In a quiet cottage off South Andrews Avenue in Fort Lauderdale, one thing new is taking form. It isn’t a standard faculty or a tutoring heart. It’s one thing totally different. The Gathering Place is South Florida’s first all-girls microschool and studying lab, opening at a time when households are pondering deeply about what schooling ought to appear to be.
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Based by Jamaican-born educator Nadine Smith, The Gathering Place started as a homeschool umbrella and cooperative in Capitol Heights, Maryland. It served a small group of ladies and their households who wished an method that was extra personalised, joyful, and rooted in identification. After years of supporting homeschoolers and main enrichment packages, Smith moved to Fort Lauderdale. She is now launching a full microschool mannequin with part-time and full-time choices for women ages 5 to 17.
Smith has a long time of expertise in schooling, together with her most up-to-date position as principal of Paul Laurence Dunbar Excessive College in Washington, DC—the primary public highschool in the USA for African American college students. She understands the college system deeply.
“Conventional faculty works for some youngsters,” Smith says. “However for a lot of others, it doesn’t. I noticed sensible, inventive college students shut down, pushed out, or missed.”
She just isn’t working alone. Throughout the nation, many mother and father, academics, and group members are leaving faculty techniques that now not meet their wants. They’re creating new areas. From properties to church buildings to group facilities, small studying environments are showing—locations rooted in relationships and goal. Smith sees her work as a part of this bigger motion.
“We’re not ready for permission,” she says. “We’re constructing what our youngsters want.”
Smith’s resolution turned private when her daughter reached center faculty. She noticed how even assured ladies might lose their spark in colleges that didn’t see or assist them.
That very same 12 months, her daughter joined an African dance group. Most of the different dancers had been homeschooled, and Smith observed how assured, considerate, and free they had been. “That was my turning level,” Smith says. “I took my daughter out of college. I wished her to have that very same pleasure and depth. And I knew different households deserved it too.”
This summer season, The Gathering Place opened its doorways with a two-week summer season camp. It was a small, boutique-style program that mixed rigorous teachers with pleasure, motion, and connection. The aim was to scale back the summer season studying slide whereas giving ladies an opportunity to really feel seen and supported. This system exceeded expectations. Mother and father had been impressed, and the women had been desperate to return. One father or mother shared, “My daughter got here dwelling glowing each day. She felt seen, heard, and challenged.” Many households mentioned it was the primary time their daughters got here dwelling excited to speak about what they realized.
In the present day, The Gathering Place provides full-time and part-time packages for women ages 5 to 17. It additionally helps homeschool households with enrichment lessons and training. The training mannequin is mastery-based. College students work at their very own tempo with personalised steerage. Studying is lively, hands-on, and related to the true world.
Along with core topics like studying, math, science, and writing, college students discover entrepreneurship, wellness, management, and cultural identification. With its “Metropolis as Classroom” mannequin, college students repeatedly be taught in museums, parks, and native companies.
“We consider in educational problem,” Smith says. “However we additionally consider in creativity, relaxation, and pleasure. Our ladies usually are not issues to unravel. They’re changing into. And we’re constructing a spot the place they’ll develop.”
Microschools like The Gathering Place are gaining consideration nationwide. Many serve fewer than 20 college students and concentrate on group, flexibility, and belonging. Analysis reveals that homeschooled college students—a lot of whom attend microschools part-time—usually carry out higher on assessments and present robust independence.
College districts, together with Broward County Public Faculties, are seeing adjustments in enrollment as extra households search for different choices. For some, it isn’t nearly totally different colleges—it’s about totally different values.
For Caribbean households, The Gathering Place feels each new and acquainted. “We had been raised on construction and excellence,” Smith says. “But additionally pleasure, tradition, and connection. Our youngsters deserve a spot that honors all of that.”
The Gathering Place is a type of locations.
Households who need to be taught extra can go to www.TGPLearningLab.com or textual content (786) 301-2444 to schedule a tour. Scholarships and versatile tuition choices can be found. Come see what a joyful, affirming, and academically robust setting can do in your daughter.
