The Little School at The Orme School of Arizona
Located on I-17 between Camp Verde and Cordes Junction
Enrolling Now for 2009 – 2010!
The Orme School of Arizona Little School serving children in grades K-5 has openings for the 2009-2010 school year!
Come and explore our 26,000 acre ranch where we educate children in a modified, multi-age classroom with individualized instruction!
- All Day Kindergarten
- Small Class Size Guaranteed
- Transportation and Meals Provided
- Limited Space Available
Serving students in grades K-5 in a cooperative, multi-age, unique Southwestern setting.
School Hours: 8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch served in our dining hall.
After School Care: 3:30 – 5:30 p.m.
Transportation Provided
Finding the right environment for your child’s education makes a world of difference. At an Independent School such as The Orme School of Arizona you’ll find an environment that nurtures intellectual curiosity, stimulates personal growth, and encourages critical thinking and innovation.
The Orme School is committed to providing students from kindergarten through high school with a unique and high-quality education, and to helping young people develop not only as students, but also as well-rounded individuals.
The “Little School” is a unique setting of students ranging in grades from kindergarten through fifth grade. This self-contained, one-room schoolhouse setting encompasses children from current faculty and staff of The Orme School of Arizona College Preparatory School and those outside of the Orme community. The Little School was originally established to accommodate faculty and staff that have elementary age children so that they would not have to go outside of the Orme community to educate their young children while they worked for the Preparatory school. Recently, the Orme Little School has been made available for families with older children attending the Orme School, grades 6 – 12, or families from the surrounding areas that seek an alternative to traditional primary education.
The LS is designed to educate students that chronologically range in ages that fit Kindergarten through 5th grades. Each student progresses at their individual rate in all academic areas such as English, math, reading, science, social studies, and Spanish. These subject areas are taught and monitored by teachers specializing in those content areas who also teach classes at the Middle and Upper School. Teachers specializing in music, art, physical education and outdoor leadership expand and enrich the students’ education.
There are many benefits to the design of our Orme Little School. Here are just a few that come with the setting of a modified one-room schoolhouse on a 26,000 acre ranch.
- Children are able to work at different developmental levels without obvious remediation, thus avoiding the social or emotional damage typically caused by retention.
- Students stay with their teacher(s) for more than one year; thus teachers get to know students well and provide for continuity in their learning, and children avoid the trauma of adjusting to new teachers annually.
- Age and achievement differences are accepted as normal by children.
- Multi-grade education lends itself to the use of validated practices such as cooperative learning and cross-age tutoring.
- Research shows that multi-grade education leads to more positive student attitudes and behavior than single-graded structures, and achievement outcomes are similar.
- Along with the need to interact with students of various ages, the more relaxed family-like atmosphere benefits students socially.
- Less competition within an age range produces higher self-esteem.
In addition, proponents note that multi-graded programming is more in keeping with the way children in naturalistic settings spontaneously group themselves for play and projects. Researchers (such as Day and Hunt 1975; Ellis, Rogoff, and Croner 1981; Gaustad 1992a; and Pratt 1986), have found that, given the opportunity, children will select friends, playmates, and group mates of a wide age range and interact with them more successfully than they do with peers in same age groups.
For more information, please contact our Admissions Department at smarshall@ormeschool.org.
