There are a wide variety of talents, learning styles, and personalities among Good Shepherd’s student body. But their lives at Good Shepherd do share some features in common.

For everyone here, the academic curriculum is rigorous. It’s designed to be challenging. Classes that are elective at other schools, such as PE, art, and music, are taught every day here. Our core courses include the usual math, science, language arts, social studies, and Spanish.

Everyone will be taught values such as gratitude, compassion, and tolerance. Good Shepherd is a faith-based school, rooted in the beliefs of the Episcopal church, and the values we teach have importance all across the curriculum. We hope to build lifelong belief systems that will sustain our students throughout their lives. And everyone here will come to know the freedom inherent in encouraging conversations about matters of faith—as opposed to not allowing those words to be spoken. At Good Shepherd, we start these conversations, but don’t always finish them. Our faith inspires and guides, and we believe by far opens more of the world to our students than it closes off.

Every student is encouraged to branch out, innovate, and figure things out for themselves. “Spirited self-discovery” is the goal, focusing on developing each child’s autonomy and confidence in their own decision making. We’ve always been committed to uplifting the child and building self-esteem, and believe we’ve found the best way to do that; less rigid structure and more space for children to learn in their own best ways. It’s the difference between telling them “Here’s what you will learn today” and asking them “What did you get out of the lesson today?” It’s less about the school and more about the student.