Georgia Fugees Academy Charter School

Why Georgia Fugees Academy Charter School was nominated

GA Fugees Academy’s model includes the following components: ● Individualized supports: Fusing the approaches of “Montessori and military school,” the school’s small class sizes will allow teachers to personalize the learning in order to support the growth of a diverse group of learners. Students will develop the critical skills of goal-setting, decision-making and time-management to ensure they are set up for post secondary success. ● Emphasis on social emotional learning: Because soccer is the common language for refugee children, the soccer program serves as the vehicle through which students develop self-regulation, teamwork, leadership skills and other social-emotional competencies. ● Advisory model: To cultivate a sense of belonging, students belong to three distinct communities: a soccer team, a house (mixed ages among grades 6-12) and their own class (16 students max). This model could be catalytic if successful in demonstrating how to best support ELLs. Luma’s determination to build a high-quality, scalable school model is also aligned with our strategy to provide early-stage funding to new and emerging school networks, Georgia Fugees Academy Charter School (GFACS) is a tuition free, community-based, public charter school designed to meet the needs of refugee and new American students through English language acquisition and foundational skill study, culturally relevant curriculum and wraparound supports, arts programming, and soccer participation. Every student works as a team member on and off the field to bridge significant gaps in formal schooling to graduate on time.