Elementary
Embrace. Develop. Expand.
The Lower School Experience
Gainesville Preparatory School: One of the Leading Elementary Schools in Gainesville, GA
In these early years, our goal is to instill a lifelong passion for Christ and learning in children, help them to become contagious Christians, compassionate citizens, critical, curious, and creative thinkers, as well as confident communicators and collaborators. These 21st-century skills, grounded in the historic Christian faith, are embedded in the fabric of our learning at Gainesville Preparatory School! Our highly experienced faculty creates an engaging and hands-on environment, nurturing our children’s hearts, minds, and souls through a personalized educational program that allows children to have voice and choice in their learning.
Discipleship
Discipleship
Building disciples is the ultimate goal at Gainesville Prep and through daily Bible lessons, weekly chapels, small groups, and integration of faith into every subject, children are well-grounded in the historic Christian faith.
Multi-Age Classrooms
Multi-Age Classrooms
As one of the leading Elementary schools in Gainesville, We utilizes multi-age classrooms, grouping children into K-1, 2-3, and 4-5, overcoming the artificial separation that occurs with traditional class separation. This allows struggling and advanced learners to move at their own pace and for many social-emotional learning opportunities. Data shows that there are strong benefits to experiencing multiple ages in the same class. Click below to find out more.
Technology
Technology
All children K-5 have a personal Chromebook that they utilize for assignments, research, fun learning activities (IXL, Boddle Learning, and Reading Eggs), presentations, and additional learning support. Technological literacy is important to us at Gainesville Prep, and we strive to ensure our children, even the youngest, are well on their way to learning 21st computing skills.
Specials
Specials
Our elementary children have music, Spanish, and art classes integrated into their week and have recess, including directed physical activities, multiple times a day! Research shows that children's attention spans increase when they can be active during the school day, and our experience has only increased our belief in allowing our children time to be active and use their imaginations.
Personalized Learning
Every child is unique as a learner, and at Gainesville Prep as one of the elementary schools in Gainesville, we create a classroom where children can express that individuality in their learning interests in multiple ways. While covering the same challenging and rigorous curriculum, including math, reading, writing, science, history, Spanish, art, and music, children are allowed to choose aspects for more in-depth investigation and are enabled to present their learning in multiple ways beyond traditional pen-and-paper tests. The goal is to allow children voice and choice that engenders a lifelong love of learning.
Another advantage to personalized learning is that we can work with children that have different learning needs, including struggling and gifted learners, in the same classroom. It is a joy to watch all children flourish in the same classroom! Our small class sizes, low child-to-teacher ratio, and use of technology provide an optimal environment for individualized attention.
Schools runs from 8:30AM to 3:30PM and an additional aftercare program is offered until 6:00PM.
Yes, we love parent volunteers in our classrooms! We do require a background check and a scheduled time to volunteer. You can contact your child’s teacher to setup a visit.
GPS utilizes standards-based grading (SBG), but do not worry, we will get you up to speed on how this works and the advantages. Briefly, SBG gives you a more detailed picture of your child’s successes and areas where they may struggle. You can check out this link for more information.
Our children take approximately one field trip every quarter and have seen plays, visited the gold mines in Dahlonega, and a petting zoo. We look forward to planning many more memorable trips for our kids.
We utilize ACSI’s Purposeful Design curriculum for reading, math, and spelling, while we integrate our Christian faith into the Georgia Standards of Excellence for science and social studies. We meet and often exceed the Georgia standards for each grade level, with our standards-based grading model allowing us to push our children to new heights of excellence!
Our Mission
The mission of Gainesville Preparatory School is to embrace each child as uniquely made in the image of God, and develop them as disciples of Christ who flourish spiritually, socially, and academically in order to expand the Kingdom of God on earth.