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Our development of a Uniform Policy is driven by a desire to create and promote an environment of learning where the dress is not a distraction to the educational process. Several key principles to keep in mind:
Uniforms should be clean and in good repair, and students are expected to be in uniform while at school unless specified otherwise. The administration is responsible for the determination of the code. Enforcement of the code is the responsibility of parents, administration, faculty and staff. As our students enter into our secondary school, the uniform code changes. Students are given, within the look of the uniform, a few more choices. Our hope is that this will give the students an opportunity to show their personality as well as their responsibility in terms of glorifying God with their dress.
The Grace Christian Academy Service Club is a student run club designed to teach the students to give back to the community in which they live. The students elect officers who run the meetings. They select their own projects and raise the money necessary to accomplish their goals. Past projects include knitting blankets and repairing toys for a crisis pregnancy center, raising money to help a homeless man whose car was set on fire by vandals, and two trips with World Vision to Appalachia to help rebuild an impoverished community. One of our ongoing projects involves packaging hand-made blankets with “We Care Blankets” for distribution to child oncology wards in local hospitals.
One of the highlights of the academic year is the production of our school play. The GCA Drama team has produced musicals such as The Wizard of Oz, Oliver, The King and I, and Pirates of Penzance. The quality of the performances has prompted one spectator to remark, “The next step up is Broadway.”
Drama is an excellent adjunct to our classical education. By performing on stage, the students develop poise and confidence appearing before large crowds. Memorizing their lines and learning how to deliver them with the right emotion and inflection teaches them how to present oral reports and to engage in public debate.
Grace Christian Academy offers a quality fencing program for beginners and intermediate fencing students. Each Spring we are pleased to have a former U.S. National champion and U.S Olympic team member instructing our students. Tanya Adamovich fenced in Munich in 1972 and won the National Championship in Phoenix in 1973. This past year she was inducted into the U.S. Fencing Hall of Fame.
Music is an integral part of the Classical Education a student receives at Grace Christian Academy. Each grade has a grade appropriate music class every week. The course of study includes learning the basic principles of music and learning how to sing. The younger students will learn how to play the recorder. Every student participates in our open house.
For additional fees, students may participate in the strings program and/or take piano lessons. Tetyana Barbacena, former member of the Ukranian National Orchestra, teaches and trains many of our students in a variety of orchestral skills. Mary Vaeth, our music teacher, provides individualized instruction in piano. Both instructors prepare many of our students to effectively participate in the New York Metropolitan Youth Orchestra as well as the New York State School Music Association.
Art is an essential part of the Classical curriculum. The students will learn how the fine arts reflect the culture of their time. They will study many of the great masters’ works and how that relates to the historical period they lived in. In Art class they will learn to use many different media using a hands on approach to art.
Troop 1999 is the only American Heritage Girls troop in all of NYC and Long Island. Our troop is not limited to GCA students and has become quite popular with home school families. We serve grades k-12 and put Christ at the center of our program.
Our volleyball program consists of teaching, training, and competition with other similar schools. Our junior team includes grades 5-8, while our senior team includes grades 9-12. Both are co-ed.
Fall of 2016 marked the beginning of GCA’s Flag Football Club. Traveling each Monday afternoon to a field by the water in Freeport, grammar school teams and upper school teams enjoyed exciting engagements on the grid iron.
GCA’s new winter sport, our 6th through 12th grade players enjoy training and competition in this great sport!
