Dear Friends of Cary Academy,
In a relatively short period of time, Cary Academy has established itself as a premier independent school in the Southeast, serving the diverse and future‐forward population of the burgeoning Research Triangle area. The school is excelling on nearly all benchmarks used to assess independent school strength: strong admissions demand and low attrition rates, prudent fiscal management and solid cash reserves, creative and inspiring teaching and high student and parent satisfaction levels, and a remarkable track record of student success at a broad pool of outstanding colleges and universities.
Operating from this position of strength, the time is right for Cary Academy to take the next step and become one of the leading schools in the world.
With the launch of the school’s new strategic plan, we seek to re‐capture that entrepreneurial, can‐do spirit of our founding – unlocking the next wave of big thinking and creative energy within our community. We aspire to create learning opportunities that are flexible, personalized, and relevant – cultivating self‐directed and bold life‐long learners who make meaningful contributions to the world.
To do this, we will reimagine and redesign our curriculum to help students engage with interdisciplinary concepts and new ideas in both innovative and practical ways. Further, we see exciting opportunities to refine our facilities, providing more mixed‐use, flexible spaces that are oriented towards the technology‐rich ways students and teachers interact with content and with each other. Finally, we aspire to be a leader in the development of outstanding teachers, building programs and connections that have a positive impact in our world.
The Challenge
The world of education is in the middle of an epic transformation. Technology is giving rise to new ways of accessing knowledge, creating meaning, and sharing ideas. Brain science is giving us a deeper understanding of how to consider learning in a singular local context but within a wider, more complex and interdependent world.
As visiting Harvard professor Pasi Sahlberg notes, today’s students need to be “innovation ready.” Students must be able to direct their own learning. Creativity has replaced compliance as an essential outcome of our educational system.
Cary Academy is uniquely positioned to support the development of students for this dynamic future. We believe we can and we must fulfill this vision.
Learn More
You can learn more about our strategic plan from our newly launched website at http://blogs.caryacademy.org/ca2020. On that site you can see the full vision for the next five years, including action items that were drafted as part of the original planning process.
A web site is the most appropriate place to publish our plan, as this is very much a “living document.” While our goals and strategies will remain constant, we expect our action items could adjust to reflect changes in circumstances or new realities. As such, please do feel free to check back on the website periodically to see what we’re up to.
An Invitation
We also invite all Cary Academy parents, grandparents, and alumni to join our employees and students on November 6, 2015 for a day-long Celebration of Creativity and Innovation.
This celebration will take place as part of our traditional “Grandparents and Special Friends Day.” As usual, we will have an exciting program for grandparents in the morning, but we have extended the day to include a mid-day “speakers showcase” and an afternoon of hands-on, creative projects being designed by our visual and performing arts department and technology and robotics faculty.
Look for more information on our website and through email, including a link to a downloadable application for your phone that can serve as your personal guide to all the exciting plans for the day.
