Mission

Open Window School nurtures and challenges students of high intellectual ability and inspires them to new levels of academic excellence, creativity, and personal accomplishment for participation in a diverse and changing world.

Open Window School Statement of Philosophy

Children First, Gifted Second

Open Window School is fully dedicated to meeting the needs of students with high intellectual ability. Our students are understood and appreciated as unique, complex human beings who are engaged in the vital process of discovering themselves and the world around them. We offer a rich, dynamic academic program featuring exceptional depth and challenge balanced with support. As a result, our students develop an understanding of what they can do and what they can contribute.

Our differentiated and accelerated curriculum is not limited by grade level boundaries and provides rigor in areas of strength while building a strong basic academic foundation. We emphasize innovation, communication, independence, as well as critical and creative thinking. Students develop self-confidence as learners who can tackle demanding problems and grapple with new ideas. Relevant leadership opportunities and real-life applications of classroom concepts ignite learning and connections to a global society.

In addition to stimulating academics, we nurture positive social skills, emotional resiliency, respect for others and collaboration. We promote citizenship by fostering personal integrity, ethical awareness and multicultural understanding. Working in partnership with parents, we cultivate motivated, confident students who relish learning. Graduates possess the habits and skills necessary for academic excellence as well as personal success, and they recognize their potential for future innovation and leadership in their chosen fields.

The Open Window School provides a unique educational experience for highly capable children that actively encourages curiosity and creativity, promotes versatile investigative methods, and develops self-esteem. In furthering our mission, we embrace both our commonalities and the complex range of human differences in the larger community. These differences include, but are not limited to gender, race, color, creed, religion, national and ethnic origin, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, physical status, and family structure.

The characteristics that make us unique individuals are not differences that divide us, but are qualities that enrich our community. OWS teachers, staff, students and their families benefit personally and professionally from the range of ideas, solutions, and perspectives that stem from diversity. By embracing the breadth of views and approaches that emerge from a diverse community, OWS fosters the growth of knowledge of an ever-changing world.

We strive to create a nurturing environment by being sensitive to the unique cultural, religious, and other needs of our families, and by encouraging an open and honest dialogue among individuals.