At Q300, our core values frame our educational philosophy and guide the daily experience of students, teachers, and families.

We embrace the diversity of our community and work to ensure all students have the tools and support they need to learn and grow in a healthy and productive school environment. Inclusion begins with regular morning meetings or advisory periods in which students and teachers develop meaningful and supportive personal relationships by identifying all we have in common and fostering respect for our differences. Through inclusion, we hope to create students who honor others as well as themselves. 

At Q300, inclusion means more than including all students, but the entire school community. We value our teachers and families; we encourage all stakeholders to share their voices and take an active role in shaping and supporting Q300’s unique community.

We believe inquiry is the key to meaningful and enduring learning for our students. Through inquiry-based lessons, teachers provide students with opportunities to construct their knowledge and deepen their conceptual understanding across the curriculum. Inquiry allows students to fully participate in the process of asking questions, uncovering knowledge, and sharing what they have learned with others. Through sharing their learning, students participate in meaningful conversations that strengthen and develop their ability to communicate and collaborate with others. 

While students are actively involved in the process of inquiry in the classroom, inquiry is an ongoing process for our leaders, teachers, and families. We actively seek to learn more about our students and ourselves in order to ensure daily alignment with our core values and the fulfillment of our mission

We believe that it is a great responsibility to provide our students and families with an enriching educational experience that leads to the development of active and engaged citizens. At Q300, we provide students with the support they need to play an active role in the learning process to facilitate their own success and the success of others. Our ultimate goal is to guide our students as they use their unique gifts and talents to improve their community. 

An essential step in supporting our students in becoming active citizens is engaging them in annual service learning projects. Through this process, students learn how individuals can work with others to take action to improve their communities.

Having the opportunity to serve a gifted student population, we recognize that fully understanding the needs and traits of these students is vital in the design of an effective and appropriate program that will succeed in meeting the needs of our diverse learners. As we strive to foster, optimize, and harmonize our students’ high ability, task commitment, and creativity, Q300’s approach incorporates:

• Acceleration: when appropriate, this practice ensures that gifted students are exposed to the type of challenging material that motivates and stimulates them while also ensuring a life long immersion in creative and productive work that is fulfilling and transformative.
• Curriculum compacting: by effectively determining what students already know, educators can streamline the “regular” curriculum to provide gifted students with more acceleration and/or enrichment opportunities. Additionally, students can explore interest based projects or activities.
• Grouping: not to be confused with tracking, appropriate grouping, whether ability based or performance based allows us to match a student’s readiness with instruction. Consequently, students benefit academically, socially, and emotionally, through this access to a very diverse peer group.
• Teacher training: an educator’s knowledge of the specific needs and attributes of gifted students is imperative in providing effective instruction. At Q300, we ensure that all of our teachers are engaged in ongoing professional learning cycles that include access to professional development specifically focused on gifted education practices.

Q300 provides a continuum of services for students with disabilities where the systems of special and general education are merged into one collaborative, well-supported system that is able to educate children with a range of needs. Students are provided special education services specified on their Individualized Education Plan (IEP). Our special education services provide for the individual needs of the student including academic, social, physical and management needs. These services are provided with the continuing commitment of serving the student in the least restrictive environment.

Although social-emotional components are embedded in all of the aforementioned practices, it is necessary to isolate and highlight our keen interest in cultivating community among our students, staff members, and parents. By scheduling a morning meeting time at our elementary school and student advisory groups at the middle school, we demonstrate our commitment to student involvement with the social and emotional aspects of school and learning while also diversifying and deepening the nature of that learning.