The benefit of an Open School education is that everything counts, there isn’t a sharp line between when you are in school and when you’re not, learning is part of everything you do and happens everywhere you go.
The Open School offers a fully virtual, Sudbury experience that fits your family’s needs and supports your child’s growth. In our virtual community students are in charge of their education and their school.
Community is central to The Open School’s virtual program. Even though Open School students are spread across the country, working from bedrooms, basements, and home offices, and pursuing their individual passions and interests, they belong to a safe, welcoming, and supportive community.
In the virtual program students are continuously co-building their individual journeys and the community itself.
Long-term student/staff relationships
Each student has a staff adviser to help them plan, reflect, and problem solve. Students also build strong relationships with all staff members through group advising, activities, committees, and unscheduled hangouts.
The benefit of an Open School education is that everything counts, there isn’t a sharp line between when you are in school and when you’re not, learning is part of everything you do and happens everywhere you go.
The virtual program is designed to afford students and their families maximum freedom and flexibility in creating an experience that works best. Students have the freedom to choose when, where, and how they participate in our community.
Flexibility can include the ability to connect and communicate with our community in a way that feels right for each student and meets them where they are at. Sometimes location, family situations, health, mental health, neurodiversity, etc. can make attending an in person school challenging.
A student’s Open School experience could include a full day of activities connecting with other students and staff in our online community or it could include a mix of online and in person activities.
Every voice matters. All students are equal members of the weekly School Meeting where decisions are made about rules, resources, and priorities.
Everyone—regardless of age—has one vote, deciding on everything from policies and field trips to budgeting for projects or launching an algebra class. Students may also decide to join a Committee, such as the Conflict Resolution Committee or Virtual Community Development Committee or become an Agent such as the School Meeting Chair or the Birthday Agent to help the day to day running of the school.
At The Open School the deeper meaning of democracy happens day to day in casual conversations, chats, and consultations. Part of the function of Advising, Group Advising, and Committees is to give every student an opportunity to talk about problems, solutions, and ideas for changes. Students have a genuine voice in the virtual program and our community makes sure to listen to every voice.
One goal for our virtual community is to be a safe and welcoming place. Students should be free to be their true and authentic selves and still feel that they belong.
In a safe community a student can participate without fear. In a welcoming community they can share their passions and interests, they can pursue their own goals and make their own choices and feel like they belong.
Achieving a safe and welcoming community requires everyone to be involved. We have a Law Book, created through School Meeting, that enumerates the rules of the community. We also have a Discord Moderators Committee that monitors our virtual space and a Conflict Resolution Committee that addresses concerns and rule breaking.
Our primary method of maintaining a safe and welcoming community is cultural. Our students have embraced the idea that this is not the same kind of community you might find on the open internet. Our students want our space to be different. They want a space where they can be creative and silly and authentic without fear of bullying or abuse.
Students at The Open School are welcome to spend their time following their own interests and curiosity and pursuing their personal goals but we also offer an evolving slate of co-created activities and offerings.
Weekly Activities
Each week students create and sponsor activities that they would like to participate in, these might include games they want to play, topics they want to discuss, music and videos they want to share, even picnics, dance parties, and hangouts. Then, at the end of the week the students vote and schedule events for the next week’s calendar.
Spontaneous, Self-Directed, and Group Activities
Just because an activity isn’t on the schedule doesn’t prevent students from organizing themselves for creative projects, games, and hangouts. We have open voice and video channels that are always available for students to gather together to work and play.
Session Offerings
For students interested in activities that have a longer duration, we run 6 week sessions for classes, workshops, projects, and seminars. These might include introductions to academic topics, workshops on art, music, animation, and video tricks and techniques, group creative projects, or any other topic students are interested in.
Like all Sudbury Schools, the virtual program values play and playfulness as a fundamental part of learning and growing for students of all ages. You will find the core tenets of play: taking risks, making mistakes, exploring new ideas, and experiencing joy every day in our virtual community.
When students play, they are engaged, relaxed, and challenged. Through play students, test theories about how the world works, experiment with language, explore social relations, take risks, reimagine the world. Play and playfulness create rich psychological experiences like empathy, agency, and imagination. When engaged in play students learn to deal with uncertainty, adapt and improvise, and find solutions.
