Pacific Northern Academy

• Pacific NorthernAcademy Mission Statement: We educate students to be exceptional learners and independent thinkers of vision, courage, and integrity.
• We encourage students to be active participants in their education. Here at PNA, students continually challenge themselves, imagine, experiment, re-work, or investigate because they know they have the power to do anything.
• Preschool through 8th grade, students learn to apply sound judgment, treat others with compassion, and act with vision, courage, and integrity as they develop intellectually and personally.
• Students, teachers, and parents at PNA work in partnership to create a community of lifelong learners dedicated to education.
• We embrace an individualized, student-centered approach to learning. We are committed to maintaining low teacher-to-student ratios that enable differentiated learning plans and meaningful, supportive relationships. In addition to core academics, our intellectually vigorous program includes integrated classes with professional teachers in studio art, performing arts and music, PE, and Spanish classes Preschool through 8th grade.
• As we teach students to become critical thinkers, we also teach them to become leaders and active citizens of the 21st Century.

At Pacific Northern Academy we expect students to be active participants in their own education, communicate clearly and respectfully, and continually challenge themselves. We balance a dynamic academic environment with developmentally appropriate activities and expectations. From Preschool through 8th grade, students are taught to use good judgment, to treat others with compassion, and to act with honor and integrity as they develop intellectually and personally.

Students, teachers, and parents at PNA work in partnership to create a community of learners dedicated to education. We embrace a student-centered approach to learning and we are committed to maintaining low teacher to student ratios that enable students to have meaningful and personalized interactions with their teachers. Having smaller classes allows teachers to challenge students based on their individual academic ability, and affords students more opportunities to ask questions, experiment with multiple solutions, learn from hands-on experiences and engage with other students. Students also have the opportunity to work and learn with students of different ages in activities designed to encourage mentoring and cross-age learning.

In order to teach the whole child, an integral part of our intellectually challenging environment is an emphasis on visual arts, performing arts, community service, and cultural diversity. As we teach students to become critical thinkers we also teach them to embrace their responsibility to become leaders and active citizens in their community. As students and teachers with different experiences and perspectives share their ideas and interpretations with others, everyone in our academic community increases their understanding of the complexities of a culturally diverse environment and expands their scope of ideas and their ability to confront the difficulties that may face them. Committing ourselves to diversity in our academic programs and cultural environment, PNA strives to recognize the past and promises a constructive approach to the future.

Educational Goals:

• To provide an academically challenging program for all students.
• To develop character, integrity, and independence
• To foster a life-long love of learning
• To encourage each child to strive for excellence in all endeavors
• To develop confidence, understanding, and responsibility
• To develop respect and love for the processes of thought. Intellectual discipline implies more than obligation, obedience, and effort. It implies not merely competence but depth of thought. It is as much concerned with the processes of understanding as it is with the measurement of results. Sometimes its motives are a passion for mastery, sometimes a fascination and love for the subject studied.