THE WALKER SCHOOL 700 Cobb Parkway North Marietta, GA 30062
walkerwonders.org
The Walker School practices a nondiscriminatory policy of admission.
Wonders await.
THE WALKER SCHOOL
Consider. . . Your preschooler performing dramatically for her first real audience. Your third grader learning the basics of computer programming. Your eighth grader mentoring a rising sixth grader. Your senior telling you excitedly about string theory one day, the play she’s directing the next.
Your child, heading to the college of his choice, ready for the journey ahead. These are just some of the wonders of Walker. Wonders that await your child at every level of our school.
At Walker’s self-contained Preschool–intentionally set apart from the rest of our campus–your child gains a happy introduction to school life alongside a challenging academic curriculum. From as early as age four, she experiences inquiry-based science, stimulating language arts that emphasize writing and creative problem solving, hands-on mathematics, and social studies that help her learn cooperatively and understand different perspectives.
Presenting to his first audience.
From the time your child enters our Preschool, he gains experience speaking in front of groups. From that experience comes confidence. And from that confidence springs new discovery, unexpected triumphs, and true joy in learning.
She also delves into art projects, performs music, plays in the fresh air, uses computers, explores our library, and practices her Spanish. How many other Preschools have their own library and computer lab, art studio, and playground? I just love that my son has his own special spaces to explore made for students just his size and age. –preschool parent
Through every project and activity–from hatching live chicks to our much-anticipated Halloween Parade–your child’s teacher closely observes him and monitors his growth. As your child grows, so does his teacher’s understanding of him–as a learner, a classmate, and an individual.
self-confidence.
More wonders of Walker Preschool
We knew that this was the place for our daughter when we first walked in the door to the Preschool– we’ve rarely met such caring, warm, and truly wonderful people. –preschool parent
Our annual tea party gathers our little ones together in a formal setting where they dress up and conduct themselves as ladies and gentlemen, exercise proper etiquette, and extend courtesy to one another while loving the chance to feel like “grown ups.” Walker Reading Buddies pairs preschoolers with our second and third graders and exemplifies our focus on reading and writing and our close-knit, all-school culture. The Preschool annual art show empowers our youngest students to proudly display their own original creations.
At Walker, school’s in for summer
These are the years where your child builds the academic and social foundation that supports her entire learning life. And at Walker, these years are as joyous as they are focused because we know that children learn best when they feel understood and cared about by their teachers, appreciated by their classmates, and encouraged to simply have fun.
At Walker, your child cultivates her own unstoppable joy in learning, one wonder at a time.
Your child is new to school, and we know the importance of keeping his learning going during that first long summer vacation. Our Preschool summer day camp offers a seven-week, hands-on enrichment program that follows naturally from our early learning curriculum. Led by familiar Walker teachers, themes range from Olympic Week to Mad Scientists to Art and Game Week, fun activities that build upon your child’s past year’s learning and get him ready for the fall.
Preschool – grade 12 continuity: one of the wonders of Walker Seamless transitions
Your child, fully known
At Walker, you find no rocky crossings between divisional boundaries. In their place: secure bridges that carry your child to his next stage of learning. Current teachers meet regularly–formally and informally–with his next-grade teaching team. Together they discuss existing strengths and emerging interests, his particular learning style, and where he seeks to improve. That way, his learning momentum never gets derailed.
Whether she spends 14 years or four years on our campus, your child becomes an integral member of the Walker family, looked out for by adults and peers alike, respected for her unique talents, urged to take on new challenges, and supported no matter what. Within our attentive culture, her sense of self solidifies, her learning soars, and her future takes shape.
A full-school community At every division of our school, older children mentor, tutor, coach, and model good behavior for their younger counterparts. Seniors say hello to and open doors for eighth graders, while middle schoolers answer a curious younger student’s questions about what’s to come. And because all of our students witness our grade-specific Walker traditions–from the eighth grade Blue Ridge trip to the Senior Walk–each takes on even greater meaning when it’s your child’s turn.