We have intentionally built a virtual community that not only values play and playfulness but has found ways in our virtual space to encourage and enable the kind of play you would see naturally at an in person Sudbury program.
In addition, the virtual program provides the flexibility for students to play outside of our virtual space and in the real world. We have an open, flexible schedule and very limited attendance requirements in order to give students the opportunity to play and be active in the real world.
Every student has an assigned adviser for one on one advising sessions but that is far from the only interaction they will have with Open School staff. The staff make a point of being present and available to all of the students in the virtual community with the goal of helping them on their individual learning journey.
It is not hard for students to find an Open School staff member in the virtual community. They serve as advisers, mentors, tutors, committee members, teachers, college counselors, trouble shooters. They hang out with students in the lounge, participate in activities, lead group advising, have open office hours, serve as server moderators, and attend School Meeting.
Students are afforded the freedom to pursue their journey, they are also given the responsibility to manage and maintain the community in which their journey takes place.
Every student plays a leadership role at the school from managing the community as a member of the School Meeting, to sharing their journey with others and supporting others as they follow their own paths.
For students who want to be more active in this community they may elect to join a committee or become a designated agent.
In our virtual community students develop meaningful relationships and friendships that span many years, and many miles. Our annual travel opportunities give students the chance to connect with each other in person and are always a highlight of our year.
Camp IRL
Once per year, students from across the country travel to Orange County for a week-long “Camp IRL”. This is a unique opportunity for virtual students to meet each other face-to-face, while also getting to visit local attractions and experience what goes on at The Open School campus.
The Adventure
Any high school aged student can elect to participate in a group-planned travel experience called The Adventure. The Adventure is typically 1 or 2 weeks in length with the location, lodging, and activities picked and planned by the students.
Travel Task Force
The Travel Task Force plans and executes shorter, regional, or additional opportunities for virtual students to meet up with each other in the real world.
Family Travel
We recognize the immense value of travel experiences and the flexibility of our virtual program enables families to travel with their students without problems or guilt.
How do students learn in this kind of school?
Learning at The Open School is often open ended, unstructured, and self-directed. It doesn’t look much like a traditional classroom; it is closer to a library. Like a library, we provide resources, opportunities, and professional staff to support students as they follow their joy, curiosity, interest, passions, and goals. Our job isn’t to determine what is important to them, our job is to help them explore the world, make meaning, and pursue their own learning journey.
There are many ways to learn within our virtual community informally, spontaneously, and structured. We work hard to make our community a great place to hang out. We also recognize that there is a world beyond our virtual space that is worth exploring, too. We encourage our students to consider all of their activities and experiences as part of their overall learning journey with The Open School.
Here are some ways that students can explore their world beyond The Open School.
Organized Activities: Community Theatre, Day Trips, Scouts, Sports, Clubs
Spontaneous Activities: Outdoor Play and Activities, Libraries and Museums, Festivals and Concerts, Running Errands, Parks
Structured Learning: College Classes, Language Learning, Independent Study, Online Classes, Music Lessons
Job Experiences: Start a Business, Part Time Job, Internships, Volunteer, Shadow
Students at The Open School have spent years learning about themselves and how they fit into the world. They are practiced in making choices and reflecting on their experiences. Graduates of Sudbury schools like The Open School go on to four year colleges, start businesses, and live fulfilling lives.
To prepare for life after The Open School we have the following options:
College Credit Courses
The Open School virtual program has partnered with Arizona State University to make over 70 college credit courses available to our students. The Open School staff are available to help students choose courses, get signed up, and support their progress.
Diploma Program
High school aged students in the Diploma Program have access to additional staff mentoring, Peer Workshops, and the opportunity to participate in The Adventure (a student-planned travel experience), and Capstone (a year long student driven project). The culmination of the Diploma Program is the sharing of each graduating student’s Story at the year end Story Celebration and Graduation at the Orange County campus.
Transcripts
Every high school student, along with their adviser, tracks their activities in and out of school in order to build their transcript. Those activities are recorded on a transcript that is presented periodically to School Meeting for official approval.
Let’s see if our school is a good fit for your family
One of our admissions coordinators will reach out to you soon and will happily answer any questions you have—whether it’s about our empowering educational model, the admissions process, tuition, or anything else you’d like to know.
We’re excited to connect with you!
A K-12 Self-Directed Democratic School Where Learning is Real, Meaningful, and Student-Led