A truly inclusive community with a culture of shared progress—by design!
Every aspect of our program is designed around and fosters the premise that the purpose of social-emotional learning within an educational environment is to help each student develop the skills, awareness and priorities they need to become a positive member of their social communities—in friendships, within the school and as a local and global citizen. This includes our academic program, which brings together all students, regardless of age or profile, to collaborate with one another as a cohesive community to solve real world problems. This is fostered through our social-emotional curriculum, proprietary Human 101 course on the neurophysiology of human interactions and project-based learning curriculum —all of which develop essential 21st century skills in how to build and foster relationships and empathy towards others whose talents and needs differ from our own.
Here are some of the ways our program is structured that fosters and elevates the experience of community:
Our collaborative, community-wide project-based learning provides a shared purpose that brings our community together
Our students collaborate with one another to solve real world problems, while developing the scaffolded social collaboration skills that are essential to 21st century success. This process forms the backbone of our academic curriculum, bringing all students together to contribute to one community-wide project. This process starts by creating bespoke, project-based learning units that integrate Next Generation Science and Connecticut-approved curriculum standards into real world, “driving questions” the students must work together to solve. Students attend a traditional schedule of ability-based academic classes, in which students are grouped with same-age peers and instruction is differentiated using the data in their neuropsychological and physio profiles. There, curriculum is sequenced and aligned to the community-wide project-based learning units, so that even those students who require 1:1 academic instruction share a common curriculum and purpose across the broader community of peers.
Our small school environment helps students build the social skills they need to thrive in mainstream environments and in the community at large
Many parents assume that their kids need a large social environment to overcome social difficulties—but our work demonstrates that the opposite may be true. Our focus on developing the foundational skills for social-emotional success translate into sustained transformations that open up the settings our students care about most, like going from complete retreat to sleep away camp; from severe social challenges to the captain of a premier-league athletic team; and from extreme social anxiety to professional internships and a socially-rich college experience.
Our mixed age cohort offers mentors, leadership opportunities & natural kinship for gifted learners
Cajal Academy is an inclusive and nurturing, mixed age community of children in grades K-12. Our program is mixed age by design, because twice exceptional kids tend to feel more comfortable with kids who are older or younger than themselves than they do with kids around the same age. And, many 2e kids may be 2 years ahead in one academic subject while they falter behind in another. Thus, this approach provides natural learning and social partnerships. Each student participates in ability-based classes, and collaborate together through our school-wide project-based learning classes.
The strengths-based programming for intellectually-gifted kids at the heart of our program and our Vision to Voice Curriculum fosters a community for innovative kids wherever they are on their journey, from accessing their gifts to ready to thrive
We feel so strongly about the benefits of diverse and inclusive communities, and the power of neuroplasticity, that we did something unheard of among private schools having special education expertise: we adapted our tuition model and programming approach to put a mainstream program for intellectually-gifted kids at the heart of it all. Intellectually-gifted kids who are already able to access their gifts benefit from the small class sizes, project-based learning and neuroscience-driven pedagogy at the core of our school. Meanwhile, students who are working to overcome learning, social-emotional, neurophysio or chronic medical differences fluidly move through dynamic journeys to access their gifts, with data-driven Student Growth Catalysts that adapt as their needs do. The result is a setting in which all our gifted learners gain skills in how to foster truly-inclusive neurodiverse communities: powerful leadership skills for the pursuits that our intellectually-gifted kids are likely to find rewarding in college and beyond.
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Building community starts in our admissions process
Through this unique approach, we have been able to develop a community in which students are able to find common ground despite a wide range of learning, social-emotional and neurophysiological differences. This allows them to extend empathy towards one another, forgiveness for atypical patterns of communication and investment in their own growth processes. It is, we have come to realize, our most valuable therapeutic asset, as students are motivated to to gain self-direction over their actions by the pull and encouragement of the group.
And, it won’t be effective for all students. In order for our unique approach to be effective, students don’t have to know how to build connections to or foster a sense of community, but they do have to be motivated by the desire to learn how to do so. They don’t need to understand social interactions or how to interpret others’ behaviors, but they must be able to feel the empathy that is required to convert that information into compassion and kindness towards others as we work to develop those understandings.
Thus, ours is not an appropriate program for students who do not feel a desire for social connection, lack the ability to experience empathy for others, are physically assaultive towards staff or peers or show sadistic tendencies. Students who repeatedly engage in bullying behavior towards staff or students may be asked to leave.
Cajal Academy is an avowedly inclusive community, and does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical disability or any other protected class.