Long after I graduated, many of my teachers came to my wedding, and I still keep in touch with them. That feeling is quintessential Walker: It feels like family. You’re looked out for by other students, by the staff, by the teachers. –alumna
The wonder of a full-spectrum school experience awaits your child at Walker.
Your child may be continuing from our Preschool or joining us for the first time–regardless, he finds a Lower School full of daily discovery, self-reflection, collaboration, and challenge. Third graders travel to Emory University’s Carlos Museum for a special tour through the Egyptian collection, then craft their own mummified objects for hallway display. Your fourth grader heads to both the Georgia State Bar and to the New Echota Historic Site– where the Trail of Tears began–giving him a sense of our country’s intricate and intertwined traditions.
inquiry.
Igniting the life of the mind.
The greatest part of Walker is the kids really do feel at home here. That’s why you see book bags everywhere, left unattended. This is their home. –lower school parent
Walker’s Lower School preserves the inherent joy and innocence of childhood. Here, your student further strengthens her academic foundation, builds good character and social skills, expresses herself creatively, and journeys farther out into the world.
Fifth graders embark on discovery learning throughout the year, adopting their own stream, putting on the talent show, conducting the Butterfly Project in conjunction with the University of Georgia, and taking a three-day trip to coastal Georgia to study salt marsh ecology. Our many field trips illustrate the kind of exciting learning that unfolds every day at Walker–the kind of learning that sparks the genuine desire to learn more.
Specialized spaces designed to fit your child I’ve never met a more dedicated group of individuals than the teachers and adults at Walker. These mentors of our youth create an environment where character counts and people strive to do their best. It is the perfect, well-rounded environment for my child. –lower school parent
Every detail of our Lower School–created specifically for grades one through five–fits the size and energy of our young learners. At Walker, your child explores with his classmates in spacious, sunlit classrooms, colorful art studios, welcoming hallways, an advanced computer lab, and a separate library scaled to the developmental needs of his age group. Occupying its own building just across the walkway from our Middle and Upper Schools, our Lower School gives your child the space and feeling of ownership he needs to develop appropriately on his way through Walker and into the world.
Character counts at Walker Each month, we teach Lower School students an important character habit–compassion, generosity, respect–and show them ways to live out those traits in our classrooms and in their lives. Weekly class meetings, assemblies, community service projects, and our Building Respect and Responsibility program make character education a daily reflection and a daily practice.
Everyone at Walker’s Lower School believes that learning is a trusted partnership between child, teacher, and parent. And our goals are mutual: to provide each student with an engaging academic program in an environment of love, respect, support, and trust. Together, we help your child develop higher-level thinking, a broader understanding of the world, poise, and self-confidence. And we help him love waking up each day, in giddy anticipation of what lies ahead at school.
And Walker Lower School students receive special awards when classmates “spot” them practicing one of our monthly character habits.
independence: one of the wonders of Walker Most Walker families live in a county known statewide for the quality of its public schools. But unlike even the best of these much larger options, Walker’s independent status carries unique benefits.
Customized curriculum Teaching to state-mandated guidelines and standardized tests restricts a school’s inherent creativity. At Walker, our own teachers–more than half of whom have earned an advanced degree–design every course, every curricular sequence, and every class. And they retain the flexibility to customize lessons, from day to day and year to year, to the students in front of them. That means authentic, engaging learning that focuses on the individual, not the crowd.
Creative collaboration The passion of Walker’s teachers is contagious. They talk to each other all the time–about best practices, about new brain-based research findings, about current events, books and films and art, sports and outdoor adventures, and, of course, about your child. And Walker students notice their teachers’ enthusiasm and energy, and they model it back in the classroom.
Our teachers set the standard for unbounded intellectual curiosity, for creative problem solving, and for always asking “Why?” one more time–and Walker students meet, and exceed, their high expectations.
