St. Philip's Academy

“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” Psalm 127:1

In the quiet stillness of Sunday, a small group gathered at St. Philip’s Academy to pray. We will welcome our inaugural class on Tuesday through these doors.

Every area was covered in prayer. The entire perimeter of the building was walked and prayed over. Every doorway was anointed with oil. Every student’s desk had prayerful hands laid upon it. From the front door to the smallest corner, every square inch of this school was intentionally submitted to the Lord, asking that He would establish the work of our hands, guard our students, guide our teachers, and use this place for His purposes and His glory.

We have prepared the classrooms. We have planned the lessons. We have made ready the halls.

But ultimately, this school belongs to the Lord.

May every child who walks through these doors grow in wisdom, virtue, and knowledge. Omnia Christi Gloriae.

As we finish Staff Orientation Week and prepare to welcome our scholars for a new school year, we are reminded that the work of education begins long before the first lesson is taught. It begins with faithful faculty and staff, gathered in fellowship and united by a shared calling.

Together, we labor to cultivate wisdom, virtue, and a love for what is true, good, and beautiful. We pray for the year ahead, for our teachers, our students, and the work God has entrusted to us.

As a mission of St. Philip’s Church to the entire Charleston community, the Academy desires all of those in our wider community to join us on Wednesday August 5 from 5:30 to 6 pm for our inaugural Convocation service.

We will launch the Academy by worshipping the Lord together. We will be pulling out all the stops, marking this time with the joy and gravitas it deserves. Our prayer is that in 60 years from now, our first scholars will be able to tell their grandchildren what it felt like when St. Philip’s Academy first started. So please mark your calendars and invite your friends for this wonderful occasion.

Following the service, our enrolled families will follow the bagpiper into the Great Hall of the Academy building for Orientation followed by Meet the Teacher.

In a Classical Christian education, every practice is intentional, even putting pencil to paper.

Handwriting and cursive are more than practical skills, they cultivate patience, attentiveness, discipline, and delight in beautiful work. As students carefully form each letter, they are also forming habits of excellence, strengthening their minds, and learning that truth, goodness, and beauty are worth pursuing in even the smallest tasks.

In an age of keyboards and quick communication, we continue to teach cursive because it slows the mind, encourages thoughtful expression, and connects students to the rich inheritance of history, literature, and Scripture. The hands that faithfully practice today are helping shape hearts and minds for a lifetime of learning.

Click the link in our bio to learn more about St. Philip’s Academy

One of the greatest classrooms in history now has a place in ours.

The School of Athens, Raphael’s timeless masterpiece celebrating the pursuit of truth, wisdom, and the life of the mind, now hangs in the halls of St. Philip’s Academy. Surrounded by history’s greatest philosophers and thinkers, students are reminded each day that education is about far more than acquiring information. It is about cultivating wisdom, seeking what is true, good, and beautiful, and joining a centuries-old conversation that has shaped Western civilization.

We invite you to come and see these beautiful works yourself. Click the link in our bio to submit an inquiry form and set up a tour.

Our Academy staff spent the last 3 days immersing themselves in classical pedagogy under master classical teachers at the Memoria Press National Conference Teacher Training in Louisville, KY.

This incredible team returns to Charleston excited for the upcoming school year and cultivating wisdom and virtue in our scholars through a pursuit of the good, the true, and the beautiful.

Today, as desks, tables, shelves, and chairs found their place within St. Philip’s Academy, we were reminded that the spaces we inhabit help shape the souls we are becoming. A beautiful and thoughtfully ordered classroom invites wonder, encourages attentiveness, and prepares the mind for the joyful pursuit of learning.

The environment itself becomes a teacher quietly forming habits of reverence, diligence, and delight. For what we surround our children with today helps cultivate what they will love tomorrow.

“Let all things be done decently and in order.” — 1 Corinthians 14:40

A special thanks to gdcHome for their partnership in bringing beauty and order to the Academy

We begin as we intend to go.

In kindergarten, our students are introduced to great works of art through Memoria Press art cards, training their eyes to recognize beauty, order, and excellence from their earliest days. They learn that the pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty is not reserved for the few but is the inheritance of every child.

Years later, as seniors, our students complete a Herculean Labor by identifying 200 works of art—a testimony to years spent cultivating attentiveness, wonder, and wisdom.

Classical Christian education is not merely preparation for a career; it is formation of the soul. We begin with beauty because God Himself is beautiful, and we desire that our students learn to delight in His goodness as it is reflected in the greatest achievements of human culture.

The seeds planted in kindergarten, by God's grace, bear fruit in the years to come.