At the heart of Thornton Academy lies our mission to prepare students for a changing world by enabling every student to become a life-long learner. Ideally, students, faculty and staff are moved toward this goal by the Thornton experience.

At Thornton, we are committed to taking a personal interest in each and every student. We believe that when learning is personalized, students are held to high expectations and are motivated to reach farther. Because of our size—nearly 1,375 students, 10 buildings and over 80 acres—we have taken active steps to make certain personalized learning is at the center of everything we do.

Thornton has established a number of programs, including:

• Project Success—an adventure-type summer program that links faculty with incoming freshman who had significant absences and little success during middle school.
• Adopt-a-Senior—a mentoring program that teams faculty volunteers with seniors who may not graduate on time.
• Small group meetings with parents of all entering freshman and one-on-one meetings with parents of entering freshman who have struggled with school in previous years.
• A mentoring program for sophomores where more than 30 faculty volunteers work with students in small groups to improve their decision-making skills.
• A weekly school-wide meeting where student achievement is recognized, stories are shared and inspiration is provided.
• A daily advisory period when students meet with their advisors to discuss personal goals, triumphs and challenges, and to develop and maintain a personalized learning plan through graduation.
• A classs dean program in grades 6 - 9 to make personal contact with parents so individual plans can be devised and implemented for students with issues of concern.

Recently, we expanded the mentoring program and are working to help every student personalize a learning plan toward graduation that meet standards for a solid core academic experience.

Indicators from the high school class dean progam have shown the program has worked well to foster deeper relationships between Thornton Academy, individual students and parents. Each dean is charged with overseeing the welfare of a particular class through personal contact with students and parents. Each dean will follow their assigned class throughout their four years at Thornton Academy.

We encourage you to learn more about our class dean program by following this link. We also invite you to read more about the people responsible for maintaining a safe and nurturing environment to ensure all students have the chance to achieve their full potential.