Berks
Stone is a problem-based college-preparatory private school serving families in the Reading, Berks, and Wyomissing areas.
Competency-based eduction that’s just a van ride away.
Four quick things to know about Stone:
We offer daily van transporation for all Berks-area families interested in Stone;
All Stone students have the opportunity to play Lancaster-League athletics through our co-operative agreement with Penn Manor;
We’re the only problem-based school in our market;
And, we like to travel a whole lot as well (Yosemite, Patagonia, and Mt. Kiliminjaro in 23-24!).
If you’re excited to learn more, be sure to read a few of our blog posts (below) or head to our Admissions page right here!
And so, we do not just enter into an agreement with families when your children enroll at Stone that they will be ready for the rigors of college life, but that they will be ready for life. Imagine, instead, that your child’s experience at Stone is more like a quest, a great narrative written by your child, rather than six years spent listening to someone else’s story. Our Portrait of a Graduate organizes the types of challenges that your child will encounter and master along the way.
We are in an era within our school’s life where we are ready to grow: grow in program, grow in scope, grow our footprint and grow our impact. We want to design for more of what Stone already does so well – more inquiry, more STEM exploration, more research, more entrepreneurship, more exhibition work. And, we want to design for growth – we want more athletics opportunities, more performing arts opportunities, we want to continue to develop our experiential education experiences, we want more authentic experience and more play, we wonder if we need more space to do all of it (and we wonder if we need to get younger to do it, too).
"At Stone, “Inspiring Work That Matters' doesn’t serve as a slogan on the internet, it serves as an anchor for our entire institution. We design complex and diverse learning experiences so that our students can grow in agency and capacity, so that our students can exhibit increasingly sophisticated work in STEM fields, in research, in the performing arts, in entrepreneurship, in everything they do."
"Back to School" means different things to different people — for our intrepid Dean of Students Alex Funnell, Back To School means….completing a 1500 mile commute from Phnom Penh to Kuala Lumpur by bike. “
“The work this month is a testament to the values shared across all corners of this remarkable community, is a testament to the way we practice care for our students and for our world.”
The work began yesterday, with the team meeting to look at maps, to share expectations and aspirations, to talk gear, to build the community. We don’t travel just to travel here at Stone — we travel to change the world and change ourselves.
Over Spring Break, a cohort of Stone students and Stone administrators spent 10 remarkable days trekking and talking conservation in the Patagonian Lakes District: the team visited organic farms, and spent an afternoon at the only breeding colony for Humboldt and Magellanic penguins in the southern hemisphere, and dug hot spring pools on the beaches of Lake Rupanco, and camped beneath the Southern Cross.
“I learned how to code and generate figures in Mathematical Modeling. I learned how to make these figures clear, meaningful, and beautiful in Structured Curiosity. I learned how to effectively read and interpret maps in Critical Cartography. I learned how to craft a concise and informative scientific poster and write with a scientific voice in Advanced Chemistry. I learned how to present confidently and clearly in Entrepreneurship 1.”
“This is, of course, an issue facing all schools and facing all students: how we save our students from the relentless economy of distraction, from tools which are designed only to take our students away from themselves. But/and/of course, we are no different from our students. As our attention becomes more commodifiable, it becomes more urgent that we engage deeply the question of what it is that our attention is for and what it is worth.”
“We pack a lot into every school year and we’ve packed a lot into this school year already. We hope you’ll enjoy a gallery of our favorite moments in Student Activities so far this year.”
What Makes Stone “Different”?
1. We believe in “real world”assessment.
We don’t measure seat time, we measure deep learning. Our students wrestle with "Big Questions" every day, our students develop the kinds of collaboration and design thinking skills they need to ideate, prototype, and problem solve. Our students never ask “when will I need to know this in the real world?” because everything they do connects back to real world outcomes.
2. We believe that better schedules makes better schools.
Jam-packed academic schedules lead to superficial work. Our unique schedule is designed to foster innovation, exploration, and rigor while minimizing the “busy work” and excessive homework assignments that harm students and stunt intellectual growth.
3. We believe “failure” is good.
We practice design thinking in everything we do -- that means a lot of post-it notes, a lot of brainstorming, a lot of prototyping, and a lot of “good failure”. Around Stone, we like to say, “Fail fast, and fail well.”
4. We believe in better college preparation.
In an era where 57% of all graduating seniors have the same grades, similar transcripts, and a nearly-identical activities list, we believe students deserve authentic differentiation that truly reflects who they are and who they will become -- on a campus, in a workplace, on a team.
5. We believe in choice.
We offer “all the usual core classes,” plus rocket science, engine maintenance, eSports, dog-sledding, art history in Italy, small business design, hydroponics, trebuchet construction, forensic accounting, and many other unique curricular options.
6. And we believe in our students.
Our students may leave campus during free periods, our students serve on our admissions committee, our students write school policy. We believe that “culture beats strategy” here at Stone, and our culture is founded on a profound level of trust in our students.