Good Neighbor Podcast: Virginia Beach
Good Neighbor Podcast: Virginia Beach
Good Neighbor Podcast: Virginia Beach
Ep. 12 Anna Bryan is Shaping Minds with Norfolk Christian's Unique Educational Approach
What if Christian education didn't compromise on academic excellence? Join us as we uncover the inspiring journey of Anna Bryan, Director of Lower Schools at Norfolk Christian Schools, who shares her experiences and insights from almost two decades in the field of education. Listen to Anna's story of transitioning from classroom teacher to influential leader, her passion for developing professional learning programs for educators, and how these efforts reflect in enhanced student achievement. Anna talks about the unique model of Norfolk Christian Schools, which successfully blends rigorous academics with a strong Christian worldview, and the exciting expansion plans in Virginia Beach to meet growing demands.
Anna also sheds light on common misconceptions about Christian education, asserting how Norfolk Christian Schools stands out with its strong partnership with families, treating education as a co-parenting model where every student is personally known and nurtured. She offers a glimpse into her personal life, revealing the joy and challenges of becoming a married mom of six, transitioning from a single mom. Our conversation paints a vivid picture of how Norfolk Christian Schools manages to create a nurturing environment that supports students to flourish both academically and spiritually, maintaining low attrition as students advance through grades. Don't miss this episode if you want to understand the impactful blend of educational excellence and faith-based values at Norfolk Christian Schools.
Norfolk Christian
Anna Bryan
Director of Lower Schools
Virginia Beach
1265 Laskin Road
Norfolk
7000 Granby Street
www.NorfolkChristian.org
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Denise Taylor.
Speaker 2:Hi, welcome to Good Neighbors Podcast, virginia Beach. Today I am with Anna Bryan with Norfolk Christian Schools. Welcome, anna, hi. Thanks for having me. Thanks for being here. Tell our listeners your journey to getting to Norfolk Christian.
Speaker 3:Sure, so I'm an educator by trade. I got into that directly after my undergraduate program and I've been in it about 18 years. And you know I started out as a classroom teacher, taught for seven years in three different states, and when I moved to Virginia I had the opportunity to be part of a team of teachers that started an office as part of Virginia Beach City Public Schools Central Administration. It was all about professional learning by teachers for teachers, and in in that role I really developed a passion for designing learning for the adult educator and how that transfers into the classroom to have a positive impact on student learning and achievement, and so out of that I got on the pathway to become a school administrator. I did some time in the public school setting and then a few years ago made the transition over to Norfolk Christian schools as their director of lower schools.
Speaker 2:And how is that going? Oh, I absolutely love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, tell us.
Speaker 2:There is a little bit of an expansion, I believe, in Virginia Beach specifically. Tell me about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so Norfolk Christian is a bit unique in nature. We're one school in two cities with three campuses, and one of our lower school campuses is located in Virginia Beach. That campus was built and established in the 1980s and is still standing as part of a partnership with the Virginia Beach Community Chapel. It's a church right off of Laskin Road, and over the past four years we've just seen exponential growth and interest in private Christian education, and I really believe that's because Norfolk Christian does a great job at academic excellence through a biblical worldview. So they come together.
Speaker 3:Academic excellence and Christian worldview aren't compromising one another in our situation. The building in which we're located, though, has provided just some physical constraints, because our families come, they want to stay, they're not leaving, which is a great problem to have, and we have more families that want to come. So the church has worked with us in partnership to be really flexible in how we think about the space in our current location, and we're also looking at multiple opportunities for expansion in this area, with the hope to build out to a middle school here in Virginia Beach.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's fantastic. I know little people love to hear that. So you've been with Norfolk Christians since? Is that 2020? This is my fourth year. Fourth year running both the Virginia Beach and the Norfolk Lower Schools, both the Virginia Beach and the Norfolk lower schools.
Speaker 3:Can you tell me outside of the school what you do for fun? Well, I just got remarried, so I'm from being a single mom of three to now being a married mom of six. So we are truly like the Brady Bunch combined. We have three boys and three girls, so there is never a boring moment in our home and a lot of my fun right now really centers around developing a strong family unit.
Speaker 2:We can all appreciate that. Can you describe one thing our listeners would want to know about Norfolk Christian? There's a myth or misconception about the school or Christian education in general.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think probably the largest misconception is that Christian education compromises academic excellence, and here those go hand in hand. We do school and we are distinctly Christian. In addition to that, I think something that really sets us apart is our strong core value around partnership with families. At Norfolk Christian, we treat that like a co-parenting model. We recognize that this is an investment, not just financially but also with your children, and so we take that very seriously. So we come alongside families, we partner with them to know them and their students excellently, I think you know. A testament to that is every morning when kids get out of the car, they're greeted by name. Every staff member knows every child here, and we get to know them that intimately in the classrooms as well, so we're able to meet their needs in real time.
Speaker 2:What do you see in terms of the lower school, the rate of those folks staying within that particular Norfolk Christian community, going on to middle school and also to the upper school?
Speaker 3:The attrition rate from lower to upper. Yes, yeah, so our attrition rate is really low from the movement from fifth grade to sixth grade. That gap has really closed over the last four years. As I said, you know, our families come and they want to stay and they understand that this is really a school that carries their kids through 12th grade and on into higher education.
Speaker 2:Now are your classroom sizes. Are your class sizes bigger in the lower school or in the upper school? Do you have more room?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so the class sizes are larger in the middle school than they are in our lower schools. We are very careful to make sure that we're able to meet the needs of our learners. The research shows that there is a small correlation between class size and student achievement. Really, the stronger correlation is with the teaching practices that occur in the classroom and less with the number of kids. But that said, our class sizes are competitively small. In our lower schools we make sure that our youngest students have two adults in the classroom to help decrease the staff ratio.
Speaker 2:When parents are thinking about either making a move to Norfolk Christian or moving their child from public school to a private school. When should people really start thinking about that transition?
Speaker 3:Yeah, as early as possible, but any time is the right time. I made the transition for my family when my oldest was in fifth grade and you know it may be you know, decades before I hear thank you, but I get to see the evidence of him thriving every day as part of this community and you know that said, like I said, any any time is the right time. If you're considering it, come talk to me. We'll give you a tour of the school. You'll get to see it in action, with the kids present, the teachers in the classrooms with them, so you get a really good feel for what happens within the walls every day.
Speaker 2:We really appreciate you being here. Tell us how interested folks to get in touch with Norfolk Christian.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we can link the website, probably in the show notes at the end, but one of the best ways to do it is through our preview day. So we have those dates scheduled out on our website, on our social media Instagram and Facebook and that gives you an opportunity to come to our upper school campus to get the full picture of what we offer from pre-K through 12th grade. Tour it while the kids are in action, talk to the key leaders and stakeholders, get some parents there who give parent testimonials, student testimonials. It's just a really great opportunity to see everything as it plays out on a normal day. So you get a good sense of what distinctly Christian and academic excellence look like.
Speaker 2:So it's NorfolkChristianedu. Norfolkchristianorg Dot org. Okay, norfolkchristianorg. Thank you so much, anna, for being here today. We appreciate your involvement in the community and Norfolk Christian Schools. Thanks, denise.
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