Strategic Priorities
Strategic Priorities All Impact Student Success & Learning Effectiveness
People
As a people-first institution, our goal is to create a community of belonging that promotes the personal, academic, and professional growth of every member. Kingswood Oxford knows that students learn best when surrounded by first-rate teachers dedicated to their personal and academic growth. That means increasing faculty development in innovative and effective teaching methods that promote student learning, creativity, and problem-solving.
An Exceptional Faculty & Staff
- Build a professional community that attracts and retains exceptional faculty and staff by offering a competitive compensation and benefits package and ample opportunities for professional growth.
- Develop a meaningful evaluation process that promotes a community-wide culture of professional growth and accountability.
- Cultivate an inclusive and equitable community by hiring diverse faculty and staff.
A Day School that Builds Community
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Become a community hub that connects families to KO through social events, new traditions, signature student life experiences, and family education workshops.
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Cultivate an inclusive school culture and climate that promotes student wellness and fosters a sense of belonging for every student.
PROGRESS TOWARD GOAL
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KO has made a significant financial commitment to attract and retain top teachers by creating a more sustainable work environment for its faculty, emphasizing greater flexibility and additional compensation for extra coaching and extracurricular duties.
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KO has earmarked additional financial resources to assist families in need.
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The school has created a Student Wellness Team whose mission is to empower our students with the tools, both academic and emotional, to guide them through their years at KO, so they can make positive and healthy choices and thrive at school and beyond.
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The school established a house system for year-long intramural competition among Forms to build greater connections among the grades.
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The school has organized community and leadership-building camping trips in the Middle School and Form 3.
Program
Kingswood Oxford believes that we have a responsibility to prepare our students for success in college and jobs of the future. In addition to a college preparatory curriculum, we must provide students with a deeper set of knowledge, skills, and dispositions.
Transformational Teaching & Engaged Learning
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Build upon our curriculum and develop Signature Programs that create student-driven and interdisciplinary learning experiences.
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Create mutually beneficial partnerships with people and institutions in the Greater Hartford area that will provide opportunities for service learning and compelling student drive projects.
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Develop a 6-12 Life-Skills and Character Education curriculum that will help guide our students as they navigate the adolescent years and prepare them to live happy and healthy lives as adults.
Progress Toward Goal
Since the launch of our Strategic Vision, we have developed several interdisciplinary programs that allow students to integrate and transfer knowledge, draw inferences, examine ideas, and think more critically.
- Rivers Course – Examining the impact of the water and local rivers synthesizing science, history, and English – Middle School.
- Global Cities – Reviewing key global cities through the United Nation’s sustainability goals – Upper School.
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English Symposium Tracey K. Smith’s poetry class with dance/movement performance – Upper School.
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Literature of Climate Change elective combining literature and science – Upper School.
We have created partnerships with people and institutions in the Greater Hartford area for compelling projects.
- Theater Department workshopped with local dancers in Choreographer Showcases.
- History department partnered with UConn law students in asylum rights.
- History Department is working with Hartford 400.
- Middle School has teamed up with the Connecticut River watershed.
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Witness Stones history project connects students with local historians to research West Hartford’s enslaved peoples.
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Frequent local speakers and experts share their experiences with students.
Place
KO students continually refer to KO as home. It’s a safe space where they are free to be themselves and grow into whom they want to be. Home means personal connections and the physical environment and spaces that promote collaborative work, individual study, meetings, presentations, dining, and socializing. The Upper Campus will be transformed into a pedestrian-only, college-like setting with abundant outdoor spaces for students and community members to gather and enjoy each other’s company.
A Master Campus Plan Aligned with our Vision
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Construct a new Community Commons to serve as a state-of-the-art resource on campus for community gathering, dining, and flexible spaces for student/faculty collaboration and research
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Upgrade athletic facilities to include turf fields, baseball dug-outs
Progress Toward Goal
- The school has retained the services of Centerbrook Associates, a well-regarded architectural firm located in Connecticut that has extensive experience in redesigning spaces for area independent schools. The firm has conducted several meetings with key constituents at KO, toured the facilities, and drawn up several schematics for the site.
Interdisciplinary Learning & Partnership News
