A foundational belief of Trinity School is that active learning is fundamental to the full development of a child’s potential.  Active learning occurs most effectively in settings that provide developmentally appropriate learning opportunities designed to strengthen and extend the cognitive, physical, and emotional development of all students.

We want each of our classrooms to be environments where students engage in educationally important learning tasks by participating in developmentally appropriate key experiences; where students and teachers form an active learning partnership to support the students' development; and where students are supported as they engage in important social relations with other students and adults.

We want to promote independent thinking, active learning, a "can-do" attitude, and an active, inquisitive imagination in each of our students. While each student will develop these attributes at different rates and in varying degrees, our instructional approaches are designed to foster self-confidence and social competence in all students—skills that are necessary to function in today's society, where lifelong education, on-the-job training, teamwork, and problem solving are increasingly important.

Our approach addresses the educational challenges of today and the years ahead with the following basic goals:

·         Trinity School will promote sound educational practices that provide students with effective, developmentally appropriate learning experiences well suited to their diverse backgrounds, strengths, and interests.

·         Trinity School will set clearly defined and effective organizational, instructional, and classroom management strategies and guidelines for teachers and administrators.

·         Trinity School will be a cost-effective investment in developmentally appropriate educational practice. TrinitySchool will provide both short- and long-term dividends by strengthening students’ character, feelings of self-worth, and personal competence; encouraging students' lifelong educational attainment; and contributing significantly to the general health and welfare of the larger community.

Ultimately, this approach is designed to help students meet the following objectives:

1.      Pursue interests and ideas as they

a.       Make decisions about what to do and how to do it

b.      Define and solve problems

c.       Exercise self-discipline, identify personal goals, and pursue and complete personally selected tasks and projects

d.      Acquire a spirit of inquisitiveness and recognize the importance of establishing personal goals and values

e.       Develop interests or avocations that can be cultivated both during and after completion of the school experience

2.      Live and work successfully with others as they

a.       Join with other students and adults in cooperative learning efforts, planning group projects, and pursuing shared leadership experiences

b.      Comprehend the thoughts and feelings of others through spoken, written, artistic, and graphic representations

c.       Acquire an openness to the viewpoints, values, and behaviors of others

3.      Exercise a wide range of intellectual and physical abilities as they

a.       Speak, read, write, dramatize, and graphically represent their experiences, feelings, and ideas

b.      Apply both logical and mathematical reasoning in a variety of real-life situations

c.       Develop skills and abilities in mathematics, science, art, music, and movement and use computer and related technology as tools for expressing personal talents and energy

These objectives are reached through the progression of students’ development in the following areas:

·         Language, logic, mathematics, and science

·         Spatial, temporal, and physical-motor skill development

·         The creative arts

·         Social studies and social-emotional development

The processes of constructive interaction, by which intelligence develops, are essential components of this educational approach. These processes enable adults to support and extend students’ emerging intellectual and social skills as the students engage in meaningful and creative problem-solving experiences and social interactions. Moreover, teachers use classroom management strategies, instructional resources, and developmental frameworks to encourage all types of active, creative learning activities. By promoting the school's instructional goals while simultaneously supporting the students’ personal interests, ideas, and abilities, teachers encourage students to become enthusiastic participants in the active learning process.

Because all students, especially those with learning differences, respond best to direct sensory experience, manipulation of materials and physical motor activity play crucial roles in helping them form concepts, generate ideas, and produce symbolic representations. To promote these aspects of the active learning process, we establish classroom environments organized around inviting learning centers stocked with practical yet appealing materials, supplies, and equipment. Moreover, the classroom’s daily schedule provides frequent opportunities for students to work with materials and equipment as they devise projects of their own choosing, make thoughtful efforts to solve problems (encountered on their own or through teacher-assigned tasks), and share the results of their efforts with teachers and other students through speech, writings, drawings, or other forms of communication. Students are given opportunities to explore materials of personal interest, express their intentions, plan courses of action, create products, offer solutions to problems they may encounter, work independently, talk freely and comfortably among themselves and with adults, see to their own needs whenever possible, and respect the needs and wishes of others.