What We Do
About Us
The Birches Academy of Academics and Art is a publicly funded chartered public school in Salem, NH. Open since 2012, we serve over 290 children in grades K–8 from over ten communities in southern New Hampshire. As a public school, there is no cost for any New Hampshire student to attend. We have both single-stream and mixed-age classrooms, with a student/teacher ratio of 12:1. We take an arts-integrated approach to educating our students while also exposing our students to STEAM.
You can view our current charter here.
Our Mission
The mission of The Birches Academy is to provide a learning community that supports excellence in core academics and the arts while cultivating each child's individual qualities and strengths.
There are eight fundamental aspects of our mission.
1. Provide a rigorous core academic program through integrated curriculum projects.
2. Cultivate the individual qualities and strengths of each student.
3. Train students to use artistic processes for academic learning.
4. Utilize the scientific method and technology best practices to guide student inquiry, dialogue, and critical thinking.
5. Offer comprehensive multidisciplinary enrichment programs allowing new ways of thinking, behaving and learning.
6. Support student achievement by creating an inclusive community that actively engages parents, teachers, and students in learning.
7. Promote character development and good citizenship.
8. Incorporate the use of technology in teaching.
What is Arts Integration?
Arts integration is an approach to teaching that integrates the fine and performing arts as primary pathways to learning. Students engage in a creative process that connects an art form and another subject area to demonstrate understanding. To dive more into what this means, we recommend checking out The Kennedy Center’s portal on arts integration principles and best practices.
What is STEAM?
STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. The “arts” in STEAM refers not only to visual arts and design but also to language arts, humanities, music, drama, dance and media.
The goal of this educational model is to build the creative problem-solving and critical thinking skills students will need when they move onto high school and into the workforce. Students are taught to apply creative processes and multiple methods of inquiry and investigation to develop both soft and hard skills.
