Connecting young learners to place and community
#radicalruraleducation
National leader in Place Based Education
Holler Creek School of Appalachian Ecology is a small non-profit school serving children ages 4-7 located in Carroll County, VA, just below the Blue Ridge Parkway. We use place-based education to connect children to their community and deeply engage them in their academic, social, and emotional growth. We seek to provide a radical educational experience for all children, regardless of background, economic means, or learning style.
Make a Donation
It is central to our mission that anyone who wants to can attend Holler Creek School. We rely on the donor support in order to fund scholarships to make high quality place based learning possible for all
Apply for ‘24-25
To apply, make sure to fill out an application AND sign up for a tour!
What makes us different?
Small
Our classes are a maximum of 8 children, with only 16 in the whole school.
Outside
We spend 90% of our day outside most days of the school year. Our students see the outdoors as a place of learning and connection.
Experienced Teachers
Our teachers average almost two decades of experience in education working with all types of learners
Integrated
Project work, field work, and core subject areas are all connected to the local community. And we have pigeons!!
We want to acknowledge that we are on the traditional territory of the Tutelo, or Yesa, and that this land has a far richer history than we know.
Who We Are
What Defines Us
Place-Based Education
Holler Creek School is rooted in Place-Based Education. That means learning arises authentically from culturally relevant experiences in the Blue Ridge Mountains. While we maintain high expectations and rigorous standards, our integrated studies of core subject areas (e.g. reading, writing, math, science, history) emerge from our everyday lives and what is going on in our community and the natural world around us. We use Place-Based Education to find common ground with students and to cultivate a school culture of inquiry, investigation, observation, and innovation. At HCS, children are actively engaged in their learning, and they are contributing members of their school and local community.
Family Involvement
Family support, not only of your child(ren) but of the whole school community, is critical to the day-to-day functioning of HCS. Family members contribute however they choose to, and it may look different depending on what they can give: time, effort, thought, communication, help with specific tasks like fundraising, chaperoning field work, providing additional project support, and helping your child(ren) with at-home learning are all valued and appreciated by staff. Monthly community building family events are a chance for all of us to gather on campus and celebrate our collective efforts while enjoying music, food, project presentations, bonfires, or another special event.
Cooperative Community
Our place-based education model grounds us in the concept of community. A home and school is where community starts for most children, and their circles widen as they grow and become aware of the bigger spaces they inhabit--their town, county, state, country, and world. As a small school, Holler Creek’s students, families, and staff form a close, supportive community. Staff know children very well, and strive to know their families well, too. As part of the regular school day, children participate daily in all-school morning meeting, snack break, lunch and recess, hikes, and place-based projects. Much of our curriculum is rooted in our shared experiences on campus most days and further afield on Field Work Fridays.
Our Core Values
Curiosity: Cultivating a sense of wonder and desire to question, explore, and deepen our understanding of the natural and human-made world
Integrity: Striving to align our thoughts and actions with our values, we place emphasis on putting effort and thought into our work and play in order to communicate honestly and effectively, and to produce high quality work.
Kindness: Showing sincere generosity, support, and concern for others rooted in empathy
Respect: Appreciating the value of people and objects in our community, demonstrating our gratitude for them by learning how our actions impact them, and then making the choice to have a positive impact.
Mission Statement
Our Mission
Holler Creek School of Appalachian Ecology is an inclusive, diverse community dedicated to the study of and connection to the natural and human environments of the region.
Our Method
Within this place-based approach, students learn outdoors through direct, authentic experiences to support their academic, social, and emotional growth as individuals. Students are actively engaged through inquiry, investigation, observation, cooperation and reflection. This deeply experiential learning serves as the basis for a developmentally appropriate, rigorous curriculum that is responsive to individual needs.
Our Vision
Grounded in humble respect for our surroundings, and the world as a whole, Holler Creek seeks to provide learners with hands-on experiences to explore their relationship to place and people, while also building a strong foundation of academic skills. Within each child, we seek to nurture a curious mind, a kind spirit, and a love for learning deeply about a place and community, so that they can learn deeply wherever they go.
Curriculum
Academic Learning at Holler Creek
Because learning is deeply experiential at HCS, our academic subjects are integrated. However, we do have time built into our daily schedule to focus specifically on literacy and math. Our staff has extensive experience and training teaching reading and writing with a developmental scope and sequence in order to tailor activities and instruction to individual student needs. For early readers, we use a phonics-based approach to teach decoding, and for all levels of reading experience, we build fluency and reading comprehension skills through meaningful interactions with all kinds of texts. For writing, we draw content from Empowering Writers and Lucy Calkins. We also recognize that language comprehension, oral expression, and auditory processing are key components of reading and writing as well, and cultivate these skills in our students throughout all of our school day.
Mathematics at Holler Creek also meets each child where they are, building on what they know so that they can integrate new concepts with what is already familiar to them. In order to provide our students with comprehensive instruction in this academic subject, we use the Math Mammoth curriculum for all grades, aligning to the Common Core. In addition, we use our own supplemental materials such as games, projects, and most importantly, the real-life problem-solving and inquiry-based math that arises from our place-based, hands-on work.
Science and Social Studies at Holler Creek are at the core of our project work and place-based experiences. When make observations, generate meaningful questions, make predictions (hypotheses) about them, and then investigate those questions, we are learning to think like a scientist by using the scientific method in a developmentally appropriate way. When we make our own discoveries, we form new questions, and we are engaged in our learning and the natural world. Science at Holler Creek typically covers topics in earth science, biology (life science), physics (movement), and other disciplines. Social Studies are integrated into our study of people in our school community, our homes, neighborhoods, counties, Virginia, Appalachia, the US, and even the world. We emphasize that a deep understanding of both history and current issues in the space they are in will help them as they grow into these larger and more complex spaces. We seek out local resources, field work sites, “guest experts” and storytellers to connect our students with history.
We make the Arts a priority, with daily opportunities for music and art. Specific classes in these areas occur twice per week, but we sing together every day at our morning meeting or after lunch, and we encourage students to play instruments during this time as well. Mt. Airy and this geographic area has a wealth of resources for exploring the history of old time and bluegrass music, and we take advantage of this in our fieldwork, projects, and special events! Visual art at Holler Creek includes observational drawing and project work, with specific projects ranging from folk arts like weaving, painting, carving, woodworking, to following the Appalachian ingenuity of creating “something out of nothing.”
“We need a curriculum that aspires to ecological literacy - a deep understanding of the flora, fauna, water, culture, and communities that children live in.”
— David Sobel, Mapmaking with Children: Sense of Place Education for the Elementary Years
NOTICE OF NONDISCRIMINATORY POLICY AS TO STUDENTS
Holler Creek School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, political affiliation, or national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.