PHILOSOPHY:    The educational program at Fairfield Academy Inc. is based on the belief that the assurance of a safe and positive environment is requisite to the development of a productive learning situation. No child can be expected to learn when any amount of fear or intimidation is allowed to exist. The Academy provides low student-staff ratios and high supervision in order to assure the safety of each student. In addition to physical safety, efforts at the Academy are also focused on the social and emotional climate in which the children spend their school day. Safety as referred to here does not imply the absence of risk, but rather the provision of a learning situation within which students will feel sufficiently secure to respond to various learning challenges with confidence.

A second underlying assumption is the belief that there exists something truly "magical" about childhood. Children bring to the classroom an inherent enthusiasm for exploring their world and a desire to know and to understand. Teachers at Fairfield Academy nourish this natural enthusiasm and help it to grow and to develop. This does not imply license within the learning framework. In fact, the educational program at the Academy is well structured because without clear direction and a well-defined organizational structure, children flounder in confusion, and their natural inclination toward learning degenerates into boredom, discontent, and misbehavior.

Paramount in our philosophy of education is our conviction that the classroom teacher is the most important factor in the learning situation. The acquisition of various learning materials, supplies, or equipment borders on the inconsequential when compared to the task of selecting faculty. Every classroom teacher has a profound effect on his or her classroom and on the children who inhabit it. A high-quality, highly motivated, enthusiastic teacher with fair equipment is capable of achieving excellent results, but the finest equipment money can buy will never extricate the second-rate teacher from mediocrity.

Fairfield Academy was created to provide children with the safest, most enjoyable, most productive educational opportunity possible. While we cannot guarantee results in terms of grades or acquired knowledge, we can guarantee 1) limited class size (10-18 students per class), 2) an overall ratio of 1 teacher for every 15 students, 3) an effective curriculum which can be adjusted to meet the needs of most students, and 4) a staff which is hired and retained based on performance. Our goal, on a daily basis, is to provide children with an outstanding opportunity to develop to their potential both socially and academically. We will not strive for less, nor will we expect you or your children to settle for less.

MISSION:  The mission of Fairfield Academy is to offer the preeminent academic education within the Central Pennsylvania Region to children of average to well above average ability.

COMPONENT 1: Component 1 of the mission is
(1) to prepare the students to do exceptionally well in
	(A) college preparatory schools &
	(B) academic high school tracks, and
(2) to demonstrate their preparation through
	(A) strong academic performance while at the academy &
	(B) high scores on national standardized tests.

COMPONENT 2: Component 2 of the mission is to develop in the students those character attributes generally associated with success.