Our Lady of Grace Catholic School provides educational, faith, and service opportunities to prepare students for the middle grades and beyond. Our academic approach includes differentiated reading levels and advanced math placement, beginning in Kindergarten, meeting our students where they are and helping them succeed.
Our dedicated teachers blend curriculum into the classroom in creative ways, exposing our students to a wide variety of cultural, aesthetic, and extracurricular experiences, as we seek to form global citizens.
We run on a trimester schedule, with report cards issued electronically at the end of each trimester. Students earn grades in core academic subjects including Language Arts, Literature, Mathematics, Reading, Religion, Science, and Social Studies. In addition to the core curriculum, students also attend enrichment classes in Art, Drama, Library, Music, PE, Spanish*, and STREAM.
*Spanish becomes a core subject for OLG students beginning in Middle School.
Extending Education Outside the Classroom
Our Lady of Grace students have the opportunity to explore the world through field trips to area preserves, historical sites, cultural events, and much more.
We challenge our students to be the best they can be, as students and as citizens of the community. By participating in programs outside the classroom, they not only gain a solid foundation for future academic success, but also a sense of responsibility to use their knowledge for the benefit of others.
While OLG embraces students of all faiths, Religion is a core academic subject for students. The curriculum includes information about Catholic virtues, the liturgical calendar, prayers, religious vocations, lives of saints, the sacraments, and Catholic Social Justice. All students receive religious instruction, and each day begins with school-wide morning prayer.
Students live faith through student-planned weekly Masses, monthly visits to Eucharistic Adoration, service and stewardship, grade level retreats, and the study of one of the Catholic Social Justice pillars, (i.e. the call to "Help the Poor and Vulnerable" and "Rights and Responsibilities". Students have the opportunity to participate in our weekly Mass and seasonal celebrations such as the Living Stations of the Cross during Lent. As such, students gain experience in public speaking and students leadership.
Art is an important part of the education of the whole child. All of our children from the youngest Panther Cubs to the 8th graders visit the art room once each week. For the past several years, our Art staff has submitted an annual grant application to the United Arts Council and been awarded hundreds of dollars for special projects ranging from a celebration of our various cultural heritages to a school mural in the hall outside the cafeteria.
Lower School Art
Mrs. Patrick is the lower school art teacher and she has had a long successful career in art instruction at several area schools. She teaches children from Pre-school three & four year olds to fifth grade. Young students learn how to use art materials in a fun, creative, safe way. Older students explore, painting, drawing, printing, and sculpture.
Middle School Art
Middle school art is taught one day a week to Our Lady of Grace students by Ms. Fergus. Sixth through eighth grades make connections between art and other subject areas, while expressing themselves visually. Sixth and seventh graders completed a project this year in which they drew the church from observation and learned about the physics of Gothic architecture. Eight graders completed a design challenge for the annual yearbook.
When you visit our school, be sure to look for the colorful and creative student artwork which is always on display in our halls!
The primary objective of the music program at Our Lady of Grace Catholic School is to help students grow academically, socially, and spiritually. It works to achieve these goals through a variety of hands-on activities that teach music concepts. Music is essential to students’ education and will help them gain skills that are useful in other classes. By starting music from a very young age, students are encouraged to become lifelong learners for the arts.
Music classes are taught following a general music curriculum with students learning about music history, multicultural music, and music theory concepts such as pitch and rhythm. In addition, students learn about and play several instruments. Along with instruments, students in all grades are exposed to singing. In addition, middle school students make use of technology to learn about concepts, use games and activities that supplement music topics, and participate in group projects to encourage collaboration. All of these activities provide a solid foundation for students to enter into high school music programs.
In Pre-K through grade 6, Spanish takes an exploratory approach; students are exposed to the sounds of the language, basic vocabulary which keeps building with every subsequent grade, and cultural practices and traditions.
At the Middle School level, students learn to understand language and to express their own messages to communicate real ideas for real purposes. Students gain a novice level proficiency through vocabulary/grammar, listening, reading and writing activities. They also learn about the countries where Spanish is the main language, using materials authentic to those countries to facilitate this process. Instruction follows the guidelines set forth by the Standards for Foreign Language Learning -- to help students develop competencies in Communication, Culture, Connections to other disciplines, Comparisons between primary language and Spanish and Communities outside the classroom.
This level of preparation in middle school facilitates entry into Spanish Level 2 upon entering high school. Students graduating eighth grade and planning to continue with Spanish in high school have a high success rate of placing out of Spanish 1 and therefore directly entering Spanish 2 in 9th grade.
By building a solid foundation and early exposure to another language, students are encouraged to become lifelong learners.
Our Lady of Grace Catholic School incorporated a new and exciting STREAM (Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, Art, Music) program during the 2019-2020 school year. STREAM classes are available to all OLG students in PreK-8th grade.
As stated by the Director of Professional Development for NCEA (National Catholic Educational Association www.ncea.org), Pam Bernards, “STREAM provides an excellent opportunity for arch/dioceses and schools to provide a challenging, transdisciplinary learning environment focused on the integration of the STREAM content areas through the lens of the Catholic faith, and also build 21st Century competencies needed for success in school and future careers. It demonstrates how faith, individual academic disciplines and life itself work together.”
