Classical Education in the Lower School

At Northwest Classical Academy, we desire for our students to become intelligent, virtuous citizens, and to accomplish this, students need a foundation for learning. Based on the educational framework of the trivium (grammar: the tool of knowledge, logic: the tool of reasoning and rhetoric: the tool of communication and expression), the lower school is uniquely positioned to build the foundation for learning by establishing a solid catalog of basic knowledge and skills. Students are taught systematic and explicit phonics, develop academic vocabulary, learn the structure of a sentence, write in cursive, and memorize great poems... all in an effort to gain mastery in literacy, which leads to eventual critical thinking and logical analysis.

Our approach to numeracy is focused on mastery, which is achieved through our curriculum’s intentional sequencing of concepts, which transitions beautifully from the concrete to the abstract. Students gain a depth of knowledge by progressing through our curriculum as past concepts are continuously connected to new material, causing students to think through concepts and learn by building on past learning.

The classical experience in grammar school promotes the love of order, of precise and edifying language, and of objective standards of goodness, truth, and beauty. In summary, our content-rich curriculum alongside a faculty that is equipped and passionate about delivering this curriculum is what makes the lower school so special at Northwest Classical Academy. 

Curriculum Overview coming soon!

“To know of many things is not the same thing as having been shaped by them, taken them in, made them one’s own - accepting their formative power and thereby being further equipped for the task of living well.”

Wilfred McClay, historian and author of Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story