Why Frederica?
Why Frederica?
Why Frederica?
Frederica Academy is an independent school on Saint Simons Island serving students from Pre-Kindergarten through Twelfth grade.
Frederica Academy's mission is to maximize the potential of each student and to prepare every student for college and adult life through the development of mind, body, and spirit.
We invite you to watch our “Why Frederica Academy” video to see what makes Frederica such a special and meaningful place for our students, teachers, families, and community.
Frederica Academy is a premier Pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade college preparatory school on Saint Simons Island. It is the only NAIS School between Jacksonville and Savannah and it is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SAIS)/AdvancED. Our five decades have been founded on nurturing, enriching and preparing students for the grade levels that lie ahead and the life experiences that await. The bond that connects our caring faculty to students throughout their academic life adds profoundly to our students' preparedness.
A focus on each student is the hallmark of the Frederica Academy experience. Our student-teacher ratio of 8:1 ensures a learning environment that maximizes individual needs and potential. Academic Centers for each division offer customized support in every grade. In shaping life-long learners, we combine traditional classroom settings with innovative teaching methods.
Frederica brings the resources of larger schools to a small school setting. We offer 19 AP courses, college dual enrollment, and online learning for students. Integrated, technology-based programs, such as Chromebooks for all students in grades 1st-12th, and project-based learning initiatives prepare students for today's challenging college environments. Frederica students achieve significantly higher scores on tests that colleges value most: SAT, ACT. For the 2023-2024 school year, 89 students took one or more AP exams, for a total of 229 exams. Seventy-eight percent of students scored at least a three or higher on one or more AP exams. Twenty students received the distinction of AP Scholar, three AP Scholar with Honors, and thirteen AP Scholar with Distinction.
Our school is a vibrant and interconnected community of educators, learners, and experiences. Campus-wide relationships that connect ages and grades to promote opportunities to work and learn together are a tradition at Frederica Academy. Our integrated curriculum promotes seamless transitions for students from year to year.
Frederica develops the whole child to build responsible citizens for a better world. Respect, enthusiasm for learning, striving for achievement, developing and practicing effective communication skills, and demonstrating a steadfast commitment to Frederica's Honor Code are standards we uphold as a school community. This is the Frederica Promise.
Opportunities to make a difference. Frederica offers more than fifty extracurricular activities, many with community service components from environmental awareness, mentoring younger children, helping to build homes for Habit for Humanity, feeding the homeless, and much more.
Intentionally Small. Small class sizes at Frederica allow for personalized one-on-one attention and individualized instruction for each student.
Honor. All Students at Frederica are expected to live by an Honor Code. Students in Middle & Upper School are expected to sign the Frederica Academy Honor Code at a special assembly each fall - “On my honor, I have neither given nor received help of any kind on this work.”
Participate, not just spectate. Our students are given the opportunity to play all sports beginning in sixth grade. Frederica maintains a “no cut” policy ensuring that all students can become involved in a sport. Frederica Academy is the home of Gatorade’s High School Female Athlete of the Year, Morgan Brian ’11.
Frederica's promise. To provide your student with inspiring teaching and coaching, we promise to make each student feel safe in this academic environment – safe to learn, safe to be curious, safe to BE. We promise to help each student develop in mind, body, and spirit.
Why an Independent School?
Independent Schools Meet the Needs of Their Families
All parents seek exceptional schools for their children. They want those schools to have excellent teachers and a commitment to a strong academic program. They want teachers to help their children learn the importance of hard work, personal responsibility and good citizenship. They are seeking a safe community that offers structured opportunities for personal and social growth. Each year, millions of parents find all of these important elements in independent schools. These parents recognize the lifelong returns of an independent school education.
Independent Schools Value Quality over Quantity
Independent schools have a commitment to providing small learning environments that have BIG goals. It is difficult for children to hide from a challenge or lose themselves in the shuffle. Teachers have time to monitor the most subtle indictors of performance such as facial expressions or lapses in attention. Small class sizes allow teachers to give students of average ability individual, personalized attention and careful, ongoing assessment, thus helping them achieve more than they normally would.
Independent Schools Recognize Their Faculty as Teaching Experts
Independent School teachers have greater influence in establishing curriculum than either public or parochial school teachers do. They understand that students have multiple intelligences and different styles of learning. Independent schools value the importance of faculty development and support their teachers' academic endeavors. Creativity and flexibility in teachers is fostered, which in turn helps ensure all students reach their full potential.
Independent Schools Offer a Rigorous, Balanced Curriculum
Independent School curriculums emphasize mastery of core knowledge at an early age followed by the acquisition of advanced skills in math and languages. Students are taught essential life skills by taking on leadership roles and new responsibilities, going beyond academics to develop responsible, independent and community-minded students. The importance of giving back to the community is highly valued and most independent schools require students to complete community service as a condition of graduation. Independent Schools help transform young people into healthy active and engaged adults.
Independent Schools Are Committed to Diversity
Independent Schools recognize that students from various backgrounds enrich learning communities by contributing multiple talents and life perspectives. They believe that a diverse learning environment prepares all students for productive careers in the global workplace of the 21st century.
This information was compiled from the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) publication, Values Added: Lifelong Returns of an Independent School Education and may be seen in its entirety at www.nais.org.