Academics at CFS
The apostle Paul states in I Timothy 1:5, “The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience and from a sincere faith.”
At CFS our goal is to provide a challenging and stimulating instructional environment where students feel secure and loved. In order to accomplish this, we strive to hire competent and loving teachers who can provide excellent instruction and genuinely love their students. The integration of faith, character and knowledge of their subject matter in the life of the teacher is the foundation for learning for our students.
Students receive instruction in a relational context, and therefore learn to develop loving relationships with both their teachers and their fellow students. CFS students consistently perform above state and national averages on standardized tests, demonstrating mastery of academic content. We are encouraged by these results; however, the thing that most current and former students consistently mention when asked about their time at CFS is that they felt loved by their teachers, that their teachers genuinely cared about them, and that they developed deep friendships with their fellow students. This is what genuinely excites us, and it is the overarching goal of our instruction.
The integration of faith and learning, and the understanding of subject matter in the context of a Christian worldview is also one of our highest goals. Integration is best modeled and “caught” from teachers who have integrated their faith and the knowledge of their subject matter. We utilize textbooks from Christian publishers such as A Beka, Bob Jones, and Purposeful Design to further provide opportunities for students to see how the knowledge they are learning fits into a Biblical worldview. Some secular textbooks are utilized in middle and high school courses when they provide the best available option for instruction.
Students receive Bible instruction daily at all grade levels and participate in weekly chapels to develop unity and deepen their understanding of the Christian faith.
Academic Goals
Knowledge
Christian Fellowship School offers a rigorous, college-preparatory curriculum designed to challenge students and prepare them for college. From the beginning of elementary school, skill-building is prioritized to ensure that all students have a “toolkit for success” at their disposal. As they prepare to enter middle school, there is an emphasis on 21st Century Learning soft skills: Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity. Students in our high school are required to take a core curriculum consisting of at least four years of English and three years each of mathematics, science, and social studies. We also offer dual credit courses, which allow students to earn college credit and high school credit simultaneously. CFS high school students have a five-year average ACT score of 24.9, compared to 20.8 for the state of Missouri. They also scored significantly higher on all college readiness benchmarks than students in the state of Missouri.
Faith
Through daily Bible classes, students are exposed to a Biblical worldview and learn to study the Bible in community with other students. Weekly chapels allow students the opportunity to worship and learn in a larger school community and receive topical instruction from a Biblical perspective. Classroom teachers integrate Biblical principles with their subject matter, and model for their students how to integrate their own faith with the knowledge they are gaining. The school therefore supports the efforts of Christian parents to impart faith to their children, rather than encouraging conflicting or contradictory views of life, which provides a harmony between the Christian home and the school environment.
Character
Christian education has Christ at its core, and imitating Christ and developing His character is central to our mission. Through interaction with teachers, coaches, other students and the inner working of the Holy Spirit, students are consistently encouraged to follow Christ and conform to His character. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are modeled and presented as the marks of maturity for followers of Christ.
