Originally, the school was founded in 1995 as the North Star School in 1995 by philanthropist Dick Sanford who later went on to found the nonprofit, Operation Warm. In 1997 we became the Chester County Family Academy and we still hold true to the original mission today:
At the Chester County Family Academy, we share and promote the proposition that the future of our world is linked to the natural development and celebration of our most precious resource, children. We know that parents are a child's first teacher and home is a child's first learning environment. We join with parents to support their child's learning in an expanded educational community setting. Together, we build a foundation for a lifetime of learning through a shared partnership where we will all learn and search for the truth. The CCFA educational program is:
-Science based learning delivered through the arts
-Value driven and cost effective
-Question focused and continuos for three years
-Thematic, cyclical and connected to everyday life in the community
-Hands-on, hearts-on, heads-on learning
-Delivered through experimental learning events
-An active process of planning, producing and pondering
-Focused on the child who creates beauty through caring, honesty & persistence. (Child-centered, generative in nature & value driven)
-Focused on the patterns & cycles of science through five arts. (Arts of Science, Mathematics, Performance, Communication & Citizenship)
-Focused on daily "learning events" that grow from a child's understanding. (Content driven (science), contextual (thematic) & continuous (natural flow)
-A discovery process where engagement is key.
-A delivery process where actions are planned, produced and pondered.
-A developmental process where learning flows from child, to adult, to community.
