Dear 8th-Grade Students & Families,
We want to let you know about an exciting opportunity available to all rising 9th-grade students in Albemarle County. Community Lab School (formerly Murray High School and Community Public Charter School) is a small liberal arts school serving students in grades 6-12 with an emphasis on student inquiry, project-based learning, and college preparation. We promote creativity and intellectual curiosity through art and design, experiential learning, content mastery, and student choice. We partner with the University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development, along with other universities and colleges, to design and pilot innovative approaches to learning. We share many of these experiences with schools both inside and outside of our division.
Next year, we will be deepening our commitment to interdisciplinary, inquiry-based learning in the 9th and 10th grades by combining all students from both grades into a single cohort. Students will work on interdisciplinary projects and investigations that cover English, Social Studies (Government and World History), Science (Biology and Physics), and Math. Students also will have opportunities for arts electives, Spanish, Health/PE, and targeted small-group core curriculum instruction. The goal is to take the lessons of our very successful middle school model and expand them to the high school with a focus on the sorts of skills and habits students will need in International Baccalaureate courses and beyond high school: note-taking, independent research, research project and research question development, communication, and academic self-management.
Next year will also be the third year of our International Baccalaureate (IB) program, a rigorous, college-preparatory program of studies focused on developing critical thinking, independent research skills, student self-management, and conceptual understanding. IB courses are offered across the curriculum—English, World Languages, History, Science, Math, and the Arts—and are open to all 11th and 12th graders at Community Lab. More information can be found on our International Baccalaureate web page.
Admission to Community Lab School is lottery-based and open to all students residing in Albemarle County. Interested students and families should complete our General Information Form by Friday, January 28, 2022. For more information about admission to our school, please visit our Admissions web page.
If you’d like to learn more about our school, we invite you to attend a virtual information session on Tuesday, January 18, from 10 to 11 a.m. We are also hosting an IB-specific virtual information session on Thursday, January 20, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. If you are interested in joining one or both sessions, please click here to register.
We are eager to show you everything the Community Lab School has to offer, and we look forward to meeting you!
Sincerely,
Chad S. Ratliff, Principal
Community Lab School