Renaissance School
Renaissance School is a college preparatory upper school located on Charlottesville’s historic Court Square, with an integrated curriculum across the arts, sciences, and humanities.
A core philosophy of the school is that a connectedness among disciplines propels learning, promotes critical thinking, and helps students become Renaissance thinkers. The arts are as highly valued as the humanities and the sciences and all are interwoven so that, simply put, the broader curriculum just makes more sense to the student.
Two vital and unique parts of the curriculum are the Junior year Independent Study program and the Senior Thesis program. Having studied for two years across nine disciplines — mathematics, science, english, history, foreign language, studio art, movement, theater, and music — Juniors get a chance to use this knowledge base and step into the world of independent research. They work closely with a faculty member throughout the year as they pursue a topic of their choice, all of which concludes with a springtime presentation to the entire school community. Research involves reading, writing, conducting interviews, developing projects, making speeches, and organizing timelines for study. Seniors take this to the next level in the Senior Thesis program. Taking on college-level research and work, the Seniors push toward year-end Senior Thesis Defense preparations, also offered to the entire school community.
Another strength of the RS community is the social environment, where so many of the typical teenage social burdens are few and far between. There is very little age and gender gap at RS and it’s not unusual to see seniors and freshmen form friendships and sally off to lunch together. There is an authenticity about the learning environment and, frankly, it feels more like the real world with no artificial lines between “social groups”.
Whatever is going on at RS seems to be working as the school has a phenomenal track record with regard to college admissions and scholarship achievement. Throughout its ten year history, 100% of its students have been accepted to some of the nation’s top colleges, and the scholarship awards have been extraordinary. The 2008 graduating class averaged $125,000 per student in awards offered.
My daughter enjoys a first-rate education, and has been very happy with her social life at Renaissance. The school is a gem. We hope that future parents understand and appreciate Renaissance for its arts-based, progressive, and academically rigorous education.