Our Signature Programs

Every quarter a selected group of students presents their best writing piece to a small audience at our Young Author's Tea.

CES teachers assemble as a collective grading panel to review students' top writing pieces selected by each classroom teacher. These include personal narratives, poems, essays, and more. They use a cumulative grading rubric to score each assignment based on the 6 +1 Writing Traits. The student that score the highest in each grade will be invited to present their writing at the Young Author’s Tea in front of family and friends. This event is held during the school day and allows the winners for each quarter to present their writing to a small audience, accompanied by light refreshments.

Throughout the school year, Lower School students study robotics and coding through our partnership with Robo Wunderkind. Taught by our Director of Technology, Mrs. Caitlin Vredenburg, our students get to explore these STEM areas using age-appropriate software and materials. They build modular robots that make noises, light up, and respond to code that the students write during the unit.

Through Project BioEYES, CES students travel under the sea to study the lifecycle of the zebrafish. Project BioEYES is a K-12 science education program which provides classroom-based learning opportunities through the use of live zebrafish.

The mission of Project BioEYES is to foster enthusiasm for science by offering students opportunities to explore life science through real world applications using a hands-on approach to learning.

Classroom units are designed to teach conceptual understanding of life science content and processing skills while exciting children to the thrill of scientific discovery. When children are appointed junior scientists, they participate in a fun exercise that breaks down stereotypes about both science and scientists. The goal is to educate young citizens to think critically and scientifically, thereby impacting future scientists and doctors.

BioEYES is located at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA; the Carnegie Institution for Science in Baltimore, MD; Notre Dame University in South Bend, IN; and Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

Upon entering our middle school in fifth grade, students need additional support with the increased responsibilities and academic demands. Students face multiple teachers, larger unit tests and projects, in addition to more extra curricular activities. At CES, we dedicate a class to teaching our students how to manage their time and responsibilities so that they can achieve success. They are taught how to:

• organize their binders and paperwork
• manage their time
• study for tests and quizzes
• take notes
• research the internet
• self-advocate to teachers
• practice mindfulness
• stay safe on the internet

Our eighth grade students rehearse and present a 25-minute interpretation of a Shakespearean play for other area students at the Folger’s Theater in Washington, DC.  In preparation for this performance, the students also attend a professional Shakespeare play to better acquaint themselves with the material and style of Shakespeare performances. Observed and critiqued by professional actors from the Folger’s Theater, students receive feedback and praise on their performances. In the past, Christ Episcopal School has won many individual awards for performance highlights at the festival.

One of the traditions in 8th grade is our six-week Ethics Seminar, unique to Christ Episcopal School. Taught by Mr. Collin Vredenburg, it is a class that encourages deep thinking and discussion about the philosophy of ethics and how we approach it in our own lives.  The description of the course is as follows:

Ethics: The study of "Good, Right, and Ought," and a special class at CES. Mr. Vredenburg, a Catholic University School of Philosophy alumnus, comes to visit once a week during the spring semester to ask our 8th graders the big ethical questions: "Why should we be Good?" and "What makes us truly happy?" This introduction to the works of great thinkers including Saint Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae, Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, and various writings of C.S. Lewis challenges the students to translate those big questions into a practical guide to being ethical in High School and beyond.