The Head-Royce School Scholarship Program

School Mission
The mission of the Head-Royce School is to inspire in our students a lifelong love of learning and pursuit of academic excellence, to promote understanding of and respect for diversity that makes our society strong, and to encourage active and responsible global citizenship.  Founded in 1887, Head-Royce is an independent, non-denominational, coeducational, college-preparatory, K-12 school, which offers a challenging educational program to educate the whole child. The School nurtures the development of each individual student through a program that seeks:

• to develop intellectual abilities such as scholarship and disciplined, critical thinking;
• to foster in each student respect, integrity, ethical behavior, compassion, and a sense of humor;
• to promote responsibility and leadership, an appreciation of individual and cultural differences, and a respect for the opinions of others;
• to nurture aesthetic abilities such as creativity, imagination, musical, and visual talent; and
• to encourage joyful, healthy living, a love of nature, and physical fitness.

All members of the Head-Royce community strive to create an educational environment that reflects the School's core values of academic excellence, diversity and citizenship, one in which each student can thrive.  We believe that a program based on these core values will prepare our students to be effective citizens as they face and embrace the challenges and the opportunities of the future.

Our Philosophy: The Whole Child and Multiple Intelligences
Since our School's founding more than 100 years ago, we have worked to shape an educational philosophy that seeks to develop each student's individual talents and abilities.  Our founder Anna Head drew her philosophy from her colleague and fellow progressive educator, John Dewey.  More recently, our philosophy has been enriched by the path breaking work of psychologist Howard Gardner and his theory of multiple Intelligences.  These abilities are described below, along with our program to cultivate them among our students: 

• Verbal (word smart), developed in our K-12 language rich-curricular program
• Mathematical (number smart), fostered in like fashion by our K-12 math-science program
• Bodily (physically smart), nurtured by our physical education and athletic programs
• Visual (picture smart), fostered by our strong commitment to the visual arts
• Musical (sound smart), developed in our K-12 music program
• Intrapersonal (self smart), enhanced by our advisory program and focus on the individual
• Interpersonal (people smart), shaped through our honor code promoting respect and responsibility and our commitment to leadership development
• Naturalist (nature smart), cultivated in our K-12 program from the edible garden in primary grades to our Upper School advanced science studies and outdoor program.

The Curriculum
Our  dynamic and challenging K-12 academic program has been carefully developed by teachers and administrators to reflect the best practices from schools across the nation and around the world.  Classroom teachers and specialists in the Lower School, and teachers in the 6-12 departments shape the scope and sequence, including English, Fine Arts, History, Mathematics, Physical Education, Science, Technology, and World Languages.  Individual brochures describing the academic program, professional staff, and student experiences in each of these departments are available from the Admissions Office.  Our departmental programs are reviewed regularly to ensure that our offerings are consistent with the highest standards developed by the State of California and national professional organizations like the National Council of Teachers of English and of Mathematics.  The full curriculum can be reviewed in the K-12 Course Catalogue, which is also available online at the School's website under each division.  Recently, we have mapped the entire curriculum, using a program provided by Atlass Rubicon, enabling us to establish for all courses from K through 12 vital curricular information, including: essential questions, content, activities, skills, assessments, resources, and information technology used.  With the assistance of nationally recognized consultants like David Perkins of Project Zero we have developed a curriculum that is intentional, comprehensive and integrated. 

Academic Challenge
Because we are a selective, independent school, Head-Royce offers an academic program that is by nature advanced and challenging.  Typically, students are working well in advance of their peers in public schools.  The strength of the K-12 program can be seen, for example, in our students' performance in the College Board Advanced Placement Program.  We offer AP instruction in the following areas: Art History, Biology, Calculus AB and BC, Chemistry, Computer Science A and AB, English Language and Literature, European History, French Language and Literature, Latin, Music Theory, Physics B, Spanish Language and Literature, Statistics, Studio Art, and US History.  In our Upper School last year, 202 students wrote 354 exams with 87% receiving honors marks of 3, 4 or 5.  We are proud that by school graduation many of our students have successfully completed several courses at the college level.  Given our whole child philosophy, we are every bit as proud of our students' accomplishment in the fine arts, where our students are fully engaged in the study of visual and performing arts.  Beginning in Lower School, all students sing regularly and may join a variety of choral and instrumental groups.  In the Upper School our vocal and instrumental performing groups appear regularly in community events and have consistently received top honors at festivals.  Students in our visual arts program distinguish themselves, with on-campus gallery presentations of their work and in community competitions.  Our physical education and athletic program helps students develop a commitment to physical fitness and healthy living.  In the Middle and Upper School, we offer 38 teams in the following sports: soccer, cross-country, tennis, volleyball, golf, basketball, baseball, swimming, softball, track & field, and lacrosse.  Students compete at the Middle School level in the Independent School Athletic League and at the Upper School level in the Bay Area Conference.

Assessment
We are mindful of the need to regularly assess our students' and our School's overall progress to ensure that we are meeting our goals and expectations.  Students in grades 3-8 annually take a battery of tests from the Educational Records Bureau, and our Upper School students take a variety of tests such as the SAT I and II examinations, in addition to the AP exams.  The administration and Board evaluates this information in an annual Academic Dashboard; over the years, these assessments have placed Head-Royce students on average in the top 5% of students nationwide in academic performance.  In addition, we use a variety of in-house measures, from student grades and report cards to student course-teacher evaluations to assess our work.  It is our belief that this kind of regular self-assessment is healthy for our School and instrumental in helping our students to achieve their full potential.

Survey Feedback
The School regularly conducts survey research among parents, students and alumni to determine how we are doing.  A recent survey showed that parents and students believe our academic program is excellent (91%; 87%) and sufficiently challenging to our student body (both 87%), and strong support for our community service and extra-curricular programs. Parents feel that their students like attending Head-Royce (96%) and that their children make friends at
school (95%).  Overall, several areas of strength were identified:  parents and students deem the teachers as outstanding (90%; 85%) and perceive that students have good working relationships with those teachers (95%; 80%).  In a recent survey of our students in college, we learned that our students feel very well prepared for college (97%). We are proud of our students and believe that our academic program is helping to prepare them for lives of fulfillment and accomplishment.

June 2007