All-the-time arts and athletics At Walker, your child doesn’t simply elect to take an art course or feel fortunate to make a team. Every year, from Preschool through grade 12, the arts–visual, performing, and musical– permeate her life, and our school culture celebrates artistic effort and achievement not only with signature events like February Arts Month, but every day. And competitive athletics– another signature of the Walker experience that builds confidence and camaraderie–begin in Middle School, giving your child the opportunity to play as many as three sports per year.
The wonder of an independent curriculum–and an independently minded faculty– awaits your child at Walker.
Here’s the nexus between childhood and adolescence. Between nurture and challenge. Here’s the Walker Middle School– a testing ground for new ideas, a safe place for growth and exploration, a collaboration between rising learners and the passionate educators who love teaching, leading, and inspiring students this age.
enthusiasm.
Learning spilling into the hallway.
Teachers here are much more approachable than they would be in a big, public school because they really know who you are as a student and as a person. –middle school student
Position yourself in our Middle School hallway as class gets out. You witness students continuing their lively American Civics debate, racing off to Robotics Club together, excitedly discussing one another’s research papers. You see adolescents who genuinely enjoy one another, who feel comfortable in their own skins. You may think, “This is middle school?” Well, not quite. It’s Walker Middle School. Sixth graders gain further fluency with the scientific method and hone their investigative skills with their regular student-led experiments. In seventh grade, Walker English students tackle the dual concepts of “identity and idealism,” and apply their emerging critical reading skills to their own analytical, persuasive, and creative writing. Eighth graders engage in high-level thinking and analysis, considering texts from George Orwell and Malcom Gladwell, solving logarithms and matrices, and polishing their research skills through original papers, projects, and presentations.
Middle School advisory
Put a bunch of Walker teachers together in a room and they’re quickly hashing out new, cool ideas of how to reach this student or topics they can collaborate on. Everywhere I look here, I see individual, caring teachers always asking individual students how they’re doing and following up. –faculty member
Twice a week, we keep an even closer-than-normal eye on every Walker middle schooler’s academic and social well-being through small group meetings led by a faculty advisor. Together, they comfortably discuss any issues that may have come up that week, participate in community service projects, or cover a specific, planned character education topic.
Middle School mentoring Each summer, Walker eighth graders contact rising sixth graders and provide an experienced perspective on all aspects of Middle School life. And new students in each grade level receive guidance from a returning Walker student to help smooth their transition.
Single-gender math Peer into a Walker Middle School math classroom, and you might be surprised to see a group of all boys working quietly on a problem, or a group of girls solving a complex equation together.
The exceptionalism of our Middle School curriculum is matched only by the inclusiveness of our Middle School culture. Here, support trumps competition, not only because of formal programs like advisory and mentoring, but because the Walker way values mutual respect, consideration, and empathy. And our students live up to the lofty expectations we set for them–in the classroom and in how they treat each other.
Our single-gender math classes came about when a Walker teacher returned from a national conference that detailed the learning differences of boys and girls during the middle school years, especially when it comes to math. While girls tend to work collaboratively and relish the opportunity to ask plenty of questions, boys prefer working individually and learn through trial and error rather than through clarifying questions. So Middle School math at Walker plays to the strength of both boys and girls, providing them each the learning environment they need to grow, gain confidence, and prepare for high school, where math once again becomes co-ed.
our mission The Walker School is the college-preparatory independent school for families seeking an engaging educational experience within an intimately scaled, caring, and diverse community where opportunities abound and meaningful relationships inspire transformative learning.
our promise Walker’s dedicated teachers exude contagious intellectual energy, demonstrate authentic interest in the life of the mind that extends beyond their core subject areas, and model genuine respect for students and one another. Through their actions and interactions, Walker teachers cultivate students’ spirit of wanting to know in every setting– the classroom and the hallway, the laboratory and the library, the art studio and the stage, the court and the playing field. Walker students, feeling known and encouraged by their teachers and classmates, come to value the experience over the applause, developing along the way the confidence to explore new avenues of thinking, the wisdom to articulate meaningful insights, and the fortitude to act with integrity and honor. At the culmination of this carefully guided, increasingly independent journey from pre-K through grade 12, Walker graduates have evolved from curious young learners into critically thinking, individually expressive, confidently collaborative, and admirably honest young adults thoroughly prepared for the intellectual and relational challenges of college and life.
