Academic Enrichment

Academic excellence is at the heart of everything we do at Mason Preparatory School. An advanced, standards-based core curriculum affords a wealth of academic opportunities at every grade. Physical education, foreign language, art, music, media literacy, and guidance programs support the education of our elementary students. Beyond academics, these young students are also invited to participate in student government, attend math and science nights, join our chess team, and enjoy book clubs.

In intermediate and middle school, our students enjoy all of the opportunities of our elementary students, in addition to more opportunities to participate in programs such as DARE, Wellness, Careers, Writer's Workshop, and Public Speaking. Our students may also serve on yearbook staff, audition for the annual school play, and help with the weekly in-school broadcast as a member of the crew of KNI-TV. All middle school students take either the National French Exam or the National Spanish Exam. Also, they may compete in the Knowledge Master Open, and the National Geographic Geography Bee. Furthermore, they may participate in several SCISA-sponsored events like the Math Meet, Drama Meet, Literary Meet, Spelling Bee, and Quiz Bowl competition.

Enrichment opportunities abound because of the diversity of our students' backgrounds and the effective partnership we develop with our parents. Mason Prep can access an amazing pool of resources within our school family. Beginning in the first grade, parents visit the school frequently to share their professional and personal skills, talents, experiences, and cultural backgrounds with our students.

Although our classrooms are the places where the foundations for learning are firmly built, experiences outside of the classrooms are deemed essential to a rich education at Mason Prep. These opportunities are available throughout a student's Mason Prep experience.

Our location on the peninsula city of Charleston provides us with a critical advantage. It enables our students to enjoy and explore the city's wealth of historic, cultural, and natural sights. Available at our doorstep are carriage rides through the city, architectural walking tours of surrounding streets, and the natural resources of our adjacent lake, rivers, and harbor. Also nearby are the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, the Charleston Museum, the South Carolina Aquarium, the Gibbes Museum of Art, the Battery, and Fort Sumter. The study of nature, history, culture, and the performing arts are celebrated and enjoyed through visits to these sights, as well as through such activities as taking a Gullah Tour and viewing performances at the Dock Street Theater, the Sottile Theater, Gaillard Auditorium, and Memminger Auditorium.

Just beyond the city's boundaries are sites such as Charles Towne Landing and Cypress Gardens that students visit and explore in order to expand their understanding of history and the natural world. Nearby Seabrook Island also provides our fifth grade students with the opportunity to experience and explore the nature and science of the local barrier islands during a three day, two night trip to the island.

Students in grades six through eight also take overnight educational trips. Our sixth graders travel to the nearby Appalachian Mountains where they visit the home of Carl Sandburg and take part in early American social studies experience guided by counselors at Earthshine. In the seventh grade, middle school students enjoy a leadership, team-building trip to a mountain campground in Hendersonville, North Carolina where they develop personal and interpersonal skills through activities led by Inside Out. Our oldest students culminate their middle school study of civics and history when they travel to Washington, D.C. in the eighth grade.