Angela Gray, who serves as the Chief Enrollment Officer with The Oaks Academy, originally started out as a parent to an enrolled student. She was looking for a place for her son to start pre-kindergarten, and ultimately fell in love with the school. She got more involved, and after leaving her career in Human Resources behind, she started volunteering at The Oaks. Her son has since graduated and grown up, but she still remains at The Oaks more than 20 years later, believing in and sharing the school’s mission and values. We recently got the privilege of chatting with Gray, and she told us about The Oaks Academy, their mission, and why it could be a great fit for your family.
Share with us more about The Oaks Academy – what is the overall mission of the school for their students?
“The Oaks is a Christ-centered school that exists to provide a rich, classical education to children of diverse, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds,” says Gray. “We are preparing them to succeed in a rigorous, secondary educational program, and to help to develop their social-emotional maturity in partnership with their parents.” The Oaks Academy enrolls students in pre-k all the way through the 8th grade. Families come in at various times, but for the most part, families enroll their child or children in pre-k and kindergarten.
Briefly share with us about the academic programs with each grade level: Pre-K, Lower School and Middle School.
The Oaks Academy has four different campus locations with focused grade levels: The Martindale-Brightwood Pre-Kindergarten Education Center, the Fall Creek Lower School and Brookside Lower School (for students in kindergarten through 5th grade), and Martindale-Brightwood Middle School (for students in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades). In each school, expect small class sizes where there are two teachers in every class.
Pre-k and kindergarten: For both of these early education grade levels, the staff at The Oaks helps children to start developing academic success by building on their social, fine, and gross motor self-care skills. “We’ve devised a program that is time tested with the curriculum,” says Gray. “We want to inspire a love of learning in every child, and children will master developmental skills as they learn to explore and play and start their journey to holistic success.” The Oaks staff looks at the whole child, not only focusing on whether they can form their letters for example, but if they are able to develop good habits from the moment they walk in the door. Gray says parents and caregivers can expect the following for their child: daily indoor and outdoor play, gross and fine motor skill development, music, movement, reading, writing, nature walks and observations, poetry and memorization, art, and field trips.
Grades 1st-5th grade: Continuing what they’ve learned in early education, students in the lower schools can also expect to have core subjects like science, math, reading, language arts, and comprehension with “specials” being art, music, and library time. They are also continuing their habit development that will follow them into adulthood, including learning obedience, respect, and self control. And of course, field trips!
Middle school: In middle school, there will be a teacher for each subject and students are expected to juggle classroom responsibilities with rigorous schedules. At this point, they have been learning those habits that they can utilize in middle school. Class sizes are still manageable, with 20 students max per class, and they do testing to ensure students are placed in the right groups. Parents can expect their child to take literature, language arts, math, and science – including lab sciences. They continue to go on field trips, study trips, and a couple of those are overnight trips. Gray excitedly wraps up by saying that it’s important for students to see the world and experience it not only in an academic setting but a social-emotional setting.
What makes The Oaks Academy stand out when compared to other schools?
“I’m a mom first,” says Gray. “So I do gravitate towards, ‘How will my child feel in that school… How will our family feel in that school?’ and I would say the most important thing to me as a mom is that I felt like my child was known by the educators, by his teachers, by the other families there. It was so relational.” She continues by saying that the relationships children develop at The Oaks Academy are just as important as the rigorous academic schedule. Whenever she speaks with a prospective student’s family, she will ask what is most important to them and feels great pride in telling them that their child will be safe, happy, and feel like they belong.
How can families learn more about The Oaks Academy, including the enrollment and admissions process?
The Oaks Academy website has a vast amount of information says Gray, so much so that you can get any question answered without the stress of having to talk to someone. But if you would like to speak to someone, Gray says she loves when a prospective parent or guardian reaches out to her directly. You can call 317.931.3693 to get in touch with her.
Watch the full interview with Angela Gray, Chief Enrollment Officer with The Oaks Academy, here:
About The Oaks Academy
Founded in 1998, The Oaks Academy is a Christ-Centered school that exists to provide a rich, classical education to children of diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds, preparing them to succeed in a rigorous secondary educational program and to demonstrate spiritual, social and emotional maturity.
