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ST. JOHNSBURY ACADEMY JEJU

ANNUAL REPORT 21 22

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Our Mission

Letter From the Head Of School

Elementary School Highlights

Middle School Highlights

High School Highlights

Teaching & Learning

Admissions & Marketing

Athletics & ASAs

Residential Life

OUR MISSION

To teach good character by modeling and fostering compassion respect, responsibility, and integrity

To foster a love for learning by challenging individuals to pursue knowledge, creativity, and intellectual self-reliance

To encourage each individual to understand his or her relationships, rights, and responsibilities within a community that is itself part of the larger world

LETTER FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL "You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than you think, and loved more than you’ll ever know." A. A. Mile

For that, I am so proud to have witnessed your accomplishments, and I am humbled by your unending positive fortitude not only to survive but to achieve during the global pandemic and shine your light bright. And I celebrate with you knowing that next year will be better and brighter! We hope this second-year annual report will once again show our school’s unwavering vision and commitment to supporting our students and providing the best learning opportunities and conditions, academically and emotionally, for our students to achieve their highest learning potential and success.

The last couple of years has been one of the most challenging seasons of our learning journey. As a school community, we continued to stand together, unite our efforts, and share mutual support and empathy to thrive and overcome the consequences of COVID, emerging stronger together. Throughout it all, you continued to demonstrate compassion, empathy, and a strong resolve to learn and grow, finishing the academic year with determination and excellence!

Special thanks to our amazing faculty, staff, parents, and families for their commitment to our students in our educational journey during these challenging years. My time here at St. Johnsbury Academy Jeju will be forever cherished, and I hope I will see you again soon one day. Have a happy, safe, and healthy summer vacation! Dr. Jeannie Sung Head of School

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

HIGHLIGHTS

CELEBRATIONS OF LEARNING There is much to be celebrated in the Elementary School this year. With the challenges of Covid still with us, our students, teachers, and parents have been amazing in switching from in-school to virtual learning quickly and smoothly. We are fortunate to have most of our days this year in school, and students have been learning amazing things. Students are “living” inquiry-based, project-based learning in all areas of school life. We continually celebrate the reading and writing of students' voices, their language development, and continued growth and development with every passing day. Play-based learning is also very important in helping to develop social and emotional skills for young children. They learn to solve problems, create, investigate, explore, participate in social interactions and develop conflict resolution skills. It is also important for the physical and cognitive skills they develop.

A lot has happened over the past year, and we would like to highlight a few of the projects that the students have participated in this year. An area to celebrate is the Makerspace Design Lab badges. Students learn a new skill or learn how to use a new piece of equipment through student-produced videos. Once the student masters the skill and is able to perform the task, they receive a badge for their mastery of the skill. Grade 4 students use their inquiry minds to develop Rube Goldberg machines which are new inventions to help solve problems of the world. Our Elementary School organized and participated in a service-learning project where we donated food for the homeless here on Jeju island. Students from all divisions helped to inform and educate our community about this problem and took action to help and support the homeless. Grade 5 participated in their capstone projects this year. They thought about what they were passionate about and connected to the UN sustainable goals. Their projects included a global problem and an action to help solve that problem in our current world.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL HIGHLIGHTS

ASSESSMENT DATA Fountas and Pinnell Reading Assessment 82% 53% 97% 66%

of of of of

Grades 1-5 grew one or more levels in reading. Grades 1-5 grew 2 or more levels in reading. Kindergarteners are reading at or above grade level. grades K-5 are reading at or above grade level.

The Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) Assessment Grade 3's overall percentile in Math is 89%. Grade 3's overall percentile in Reading is 38%. Grade 3's overall percentile in Language Usage is 42%. Grade 4's overall percentile in Math is 96%. Grade 4's overall percentile in Reading is 55%. Grade 4's overall percentile in Language Usage is 61%. Grade 5's overall percentile in Math is 97%. Grade 5's overall percentile in Reading is 54%. Grade 5's overall percentile in Language Usage is 78%.

WIDA Assessment 48% percent of all the ES students tested grew more than 1 level in at least 2 language domains! 41% percent of all the ES students tested grew more than 1 level in their overall score. There was a 19% increase of students counted for growth from 2020-2021 to 2021-2022. The fall overall starting average increased from 4.2 in 2020-2021 to 4.5 in 2021-2022. 38% of students measured for growth tested out of EAL support.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL HIGHLIGHTS

TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION Digital Citizenship

Technology Integration

This is the first full school year where the personalized Digital Citizenship curriculum has been implemented. This curriculum is based on the Common Sense Media K-5 curriculum, taking some elements of game-based learning from Google Be Internet Awesome. The covered topics are Media Balance & Wellbeing, Privacy & Security, Digital Footprint & Identity, Relationships & Communication, Cyberbullying & Digital Drama, and News Media & Digital Literacy.

