Year-round

The academy operates on a year-round, annual calendar divided into academic quarters. Each year begins on January 1 and ends on December 31. The quarters consist of Q1, Jan-Feb-Mar, Q2, Apr-May-Jun, Q3, Jul-Aug-Sep, and Q4, Oct-Nov-Dec.

Each quarter features two weeks off for students, one week off for teachers, plus various holidays. (Students receive eight weeks off, and teachers receive four weeks off, plus other days as defined, per year.)

The last year of school (age 18 students) can be, at the student’s option, one-half year (Q1 and Q2, Jan-Jun), at which time they can graduate, in a manner of their choosing.

Full-day

At present, the academy day goes from 9:00am to 2:30pm. (In the future, we plan to have more afternoon, early morning, and early evening hours.)

Students take snack and lunch as they prefer.

In our temporary learning center headquarters in Laguna Niguel, we will not be able to provide extended before/after hours.

Work, Play, Imagine, Do

Cohort learning takes place in the mornings and cohorts are grouped by age. Electives, activities, sports, rehearsals, performances, work-study, and free-play take place in the afternoons (and sometimes evenings) and participants are generally mixed-age groupings.

Despite this structure, students can choose to do what they wish. For example, students are encouraged but not required to participate in cohort activities. Individual students may go through extended periods of heavy involvement in a single activity, or extended periods of boredom, or they may prefer to follow a teacher’s lead. We provide opportunities but we do not insist on anything in particular and we do not restrict or judge.

If the school had a lake, and a student wished to fish all day, every day, they could fish all day, every day.

Land and Facilities

Our longer term goals including building and/or improving upon the school facilities as we go. We are presently seeking donors of land and construction. Designing, planning, developing, building, and equipping the academy is part of the project-based curriculum. We can open the academy with minimal space and resources. Because students and teachers, working together, will develop the academy, literally, from the ground up.