Pursuing Excellence in Education
As experts in the education of children, we’re proactive in providing a challenging program with a focus on intellectual excellence and social-emotional maturity. Intellectual excellence isn’t just a goal for Graland students, though. Every teacher, staff member and administrator is committed to developing as professionals, an approach that positively impacts our school community, instruction, depth of thinking, engagement and belonging.
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The Role of Professional Development
Professional development is a major catalyst for increasing expertise, keeping motivation high, expanding thinking skills and nurturing a growth mindset among teachers and staff. This investment in lifelong learning directly affects our curricula, academic learning and the overall student experience.
Dedicated time to focus on cohort learning, specialized coursework, connections with industry experts, field research and task force participation allows faculty to identify and study advancements in education. We use an Inspire - Investigate - Instruct - Impact model to uncover new ideas, further train faculty and lead the way in upgrading our program to bring a higher level of excellence to Graland. -
Fine-Tuning Our Program
It is our responsibility to stay on top of the ever-changing educational landscape and proactively fine-tune our program. Following a cyclical schedule for curricular reviews, cross-functional task forces made up of administrators, faculty, consultants and parents dive deep into each discipline, assess best practice models and identify opportunities for programmatic growth.
Our Approach offers a strong curricula balanced with authentic, hands-on learning experiences. Developing the whole child is what we do best, and building intellectual excellence with strong character is core to our mission. -
Leading in Innovation
Innovation specialists at Graland work with both students and teachers to look at problems in a new way, to think differently about solutions, to take risks, and to discover what we can learn from mistakes. They help navigate these challenges and new ideas using the six innovation skills: empathy, creative thinking, critical thinking, grit, experimentation, and collaboration. In coaching teachers, innovation specialists offer support, create challenges, and facilitate vision while empowering teachers to become independent in designing innovative lessons that further student engagement.
We believe the best and brightest teachers are essential to achieving intellectual excellence and building strong character. In an effort to inspire teacher growth and further impact student learning, a task force of teachers and administrators worked for two years to pioneer an innovative faculty compensation structure.
Rather than rewarding teachers simply on their years of experience and educational achievements -- what they look like on paper -- the redesigned system rewards teachers for what they do in the classroom, as well as how they implement and model our values in the areas of innovation, collaboration and leadership.
The compensation structure is a win-win for teachers and students: Teachers feel valued for their contributions and students get the benefit of faculty who invest in their learning and advance Graland’s program.
Graland Country Day School is excited to share that our innovative sphere based compensation model has gained attention nationally in Independent School Magazine. To read Head of School Josh Cobb’s article titled “Core Progress,” click here.
Graland Country Day School
Graland Country Day School is a private school in Denver, Colorado, serving students in preschool, kindergarten, elementary, and middle school. Founded in Denver in 1927, Graland incorporates a rich, experiential learning approach in a traditional classroom setting, emphasizing the development of globally and socially conscious leaders who excel academically.
