Vision, Mission and Philosophy
OUR VISION
We strive to ignite and instill confidence and skills to excel in a global and changing environment.
OUR MISSION
We prepare a diverse community of students–age two through fifth grade–to be confident lifelong learners who engage productively with their world through a joyful, challenging, and progressive program. With an intentional whole-child approach, we support students in reaching their cognitive, social, emotional, moral, and physical potential.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
Childhood is a continuous and unfolding process, and all children advance through cognitive, social, emotional, moral, and physical stages of development. All people benefit from positive attitudes about lifelong learning and living in a democratic society.
We live our philosophy by adhering to these key elements of our program:
Whole Child Development
We are intentional in supporting students’ growth in all five areas of development and facilitate their growth through an integrated curriculum that provides more meaningful learning than through isolated study of individual subjects. Teachers authentically assess students through regular observation, both formally and informally.
Learning in Community
Our purposeful, welcoming community rooted in mutual respect empowers students and adults to build meaningful relationships and to feel safe to take risks. Our environment instills a joy of learning by encouraging and supporting curiosity, discovery, creativity, and an open exchange of ideas through collaboration and cooperation.
Learning through Experience
We empower students daily to construct knowledge and understanding through active engagement, hands-on learning, and social interaction. Students benefit from making authentic connections and contributions to the real world.
Environment as Teacher
We create learning spaces indoors and in nature that promote and reflect students’ independence, responsibility, community, and ownership of learning.
Benefits of Nature
Nature-based play, open exploration, and guided experiences cultivate students’ environmental stewardship and strengthen their roots to their community and world.
Dignity, Respect, & Voice
We empower students through positive discipline, respectful language and actions, and acknowledgment of everyone’s voice and experience to make responsible choices, solve problems, be thoughtful members of their communities, and develop habits of self-regulation and civic responsibility.
Foundational Independence
We blend choices and decision-making into routines and expectations to help students develop a strong foundation of habits and skills. Students learn to value the intrinsic motivations for learning rather than depend on extrinsic ones.
Critical Self-Reliance & Self-Confidence
We nurture students’ strong sense of self and identity, which are vital to being engaged and having agency in one’s learning.
Teachers as Facilitators
Our faculty and staff serve as guides, supporting and challenging students to reach their full potential in all areas of development. We use inquiry-based learning to engage students in active, deep investigations that depends on critical thinking and values both what students learn and how they learn.
Honoring Uniqueness
We embrace multiculturalism, foster inclusion, and facilitate students’ discovery and acceptance of themselves and others by acknowledging and celebrating differences. We emphasize differentiation in the classroom to meet students’ individual needs; we also recognize that some students are better served in different programs or settings.
Celebration of Equity & Justice
We integrate social justice and anti-racism throughout our program, reinforced through service-learning projects and community engagement. We all grow beyond ourselves when embracing and including others.
Partnership with Families
We value a strong collaboration between home and school, knowing this partnership is central to the life of the school and critical to student success.
OUR DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION, BELONGING & JUSTICE STATEMENT
Virginia Chance School is intentionally inclusive, welcoming all members of our community and affirming the wide spectrum of cultural traditions, backgrounds, and life experiences represented among our students, faculty, staff, and families.
We embrace and celebrate each person’s individuality. We invite each other to understand and value multiple perspectives, to identify and reject stereotypes and biases, and to work for equity and peace within the school and beyond.
The diversity we affirm includes, but is not limited to, race, ethnicity, national origin, creed, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, socioeconomic status, or ability.
We uphold this commitment by being welcoming to all our families; by enriching our student body, faculty, staff, and board with members from varied backgrounds; and by learning with our students how to become compassionate citizens of our world. Through these efforts to engage across differences, we connect in our shared humanity and prepare our students for a lifetime of meaningful, peaceful relationships at home and in the world.
- The VCS Board of Trustees affirmed these Core Statements on November 18, 2025