Helios is specifically designed for the educational and emotional needs of gifted children.
The students’ day is grounded in the study of semester-long, project-based themes that provide room for flexibility and creativity. We want our students to retain their love of learning and sense of wonder. It’s not enough to know the answers quickly; asking the right questions is even more important. We welcome our children’s curiosity and passions as we strive to fulfill our mission:
To provide engaging and imaginative education that meets the unique intellectual, social and emotional needs of gifted students and their families and to empower authenticity through respect for self and others.
Our motto—Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Kind—is a guide for the students while they are with us and as they head off to high school, college and out into the world, being their authentic selves. Silicon Valley produces leaders; Helios is shaping the leaders society needs.
Ben: Is SEL particularly important for gifted children?
Tiffany: It is particularly important for Helios students, because gifted children tend to be more prone to emotional intensities. And so if they can understand what those intensities feel like, what to do when they experience them, and how to interact with their peers when they're experiencing their own intensities, then it makes it so that we can continue to be respectful, responsible and kind.
Ben: Yes! "Be respectful, Be Responsible, Be Kind" is the school motto. That sounds very nice for kindergartners but haven’t middle schoolers learned this?
Tiffany: It's extremely important in middle school, especially when hormones are happening and they're learning what it means to not be a little kid, but also not an adult!
Ben: Do you have a good example of some time you were surprised by a kid living the motto of being respectful, responsible and kind?
Tiffany: I mean, I feel like I'm fortunate enough that I get to see it every day. So actually, today on the playground, we were walking back to class and one of our older students bumped into one of the first graders and immediately the student that bumped into him came over and said, "Are you okay?" One of his peers came over and said, "Are you okay?" And so I actually was the one to say, “Thank you guys so much for coming! Now I need you to go back to class and I’ll walk him up to the front to get a Band-Aid” or whatever he needed.
Ben: Our mission talks about meeting the needs of families – tell me about that.
Tiffany: We have a great parent program. Our parents are very curious about a lot of things and we bring in experts on particular topics. We also do some education for parents on what we do here at school and why we do it. And we talk about the challenges that naturally come up when you're parenting a gifted child.
Ben: Tell me about the idea of perspective taking.
Tiffany: We have students who have come through as hummingbirds in kindergarten and, you know, really struggle with perspective taking. And by the time they're fifth and sixth graders, they're much more able to pause and at least consider the idea that you have a perspective and I have a perspective, and we can come to some kind of agreement on how to combine those perspectives.
Ben: How do we deal with competition at the school? We have some intense games of Gaga Ball!
Tiffany: As much as we don't do a lot of competition, we also know that competition is out there and it's natural. It occurs naturally in the world. So ,we try to incorporate some opportunities for competition in this safe space, knowing that, if somebody has a bigger reaction or if somebody has a really hard time because they didn't do as well as they wanted to or because they lost a game they can talk to somebody about it.
Ben: What about letter grades? Are we shielding them from competition that they will face in high school??
Tiffany: Grades are just another version of feedback, and we do give them feedback. So it's not that they come here and just turn in whatever they want or do whatever they want, and we say, Oh, that's so great. You know, there are still rubrics that we give them. There's still specific expectations that we lay out for them. So even though there aren't letter grades that they're receiving, they are receiving feedback from the teachers directly to say, this looks really great. How can we improve? How can we make this better? You know, this idea of good, better, best is something that we try to ingrain in them starting in kindergarten.
Ben: So, what words would you like to leave parents with?
Tiffany: At the end of the day we do believe in our motto: Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Kind.
Students learn in mixed-grade classrooms. Each student stays in their classroom for two years, and then are shuffled with their grade-peers again for the following year.
With over 15 years of experience, Helios has taken full advantage of the flexibility of being an accredited independent school, and we have structured the school in the most advantageous way for gifted students.
K-8: By choosing the K-8 model we:
Give students a chance to mature and find out who they are and how they learn, in a community that knows and cares for them deeply.
Enjoy middle school for its own glorious sake, not as a waiting room for high school.
Focus our resources on these crucial formative years, rather than stretching to provide the necessary breadth that a high school entails.
Work with the 7th and 8th graders and their families to choose the high school that is right for them—a process we help them navigate with great success.
Mixed Age (Grade 1 through 8): Our mixed-grade classrooms allow children to experience both stretch and comfort. As younger learners, they look up to and learn with their older peers; as they mature, they embrace leadership roles. Knowing a teacher for more than one year allows gifted children to relax and trust, and focusing on intrinsic motivation rather than extrinsic.
Culture: Helios is intentionally small, connected, and caring. Our school culture is authentic and unpretentious. We care about relationships. As adults we live by the same motto as the children: Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Kind.
Gifted children thrive in a warm learning environment where they feel safe to take emotional and academic risks. We pay attention to external developmental markers and state standards, but know that real progress comes when students can measure their progress against themselves.
Project-Based: Hands-on projects capture the students’ imaginations, helping them engage more and learn more. As they exercise their creativity, students have the freedom to explore subjects in various ways.
Theme-Based: Interconnected science and humanities enables teachers to go far past the surface level. This depth and complexity captures the students’ intellectual curiosity.
Differentiated: Asynchronous development is a reality for many, if not most, gifted learners. For this reason, we divide math classes by level, allowing advanced students to learn with older peers. Further, our leveled literacy groups allow students to learn with students tackling similar challenges, and our project-based learning offers additional room for flexibility.
Learning how to face challenges, collaborate with peers, and advocate for yourself are all real life skills we consider every bit as important as mastering numbers and letters.
Social-Emotional Learning: The ability to understand oneself and develop strong connections with others is core to helping students thrive, as a child and an adult. For this reason, social-emotional learning is integrated throughout our school day as well as taught through a formal class.
Outdoor Education: Nature is a great classroom for learning how to learn. At the end of their first year, kindergartners camp overnight on the school field. Grades 1 through 8 camp twice a year, in increasingly adventurous places, taking more and more responsibility for planning and execution. In addition, we infuse a love for the outdoors through the Wilderness Village, our garden, and much of our fieldwork.
Voice & Choice: Gifted children crave control over their learning, and when they have it they learn more, faster and deeper. We provide this agency throughout their class work, and also programs such as our Imagine Lab, Wilderness Village, Community Meeting, Electives, and Passion Projects.
In This Section
But Does It Work?
Perhaps the best proof that, yes, it works is in our alums. With over 15 years of experience as an independent school, we are now welcoming back our college age alums. They speak passionately about how their years here have shaped their further educational experience, and how it gave them the confidence to take risks and excel.
Our teacher taught the kids how to think, not just to regurgitate specific passages and stuff. The questions were designed to make the students think about the book, think about the author's intentions, and why certain things are written the way they were, and how does that contribute to the dialog.
Jane, parent of helios graduate '20
The thing I like the most about Helios is the way they empower the students to solve their own problems and advocate for themselves.