With the variety of technology we are afforded at SJA Jeju, we can give our students amazing learning opportunities. Every subject area for PK5 has been augmented and redefined by the use of technology in some way, which has amplified the curriculum content and developed our students’ digital literacy skills. Each student at SJA Jeju has a device, whether that be an iPad or Macbook, in order to leverage technology every day of their school lives. They interact in an online learning environment through Seesaw or Google Classroom, and through these platforms, they are building their digital competencies each day alongside their peers, and with their teachers to guide them.

For EC-Grade 1, the curriculum is delivered primarily through fiction stories and opportunities for discussion and real-world connections. Grade 2 through Grade 5 have accessed explicitly taught lessons with a largely interactive component through the use of Nearpod, Seesaw, and Choice Boards. Their personal experiences and thoughts on each topic are used to connect the objective to their experiences so far in the online world and to equip them with digital-savvy skills for their future online use. The students’ reception to these lessons has been extremely positive, with many thankful they have the opportunity to discuss their online experiences in a group setting.

Some further examples of technology integration include using Book Creator to publish their writing pieces online, experiencing virtual reality field trips to explore their world, augmented reality (A.R) with Merge Cubes which allows students to hold learning in their hands for Science, or A.R maps to touch the countries and learn more about them for Social Studies, and A.R 3D shapes for Mathematics. Even though the basis of each lesson focuses on a subject area, with these technology experiences, students are afforded cross-curricular opportunities, collaboration, and exciting learning experiences. Digital Tools for Capstone Technology is a large component of the Grade 5 Capstone culminating project. Throughout the school year, Grade 5 students were exposed to an array of digital tools and platforms to explore and expand their skills through digital creation. These tools included, but were not limited to, Google Workspace, CoSpaces Edu, Book Creator, Canva Edu, iMovie, and Green Screening for video content creation. Each of these digital tools provided the opportunity for each individual student to explore their skills and find which tool they can leverage best to highlight their unique abilities. This provided students with the opportunity to experience the creative process through technology to redefine their learning and take it to a transformative level.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL HIGHLIGHTS

THE ARTS As we continue to be under the fog of a pandemic, as an Elementary school, we still continued to celebrate the Arts in many ways throughout the school year. We have celebrated holidays and events in both the American and Korean calendars such as Chuseok, Halloween, and Lunar New Year. The students celebrated through many different art mediums and dressed in traditional clothing. The Music teachers have given us amazing musical concerts where students not only sing but play instruments and create their own music. These concerts are during December and May when each grade level has its opportunity to shine. We have numerous art displays throughout the school in classrooms, hallways, exhibition areas, and even the PAC lobby areas with hanging displays. One of the most exciting times of the year is the Elementary Art Show. One piece of artwork is displayed by every student in the school. Students and teachers have an opportunity to walk around and learn about their art and why they chose the artwork that they did.

We even filmed a virtual tour for our parent community. Grade 4 & 5 students have the opportunity to participate in the ES Musical, FAME Junior Performance. Students have dedicated two afternoons and some Saturdays to rehearse and get the show ready to perform in May. We are lucky to have amazing teachers and students that are hardworking and talented to make this one of the most incredible events of the year. Throughout the year, the Music and Art teachers have worked collaboratively with all the different grade levels to integrate art and music into their Units of Study. Some examples include creating medieval music in music class or the Counselor collaborating with the Art teacher in their “Identity” unit, where students made self-portraits of themselves and how they identified themselves. Very powerful to observe.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL HIGHLIGHTS

MIDDLE SCHOOL

HIGHLIGHTS

MIDDLE SCHOOL VISION

PERSONALIZED LEARNING

At St. Johnsbury Academy Jeju, in the Middle School, we aspire toward student ownership of learning, fostering a culture of continuous learning, and being a community that is culturally and academically inclusive.

Learning Support All students and young people who need support with their learning should get help. This year, we have implemented a new way to deliver learning support. The Learning Support Delivery Model strengthens how learning support is provided so that all students can get the right support, in the right place, at the right time. It organizes learning support based on what best meets the needs of students. Learning support offers a continuum of support based on the learning needs of the individual student. The creation of the Student Success Team (SST) will allow for a team effort in providing a supportive environment for students. Support is more flexible and joined-up, and tailored around the needs of all learners. CAPSTONE Grade 8 Capstone is a collaborative learning experience that reflects a positive community celebration. Students work in preselected groups, where they explore their chosen issue related to the 17 UN sustainability goals. As to develop ways to have a positive impact on the issue. During the Capstone project, students have the opportunity to grow their 21st-century skills: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, and Critical Thinking. This year, the learning experience was guided by the principles of Project-Based Learning. It allowed students to explore their topics. This allows for a more authentic project in which students should encounter difficulties and experimentation or exploration during the process. This is essential to the learning experience within the CAPSTONE model.

