Comprehensive Self-Directed Learning Program

Become Your Best

Purpose

Creating self-motivated, lifelong learners

The mission of Banbury Crossroads School is to offer high-quality education and a comfortable environment for Self-Directed Learning. We treasure and respect children as unique individuals and aim to meet their diverse needs within a safe, familial setting. Through the philosophy and methods of the Self-Directed Learning approach, our students will become self-motivated, intellectual achievers with a strong sense of self. We are passionately committed to incorporating innovative educational methods that foster intrinsic motivation, learning to mastery, personal responsibility, and social competence.

Successful self-directed learners become empathetic, confident individuals who embrace and meet the many challenges and opportunities life presents. They become compassionate, resilient, and authentic leaders.

Outcomes and Benefits

Active, Engaged, Independent Learners

Studies on Self-Directed Learning have shown that the skills and competencies that develop when students learn by themselves often lead to the creation of lifelong learners. This is only one of the many benefits of Self-Directed Learning. Other known outcomes and benefits include:

Becoming aware of one’s own learning needs
Understanding subject material in depth rather than just memorizing it.
Ability to make decisions about how they want to reach knowledge and mastery.
Learning to set goals for themselves.
Understanding how to monitor their own learning process and progress.
The development of autonomy.
Being self-motivated.
Increased ability to make good choices not only in the classroom.
A reduction in stress and powerlessness because the child has control of his or her own life.
Students do not feel judged against, compared to, or in competition with other students.
Knowing their gifts, talents, and interests are special and can flourish.
Learning to collaborate and negotiate with peers and teachers across the age spectrum.
A sense of satisfaction with their lives

The Right Fit!

Is Banbury Crossroads School the right fit for your child and your family?

Is your child a good fit for Banbury Crossroads School?

Does Banbury Crossroads School fit with your own personal values and beliefs about education?

Self-Directed Learning is based on the idea that children are naturally curious and interested in learning about the world around them through a variety of methods of exploration. Play, movement, inquiry, art, story, speech, experimenting—figuring out on their own the ways they can best know about something is part of the Self-Directed Learning process.

With the proliferation of educational alternatives, evidence shows that parents are moving away from the traditional school system of large classrooms and high teacher-student ratios and exploring alternative schools and learning models that better fit their children’s needs and/or their own goals for their children’s learning.

Self-Directed Learning will be a good fit for your child if they:

Can self-regulate
Are gifted
Are self-motivated
Enjoy being independent
Find satisfaction in accomplishments, not external praise
Enjoy having more choice and less structure
Are organized
Respect the feelings and time of others
Are good communicators

Self-Directed Learning will be a good fit for you as a parent if you:

Want school to feel like a community, not an institution
Prefer minimal bureaucracy
Believe children should learn at their own pace and level of ability
Would like teachers to be mentors, not dictators
Believe smaller class sizes (average 8:1 student to teacher) are more conducive to learning
Want your child to be happy at school while they learn
Do not believe test scores, standardized testing, and grades are the most important indicator of learning
Trust your child to learn if given the appropriate resources
Are open to non-traditional ways of learning and school environment
Believe children should have a choice in their learning and handling of their physical needs such as when to eat or use the bathroom
Want your child to become a confident, independent, lifelong learner

Some of the reasons parents choose Banbury Crossroads include:

Having had negative experiences at traditional school themselves
Feeling their children’s needs are not being met where they are now
Finding their child “hates” going to their current school for a variety of reasons
Seeing school as a source of stress and anxiety for their child
Believing children need more autonomy of movement and less time in desks
Disliking artificial age and grade divisions
There is no time for their child to explore special interests or talents outside of the curriculum
Their current school does not support diversity and inclusion of all learners
Finding their children are either “far behind” or unable to “advance ahead” in the curriculum because of the teacher-led pacing of classroom learning
Believing crushing amounts of homework are detrimental to learning and school-life balance

Choose to Succeed!

Banbury Crossroads School culture is built on the principles of Self-Directed Learning, which encourages students to take ownership of their education, learn through their interests, and develop strong character and engage in community. Our school environment is designed to be relaxed, low-stress, and nurturing, where students have the freedom to be themselves and to be seen, heard, and understood. Our focus is on celebrating individual accomplishments and experiencing the enjoyment of the learning process, rather than on the competitive pitting of students against one another for the best grades.

One of the hallmarks of our school culture is mutual respect between peers and adults. Students use first names to address staff, and mutual respect is involved in our belief that healthy children in any culture are internally motivated to master their environment, which means it is reasonable to trust their willingness to put energy into their learning. Our classes are multi-aged, which allows everyone to interact meaningfully, and classes are small, allowing teachers quality time with each student daily. The Self-Directed Learning approach allows for a more personalized and flexible education, where students can work at their own pace and level of ability.

Our school culture is also focused on building emotional intelligence and resilience in our students. We incorporate a weekly mental health skills program that builds students' skills in self-awareness, resilience, self-regulation, and socialization. Additionally, we have mentor teachers for the older students, daily mindfulness for the younger students, and student mentoring that mixes the age groups. This holistic approach to education helps our students grow into emotionally intelligent young adults who know how they learn best, how to self-advocate, and how to make responsible decisions.