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Dear Prospective
Families,
Paul Cuffee School
is a Rhode Island Charter school, undertaken by the International
Sailing Institute to provide a college preparatory K-12 academic
program for students from Providence, Rhode Island. Paul Cuffee was
a ship builder and a ship captain who lived on the Southeast coast
of Massachusetts
at the time of the American Revolution. He was also an important
civic leader committed to non-violence and also the founder of a
progressive school in Westport,
Massachusetts that welcomed children of different racial and ethnic
backgrounds. Paul Cuffee’s mother was Wampanoag Indian, and his
father was a freed slave who had been born in Ghana.
Our
school gives emphasis to the ocean, our environment, and sailing. This means that over the coming years, more and more time will be
devoted to science and mathematics. Students applying to the Paul Cuffee School
need to keep this in mind because we require 2-3 hours of homework
each night by the time our students reach middle school.
In the K-5 lower school, we focus primarily on language arts
(reading, phonics, spelling, writing), mathematics, and science. The arts program helps us to explore and integrate the many lessons
we are learning in language arts and mathematics. Students in our
6-8 program develop critical thinking, communication, and complex
problem-solving skills in all areas of study.
The
work at Paul Cuffee School is demanding. Students who are prepared
to work hard are doing well, regardless of their reading, writing
and math levels. Students not able or willing to work hard are
having a difficult time.
Students whose
parents (or in some cases, grandparents) work with them each day at
home are very successful at our school. Parents must review
homework assignments, classroom activities, personal behavior, and
school life each day with their children. Parents meet formally at
least 3 times each year with the classroom teacher, and we expect
parents to learn about our academic programs and our academic
standards.
We also expect
parents to take the time to understand the responsible behavior we
require at the Paul Cuffee School and to support our efforts and the
efforts of their children to behave respectfully, responsibly,
non-violently, and thoughtfully in school and at home.
We
believe that our academic programs are exciting, and we believe that
being a part of our school is enjoyable and rewarding. We also know
that the expectations we place on our students are not always easy
for them. Parents’ involvement in their children’s work is vital. Our School requires a three-way partnership in which our teachers
and staff, our students, and our parents are all working together to
achieve the demanding academic goals we have for our children, and
to create the kind of safe, caring, and adventurous academic
community which all of us want.
David Bourns, Head of School
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