About Our School
The Small School is a modern microschool with classical roots, offering an academically rigorous and deeply personal education for students in grades 6–12.
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Our Core Beliefs
We believe students learn best when they are known well, challenged thoughtfully, and given the time and space to become curious, capable, and independent thinkers. Our small-scale model allows teachers to build genuine relationships with students while tailoring instruction to their individual strengths, needs, and interests.
Rooted in the classical tradition of grammar, logic, and rhetoric, our curriculum brings together literature, history, mathematics, science, the arts, and the natural world. At the same time, we embrace the possibilities of a modern education—flexible, innovative, experiential, and responsive to the individual student.
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A Modern Microschool
A microschool is a small, intentionally designed school built around the belief that education can be both rigorous and deeply personal.
Rather than organizing learning around large classes and a one-size-fits-all model, our school creates space for close relationships, meaningful discussion, individualized instruction, and hands-on learning. Students are known by their teachers, encouraged to take ownership of their education, and given opportunities to learn both independently and collaboratively. At The Small School, our size isn't simply a feature of our school—it is central to how we teach.
The idea for The Small School grew out of our founder’s years working with homeschooling families and teaching students privately in their homes. Again and again, she saw the tremendous possibilities of a homeschooling education alongside a common challenge: families often had to choose between the flexibility and personal attention of homeschooling and the benefits of learning within a dedicated school community. Parents were frequently responsible for facilitating the entirety of their children's academic education, while students could miss out on the rich discussion, collaboration, and relationships that emerge when a small group of engaged learners studies together.
The Small School was created in response to that need: a different kind of school, one that preserves the personal attention, flexibility, and intellectual freedom that have long made homeschooling so powerful while bringing students together with experienced educators and a small community of peers.
Today, we describe The Small School as a modern microschool with classical roots. Our approach has grown beyond the traditional idea of schooling primarily within the home, but we remain deeply influenced by the best of the homeschooling tradition: knowing students well, tailoring education to the individual, giving learning room to unfold, and treating education as something much larger than preparation for a test.
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Classical Roots
The Small School draws from the classical tradition of education, a philosophy with roots in ancient Greece and Rome and a long tradition in some of the world’s most respected schools. At its heart is the belief that education should make students free—not simply free to choose, but equipped with the virtue, knowledge, judgment, and independence of mind to think and act for themselves.
Classical education places particular emphasis on the liberal arts of the trivium: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Students learn to understand language, reason carefully, communicate clearly, and engage thoughtfully with the ideas that have shaped our world. Alongside these foundations, our curriculum gives equal weight to mathematics, natural sciences, history, literature, time outdoors, and the fine arts.
We believe this broad foundation prepares students not simply for a particular career or course of study, but for a lifetime of learning. In a world shaped by rapidly changing technologies, evolving industries, and an ever-growing amount of information, the ability to think critically, communicate effectively, adapt, and learn independently is more valuable than ever.
At the same time, a classical education does not need to look like school did generations ago. We pair enduring educational principles with a modern and flexible approach to learning, making room for technology, experiential education, interdisciplinary study, individualized pathways, and the changing world our students will enter.