Forensics and epidemiology, multivariable calculus and linear algebra, music theory, graphic design, psychology, Latin. . . No matter where your child’s interests lie, a Walker education means he learns to view the world with a critical eye, to give his full and honest effort, to appreciate the contributions of others even as he makes breakthroughs of his own.
poise.
Shining in any situation.
Your Walker student aces AP exams, wows at her piano recital, leads on the soccer field, volunteers in the community.We saw her gifts from day one, and we helped her cultivate her many talents through the years. For entrance to the college of her choice, yes. But even more importantly–to show her how vital she is to shaping an informed society as she pursues her own calling.
Meaningful learning begins with Walker teachers–passionate experts who teach what they love and love to connect with motivated students. Their enthusiasm and high standards imbue our entire Upper School with contagious intellectual curiosity and energy. Whether your son is constructing a working trebuchet, directing his own play, guarding the opposing team’s best player, or preparing for his trip to Germany, he’s modeling the behaviors and habits of mind set before him by Walker’s dedicated adults. We equip our students with a vast array of tools for success in school and in life. And every day we marvel at what they create.
None of my peers were as prepared upon entry to college as I was. In fact, in many cases, I found that some classes at Walker were more difficult than the classes I took at Georgia Tech. I ended up tutoring a lot of my dorm friends because Walker gave me the background to hit the ground running in college. –alumnus
A big difference from my last school is that here we learn to discover bias in articles, to decipher an author’s intentions, to come away with the facts but also interpret the broader argument with a critical eye. That changes everything–how you watch the
Other wonders to consider: Walker college counseling Our role as a college-prep school begins with our approach to whole-child education. And it culminates with guiding each student to the college that suits him best. Freshman year begins with group meetings, introducing students to ideas and priorities important in their college search. Sophomore year, the entire class visits two college campuses together–one large and one small–to help students prepare for their own independent visits. Junior year, each student chooses one of eight teachers to write a highly personalized recommendation letter. By senior year, each student has conducted a family meeting with a college counselor and finalizes a list of reach, aim, and safety schools. Not only do 100% of Walker graduates attend college, but we help them find their “best fit.”
news, read a magazine, listen to a debate. –upper school student
The Walker Honor Code In 2008, a student-led committee revised the wording and implementation of our Upper School Honor Code to place greater emphasis on student responsibility and leadership and shift the focus away from enforcement and toward community education. Our Honor Code espouses four core principles that shape the life of our school:
We can cite numbers: 76 percent of Walker students score a 3 or higher on their AP exams. But your student’s experience in our Upper School transcends numbers. It is, truly, an experience–mind, body, and heart working in concert to gain greater understanding of the self and the world, to uncover the previously unknown, and make authentic contributions to our school and our community.
My words will be truthful. My word is my bond. I will take and use only that which belongs to me. My work will be my own. I will not tolerate violations of these principles by others. Students and faculty alike live by the belief that honor is a way of life rather than a set of rules to follow, and we expect our graduates to carry these values with them after they leave Walker.
side-by-side wonders: artistry and athleticism At Walker, the arts and athletics complement each other. Both are natural outlets of our commitment to provide each student with the resources he needs to grow into his best self. Both build character and discipline, require practice and dedication, and both contribute to a fuller, more dynamic life.
Finding her inner artist
Playing together–and playing to win
As early as Preschool, your student takes the stage in dramatic performances and creates thoughtful works of art in our studio. She explores the arts under the guidance of educators who are practicing painters, sculptors, musicians, writers, and directors themselves. As her ability grows, she has the opportunity to exhibit her original works in galleries in and outside of Walker, to perform in musical and dramatic festivals and competitions, to take AP courses, and to simply express her creative self as fully as she wishes.
