Letter from the Principal

Spring 2008

Dear Parents:

Thank you for looking at our GCCS website. We invite you to call and to visit us, to learn more about a school that provides a caring environment for students from age 1 through 8th grade.

What makes GCCS unique? So many things…

• We maintain a student teacher ratio at the elementary level of 16 to 1 and at the middle school level of 20 to 1.
• We work to provide balance for students – with recess and PE daily, water in classrooms, music, Spanish, art incorporated into academics, and efforts made to make learning fun yet structured and organized.
• We foster social and emotional development, including self control, empathy, problem solving, cooperation, and responsible decision making. We believe this fosters academic achievement.
• We stress character development, teaching students about respect, responsibility, thankfulness, self-motivation, kindness, etc. We use the Bible to teach about these, and then do service projects to help the students to apply them into their lives.
• We help students understand that bullying is not acceptable, and that serving as a bystander without reporting is wrong.
• We honor our country, and teach students to honor it.
• We teach leadership. Students are responsible for leading chapel each week, for leading the pledge over the intercom, etc.
• We guide students to find meaning and purpose in life, using Biblical principles.
• We follow the Sunshine State Standards as the guide for our curriculum accelerating them especially at the middle school level. Many 8th grade graduates leave ready to attend an International Baccalaureate if they so choose.
• We teach the academics, and do a great job with them! Approximately 60-70% of our students are on the honor roll or principal’s list every quarter, and our SAT scores are in the 70-80 percentile most years.
• Our graduates attend International Baccalaureate programs, other Christian schools, medical magnets, and local high schools. One principal gets excited when a GCCS graduate applies to his school, and has stated, “That’s where the smart kids come from!”
  Even though GCCS has these wonderful characteristics, there are some things we are not:
• Although we have PE daily, and offer intramurals for 5th-8th grades, we are not a sports school.
• Although we include art and music in our classes, and offer music twice weekly, and we have a Christmas and a spring musical each year, we are not a school of the arts.
• We are a school with loving and caring teachers who work with students to develop their God-given abilities. We are not a school for developmentally challenged students
• We use technology in our classrooms and expect our students to leave us with good basic skills in technology. We also use RenWeb, a web based program that allows our parents to access their child’s records at all times. However, we are not a school of technology.

GCCS is a caring environment that fosters the growth and development of a well rounded student. The mission of GCCS is to provide academic and Christian education using the best educational practices including innovative and traditional methods in order to guide students to grow and mature as Jesus did, “in wisdom and stature, in favor with God and men.” (Luke 2:52 NIV) May God guide us to this end.

Sincerely,
Linda G. Smock
Principal/CEO