Mendon Ponds Park 2

Curriculum

GCCS is partnered with EL Education to enhance curriculum design, student engagement, and professional development for our educators.

Curriculum

EL Education

EL Education is a national nonprofit that partners with schools to provide curriculum design resources and professional development for educators. Our partnership with EL Education was born out of our shared values of engaging curriculum, educational equity, and positive school culture.

EL Education is built on ten design principles:

  1. The Primacy of Self-Discovery | “I can learn new things about myself.”
  2. The Having of Wonderful Ideas | “I have wonderful ideas.”
  3. The Responsibility for Learning | “I am responsible for my learning and I help others learn.”
  4. Empathy and Caring | “I care for others; others care for me.”
  5. Success and Failure | “Success is sweet, but failure is good food.”
  6. Collaboration and Competition | “We work together as friends; I compete with myself.”
  7. Diversity and Inclusion | “Our differences make us stronger.”
  8. The Natural World | “Nature is our teacher.”
  9. Solitude and Reflection  |“I need time to be with myself.”
  10. Service and Compassion | “We do excellent things for others.”

EL’s curriculum model is multidisciplinary and project-based. It provides systems and structures that focus three dimensions of student achievement: student character, high-quality work, and mastery of knowledge and skills. Their main philosophy is “We are Crew, not passengers.”

GCCS follows the practices of EL Education to the utmost fidelity.

Save The Date!

We will begin accepting applications for the 2025-2026 school year on December 2nd. See our Admissions page for more information.