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Surprise Scholé Academy offers five levels of instruction:

Pre-Grammar: ages 5-6  (students must be age 5 by September 1st of current year)

Lower-Grammar: ages 6-9

Upper-Grammar: ages 9-12

Dialectic: ages 12-15 (students must be 12 by October 30th of current year)

Rhetoric: ages 15-19

*Note, students are not moved to the next level mid-year because they have a mid-year birthdate.*

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The best age to start varies by student, but age 5 or 6 is an average starting age. It is important that your student has at least some ability to behave respectfully in a classroom setting as well as be able to receive instruction from someone other than their parent.

Q:

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Classical education is like a very large museum with many beautiful, wonder-filled rooms that could be studied over a lifetime. It is a long tradition of education that has emphasized seeking after truth, goodness, and beauty and the study of the liberal arts and the great books. What are the liberal arts? They are grammar, logic, rhetoric (the verbal arts of the trivium), arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy (the mathematical arts of the quadrivium). This approach to education also includes the study of Latin. The classical approach teaches students how to learn and how to think.

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No. Surprise Scholé Academy provides weekly instruction in particular subjects. It is not meant to be an all-inclusive education. The upper levels will be assigned work to complete each week to be ready participants for the following class.

Classes depend on the grade level of the student. In the Grammar years this includes subjects such as writing, literature, Latin, and science. The upper levels lean towards literature and history, as well as particular classes that will enhance each student’s classical education such as cartography, speech, logic, Shakespeare and poetry. 

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 Yes. As SSA is truly cooperative, all parents lead a classroom as an Academic Mentor.  Parents are able to express their top choices based on desire and expertise. God always places everyone where He wants them.

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No, SSA is not a drop-off program and parents are required to remain on campus and participate in the cooperative spirit of learning both through their service and presence in their children’s classrooms when they are not serving in other credit roles.