Why Bridges | The Bridges Academy

WHY CHOOSE BRIDGES?

The Foundation

for a Lifetime of Learning

The Bridges Academy’s mission is to treat students as individuals helping them to fully realize their academic and social potential. Our student body is multicultural and richly diverse with students from many ethnic, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds, which reflects the global environment our students will enter. The Bridges Academy is a place of discovery where students come together to deepen and value their shared experience. We offer a nurturing environment with a teaching staff dedicated to preparing students for life in an interdependent world. Our comprehensive program lays the foundation for a lifetime of learning and achieving.

Our Student Body

With students coming from nearly 20 school districts we have a wonderfully diverse student body. This Diversity represents the real world and helps to give children the opportunity to learn from each other’s ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds.

One Diverse Community

Academic Excellence

At The Bridges Academy, we aspire to provide the most academically accelerated program while teaching “The Whole Child” in a complex, twenty-first-century global community. We consistently monitor, analyze and refine all aspects of our students’ experience.

Surpassing Expectations

Individualized Learning

We strive to ensure that all students are placed in the classes where they will be the most successful. This flexibility of program ensures that our graduates are placed on the correct academic trajectory by the time they reach the high school of their choice.

Different Pathways

Why Choosing a Private School might be right for your family.

YOUR CHILD'S EDUCATION SETS THE STAGE FOR THEIR FUTURE SUCCESS.

Private schools create an environment where your child can develop intellectually, emotionally and socially. Parents who value small class sizes, increased safety, a connected community and dedicated teachers find that private schools are a good fit for their child and provide an optimal education experience.

To set your child up for academic success, consider enrolling in private school. The Bridges Academy offers a quality private school education with individual education pathways for every student.

SMALLER CLASS SIZES

EXPECTATION TO SUCCEED

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT

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Small Class Size

Research supports that students learn more in smaller groups where the teacher can have one on one time with the students. The Bridges Academy caps our classes to ensure the most productive learning environment possible. In most cases, our classes are between 12-16 students within a class.

More One on One

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STEAM

The Bridges Academy embraces STEAM to prepare our students for the future demands of these skill sets in the workplace. In recent years, significant investment has been made in offering robotics, engineering, 3-D printing, augmented reality and one to one computing throughout the grade levels.

An Eye on the Future

Character Development

One of the pillars of our school is our commitment to character education. We offer a unique opportunity for students to grow morally by starting each day in a morning assembly where we recognize and celebrate individual acts of kindness and consideration.

Moral and Ethical

Why PS-8th Grade

Research studies show that the K-8 model better supports middle school students.

Clinical psychologist and New York Times best-selling author Michael Thompson supports this study in his book Best Friends, Worst Enemies: Understanding the Social Lives of Children, stating, "If I could design psychologically safe schools, every elementary school in America would go from K through grade 8 and would be no larger than 400 children."

As an Age 2 through Grade 8 school of approximately 220 students, The Bridges Academy provides many advantages beyond academic rigor: students experience fewer transitions, they develop long-term relationships with teachers and other students, and there is an opportunity for cross-age tutoring, role modeling, and a wide range of leadership opportunities under one roof.

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Outside the Classroom

During the year, The Bridges Academy offers several field trips throughout Long Island and New York City. In the Middle School, students are offered the opportunity to go on an overnight experience which includes trips to Frost Valley, Boston and Washington, D.C. as well as a fun day trip to go skiing in Massachusetts.

Building Memories & Developing Character

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Our Campus

Our location permits easy access to the Fire Island National Seashore, museums, and other resources of Long Island and easy access to New York City. Our students can be found in the Makerspace, Greenhouse or indoor playground throughout the day.

A Place to be Inspired

Why Small Class Size Matters

At Bridges, we believe that small class size creates the ideal learning environment where collaborative and individualized learning can thrive. The students can receive more customized learning while the teacher has the freedom to get to know his or her students better and can tailor the learning to suit the class. Our students have the added benefit of a variety of multi-age activities and diverse school events that creates a strong sense of community.

The Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences has found that, “reducing class size in grades K-3 (the average student in small classes scores higher on the Stanford Achievement Test in reading/math than about 60% of students in regular-sized classes).”

Want to know more? Here’s some additional reading on the benefits of small class sizes:

“Why Small Class Sizes Work” by Robert Kennedy

“The Importance of Class Size in the Middle and Upper Grades” by Class Size Matters