Our students participate in local and state piano contests and give piano recitals on campus,  enter writing contests, participate in two annual national geography contests and the WordMaster Challenge, and join in the Knowledge Master Tournament – a national contest they won in 1994 in a competition with 700 other school teams across the United States.

In a supportive environment of mutual respect, confidence and high expectations, 517 boys and girls in grades 1-6 are offered academic challenges and daily opportunities to experience success. Primary students in grades 1-3 spend the majority of each day learning with one teacher, but they also enjoy several periods a week with enrichments specialists in art, music, dance, guidance, Spanish, computer, library, hands-on science, and physical education. The experience of changing classrooms and being taught academic subjects by more than one teacher is introduced in grade 4 and gradually extended in grades 5 and 6. However, students in these intermediate grades continue to move with their own classmates and receive guidance from and maintain close contact with their own homeroom teachers.

Our commitment to certain traditional standards and practices promotes the secure and stable environment we enjoy. Students wear attractive, neat uniforms that build pride in their school community. Teachers give regular homework assignments to reinforce classroom instruction and to develop responsibility and the ability to budget time wisely. In grades 3-6, all students are required to keep these assignments in their planbooks. In grades 4-6 regular afternoon periods are set aside to provide students with time for supervised study, private and small group lessons in the arts, or participation in musical groups, such as handbells, choir, and band. All teachers provide at least two extra-help sessions each week after the class day ends.

Development of character, manners and a strong set of values is another commitment in Lower School. Homeroom time each day includes a morning lesson identical for all children. Having all students pursue the same goals in character development at the same time enables students to assist each other with their growth in this area, heightens its importance to students, and creates a common bond among all grade levels. Values assemblies further strengthen moral development as speakers and professional theatre troupes convey lessons about responsible behavior.

Participation in community service projects is another method used to prepare students for responsible citizenship in our world. Each homeroom adopts a project which serves the community. These have included visits to nursing homes, bake sales to support the Wildlife Care Center, adoption of manatees and Metro Zoo animals, providing holiday gifts for Kids in Distress, baking homemade dog biscuits for Humane Society animals, making and selling Thanksgiving placecards to benefit local food banks, sodding homes for Habitat for Humanity, buying supplies for SOS Children’s Village and for migrant schools, and providing baskets of essentials for Covenant House, a local runaway shelter. School-wide service projects are enthusiastically supported, whether they involve a Thanksgiving food drive, jumping rope to raise funds for the American Heart Association, collecting for UNICEF, or holding our annual holiday party on campus for five hundred underprivileged children.

In addition to enrichment classes, our students regularly enjoy other campus resources. The Lower School Library, with more than 21,000 elementary-level books and 110 periodicals, 1,750 media items, and a research lab with 25 Windows computers and Withrow Computer Laboratory, housing 30 Macintosh computers, are extremely popular facilities. The Friedt Campus (complete with lake, climbing wall, pavilion, natural stand of mangrove, woods and boardwalk nature trail) is often the site for science lessons, canoeing instruction, and orienteering, as well as cookouts and picnics. Learning is extended beyond the school grounds through field trips, both academic and cultural to the symphony, ballet, museums, local businesses, government offices and historic buildings and landmarks of South Florida. Fifth graders take trips to the Everglades to study freshwater ecology and snorkel in the Florida Keys during an oceanography unit. Fifth graders will also travel to Williamsburg, Jamestown and Washington this spring.  Fourth graders take an overnight trip to Kennedy Space Center and spend a half-day at Space Camp. Sixth graders look forward to their four-day social studies trip to Washington and Mount Vernon this fall and to their trip to Splendid China in the spring.

Our goals are to help students achieve their academic potential, explore their creative talents, and grow in their ability to think and act responsibly. Lower School teachers want our boys and girls to move to the Upper School and to adolescence with a positive attitude toward learning and to desire to become active, contributing students in the many curricular and extra-curricular programs available to them.