Mission Statement

"Summit School provides a challenging curriculum within a caring environment to help students develop their full potential."

Aims	Assumptions
The school must provide an environment that is physically and emotionally safe for children.	People learn best when they are not concerned about basic needs such as physical safety and emotional well-being.
The school must provide appropriate stimuli for children's intellectual, aesthetic, physical, emotional, moral and social development in order to help them grow optimally.	External factors strongly shape inherited characteristics which mature over the entire life span.
The school must recognize and respond to the differences in children, their developmental timetables, their needs, their innate and distinguishing characteristics and aptitudes.	All children can grow in mind, body and spirit, but by nature they develop their talents in diverse ways and at different rates.
The school must help children develop healthy self esteem and respect for their beliefs, values, talents and achievements while they learn to value others.	People are most effective in the processes of life if they respect themselves and the world about them.
The school must reflect diversity among its students, parents, staff and trustees.	Our world is diverse. To be effective, we must be prepared to work with many different kinds of people.
The school must give children opportunities to care for other people and for the physical environment, within the school and in other settings.	People have responsibilities to others and to the natural world.
The school must emphasize learning by doing and lead children to be effective in individual, cooperative and competitive activities.	Experiential learning gives children the opportunity to integrate and practice numerous skills.
The school must prepare children as they grow to assume increasing responsibility for their actions and inactions.	Extended dependency allows children time for many kinds of growth but tends to delay opportunities to act independently.
The school must work closely and harmoniously with students' families.	In our society, the periods of childhood and early adolescence are important times of familial protection and dependence.
The school must cultivate its constituencies, keeping them well informed and actively soliciting their support.	The school's ability to provide appropriate programs for its students is directly related to the support it receives from its constituencies (parents, graduates, students and the broad community).