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'Fern Ridge High School' is a non-traditional high school in Creve Coeur, St. Louis County, Missouri. The school's motto is "Because it matters."
The Parkway School District operates the alternative high school and ensures that individual attention is provided by limiting enrollment to a maximum of 100 students. Students must choose to come to Fern Ridge. They cannot be sent by their parents, the court system, or district officials. In their applications and interviews for admission, prospective students must demonstrate needs that can't be met at a regular school. Every student is assigned a mentor, with each faculty member acting as a mentor to about ten students (this group is referred to as a "huddle").

Contents

Student life

Philosophy

External links

Student life

On every Friday, the school has a Blow-Pop assembly. During this assembly, each teacher recognizes 4 or 5 students who have done something such as achieved a big goal, received a passing grade. The student of the week is also introduced. The student of the week gets to take any staff/faculty member out to lunch at an area restaurant. The student also gets their picture put on the wall near the office and gets money for one free soda from the soda vending machine. Another thing the school does is instead of ringing a bell to signal the beginning and end of class, the secretary plays music over the loudspeaker (A bell was recently installed outside of the school to get all students who are outdoors to come in.) The school also has two trips a year that are community service. The students sign-up to volunteer at a certain site and then go to that site for about 1.5 hours. The students at the school also have off-campus lunch privileges if their parents permit this (The school does check to make sure they are permitted to.) They can go off-campus and pick up lunch at an area restaurant as long as they are back by the end of lunch. One down-side of Fern Ridge is that there are not as many elective choices as at the districts four traditional high schools because the school is so small and there aren't as many teachers as that at a regular high school.

Philosophy

The school bases its approach on ''constructivism'', which is founded on the premise that learning is initiated and directed by the student, not the teacher. The school also uses ''Multiple Intelligences'', a psychological and educational theory.

External links

★ Official site of school