and high school course planning and resume building.
The maximum class size is 20 students for 1st – 12th grade. In kindergarten, the class maximum is 16 students. For preschool, the maximum class size is 10 students.