Each season, Walker pride spills onto our courts and our playing fields as the Wolverines compete strongly against our local rivals. Beginning in Middle School and continuing through Upper School, almost all Walker students play at least one sport. Many play on multiple teams each year. Our philosophy: inclusion and competitiveness go hand-in-hand. We field winning teams by practicing hard and working together. In recent years, our girls’ soccer team has won three state championships, our boys’ soccer team has won two, and boys’ and girls’ tennis each claimed state titles as well.
Walker also celebrates our commitment to the arts with many beloved traditions, including the Preschool annual art show, the Lower School spring showcase, the joint Middle and Upper School band concert, and February Arts Month.
Some of the wonders of Walker Teachers who go the extra mile
Finishing where she started
More than half of Walker’s teachers hold an advanced degree, and all engage in regular professional development–facts that speak to the expertise of our faculty. So when your student wants to go deeper, asking “Why?” or “How?” a few more times after the lesson concludes, his teacher can satisfy his increasing levels of curiosity, providing not just answers, but posing challenging new questions.
No matter when your child enters Walker, she’s joining a community where she’ll learn and grow all the way to graduation. For our earliest learners, that can mean 13 or 14 years on our campus. That level of continuity and stability pays clear dividends.
Acting as a united team, it’s our teachers’ job not only to teach compellingly, but to notice patterns in your child’s learning and to respond personally to his specific interests and needs–and then to communicate openly with you.
Culture building character We take pride in our students, because they take pride in themselves and one another. We give them plenty of credit for their good judgment, their intellectual curiosity, and their work ethic. We also expect much of them. Acting with admirable character isn’t going above and beyond at Walker; it’s simply how we carry ourselves, treat each other, and build community. In and out of the classroom, we encourage and expect students to uphold the civic values you’ve been nurturing at home.
Because we’re such a safe place, intellectual risks occur naturally. Because we’re a nurturing community, we can ratchet up the challenges even higher. It’s a carefully designed interplay that shapes your child’s increasingly independent journey toward college.
An independently minded curriculum As an independent school, Walker can move beyond restrictive state guidelines and the standardized tests mandated for public schools and instead focus on what matters to us– authentic, engaging learning that our teachers customize to the students in front of them. That opens every classroom to the possibility of creative projects, hands-on experiments, and highly interactive learning. It also means your child’s voice matters, and her mind is engaged in original, personally meaningful ways.
Performances strengthening confidence Dramatic speeches. Spring showcases. Show choir. Debate team. Upper School jazz band. Art exhibitions. Walker steadily weaves performance opportunities into your student’s in-class and after-school life–just look at our preschoolers, who sing every day. We’ve seen our shyest students seek out more public speaking opportunities after an inspiring practice run, and watched gregarious children bring confidence, sparked on the stage or in the studio, back to the classroom. At Walker, your child can’t help but pick up smart presentation habits and valuable poise.
Learning lessons on the field We commit to making athletics inclusive and welcoming at Walker while at the same time fielding highly competitive teams. Maybe that’s why 80 percent of Walker’s recent graduates participated in at least one varsity sport. We consistently demand the best from our athletes, and they rise to the challenge. Walker’s coaches draw out your student’s personal best because, over time, they’ve come to understand his particular strengths and motivations.
When wonders combine. . . A stimulating, carefully sequenced curriculum. Passionate, caring, and expert educators. A senior class whose friendships endure over the years. Myriad opportunities for students to prove what they learn, and to keep surprising themselves.
. . . the results speak volumes.
Presidential scholars
Ivy League graduates
Independent researchers
Multi-lingual teenagers
State champions
Future Ph.D.s and CEOs
International travelers
Community organizers
Accomplished artists
Inspiring young adults
Students who never stop learning. The best way to learn more about Walker is to see our wonders in action. Your family can schedule a tour or shadow day year-round. Visit thewalkerschool.org/admission to learn more or give us a call at 678-581-6891.
THE WALKER SCHOOL
where wonders await.