St James Day School is adding 7th grade to their campus beginning in the 2018-2019 academic year and plan to roll out grade 8 in 2019-2020. St James currently offers classes from age 3 through the 6th grade.
St. James is a private Christian school founded in 1948 and celebrating seventy years of educational excellence. They are currently serving Pre-K through sixth grade and is located on 25 acres of natural woodland in Texarkana, Texas. Learning takes place in five buildings on a beautiful, quaint campus, as well as in the amphitheater and on the new St. James Nature Trail created by an alumnus.
The mission of St. James Day School is to educate students in a safe and nurturing environment that instills high intellect, character, and compassion—challenging them academically, physically, and spiritually to achieve their highest potential as confident individuals and future leaders.
Parents in the community seek out their one-of-a-kind curriculum and the results speak for themselves. St. James has consistently produced children in the top of their class, regardless of which school district they attend. Since 2000, thirteen St. James graduates have been either the valedictorian or salutatorian of local public high schools.
Alumni of the school include Molly Quinn, an actress who starred in the series Castle, and Taylor Wilson, who built a nuclear reactor at the age of fourteen.
Their campus offers features like 3D printing, lego robotics, TECHno tuesdays and SCI-tech Saturdays, and drone education and application to enhance hands-on tech learning for students. Outside of math and science, the campus holds talent shows, the Quiz Bowl, and many other activities that allow the students to interact with other school districts.
Nicole Ayers was recently hired by St. James and will teach math and science for 7th grade students. Ayers hold a Bachelor’s degree in chemistry and chemical Engineering from Purdue University and a Master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from TAMU-T. She was the 2017 Ross Perot STEM Academy teacher of the year at TISD and her professional experience includes the NASA Train the Trainer Institute at the Johnson Space Center.
One of her personal missions is to help prepare middle school age students for the assignments they will have in high school. “ I am looking forward to switching over from high school to middle school because I can accurately and effectively prepare them for those secondary years,” said Ayers.
Jennifer Jordan currently teaches 5th grade and Latin at St. James Day School, but will be teaching 8th grade during the 2019-2020 school year. Jordan is in her seventh year of teaching at St. James; however, prior to her career as an educator, she was a practicing attorney. She earned her degree at Washington University, Lee University, and Catholic University of America.
Jordan is a firm believer in hands-on education that is sometimes student-led. “One of my favorite ways of teaching is through interactive projects,” explains Jordan. She assigns at least one major project to the class so they can take the information they received in lecture and apply it in an engaging way.
Both of Jordan’s daughters attend St. James Day School, the oldest in the sixth grade and the younger in the third grade. Her perspective as both a parent and a teacher allows her appreciate the small Christian environment of the school which focuses on nurturing the whole child. Jordan witnesses first-hand how important the intimate one-on-one learning environment in a supportive atmosphere is for the development of confident and competent children to become tomorrow’s leaders.
St. James Day School is more than just a private school that produces highly articulate children, it’s a school that creates the leaders of tomorrow. The students from St. James are unique, mature and poised, creative and curious. The instructors and educators work diligently and passionately to ensure the students are prepared both emotionally and intellectually for whatever their goals and dreams are in life, building the whole child in a Christian environment.