MIDDLE SCHOOL HIGHLIGHTS

EAL

GRADE LEVEL TEAMING

EAL support at SJA Jeju recognizes the contribution of our EAL learners to the education of all learners. We welcome linguistic diversity and promote the development of English academic proficiency alongside the development of the home language.

Teaching teams that master the integration of the four domains—responding to student needs, integrating curriculum and skills, sharing successful teaching and learning strategies, and maximizing available time creatively—are key to achieving the ultimate vision of the middle school concept. Common planning time is a critical component of interdisciplinary teaming, which is defined as a group of teachers from different subject areas who plan and work together and who share the same students for a significant portion of the school day. Interdisciplinary teaming is intended to create a context that enables students and teachers to know one another better and allows teachers to better support and understand the educational needs of students. Teams generally focus on creating coordinated lesson plans, share and discuss student progress, problems and issues, and integrate subjects around a central theme or issue.

WIDA stands for World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment. The WIDA Consortium is a group of states dedicated to the design and implementation of high standards and equitable educational opportunities for English learners. Educators used MODEL test scores to monitor students’ progress, exit students from EAL programs, and make decisions about language supports, placement into classes, and instruction for EALs. In Middle School, our language specialists and classroom teachers work together as a team to ensure the best academic outcome possible within a happy, social framework that enables students to benefit from all our school has to offer. Regardless of the level of proficiency, the goal of our EAL team is the same – to work in partnership with teachers, students, and parents to support multilingual learners, enable them to take advantage of the many opportunities our school has to offer, and ultimately fulfill their potential.

MIDDLE SCHOOL HIGHLIGHTS

CONNECT

COMMUNITY

Advisory

STUCO Events

The SJA Jeju Middle School Advisory Program is an integral part of the foundation of Middle School. Middle school students are in a period of significant developmental changes. They are seeking new connections and learning to navigate new school experiences, and they have increased autonomy. The primary purpose of Advisory in the Middle School is to build student-to-student affiliation and help students to calibrate in addressing certain critical issues. Middle School Advisory is a key time for discussing important issues and helping students become invested in doing their part to create a strong, vibrant, healthy school community where students can flourish.

Student Council’s 2021/22 was an amazing year in which they designed to teach students how to become strong leaders and productive citizens in the community and world. The Student Council's sole purpose is to promote citizenship, leadership, human relations, and cultural values. SJA Jeju Middle school gives students an opportunity to develop these skills by organizing and carrying out school activities and service projects. This year we had the Halloween Celebration, STUCO Assemblies, cultural awareness, and learning about our community groups. Students were able to participate in a variety of activities.

National Junior Honor Society This year the Middle School is proud to announce the establishment of the National Junior Honor Society (NJHS). The NJHS is one of the nation's premier organizations established to recognize outstanding middle-level students. The NJHS serves to honor those students who have demonstrated excellence in the areas of scholarship, leadership, service, character, and citizenship. The NJHS Induction Ceremony for the 2021-2022 school year was held on November 29, 2021, in which 25 students were inducted. Congratulations to the new members for maintaining high standards for the school year 2021-2022.

MIDDLE SCHOOL HIGHLIGHTS

From the various fundraisers, we organize the day-to-day interactions. This year we saw a more active and dedicated student council, and thus we also saw more successful activities planned.

THE ARTS

FUTURE STEPS

The Arts program in the Middle School allows students, through the study of art, music, and drama, to plan and craft artistic products or performances that reflect their individuality. We integrate our progressive visual arts curriculum into each student's education with academic electives and after-school activities throughout the middle school experience.

Growth of the Program

Teaching the creative process is at the heart of all of our arts courses. Choice and exploration – between and within different artistic disciplines – are at the heart of the Middle School arts program. This year the Visual Art program focussed on the beautification of the Middle School building by highlighting student artwork. The Drama this year was a collaboration with the High School that culminated in the Middle School Play, West Side Story. Middle School music ensembles are accessible and engaging for both beginners and seasoned performers, as we have seen in our yearly performances.

The 2022-2023 school year will see the addition of several programs and roles. Academic Foundations is a course that will be offered to all incoming grade 6 students that will help students build capacity in areas that will help them be successful in middle school and beyond, including: Study Skills, Executive Functioning Skills, Self-Advocacy Skills, Academic Skills, SEL (Social Emotional Learning) Skills, and other relevant skills. Spanish will also be added as a world language option. The addition of a College, Lifeskills, and Career Readiness Advisor will also help students develop skills and prepare to be lifelong learners who are prepared to matriculate on to the next steps in their lives. Finally, Capstone will be added as a class in the 20222023 school year–helping to ensure that students get the time they need to develop their passion projects. The 2022-2023 will also see the addition of a House System in the middle school. The implementation of a house system will put a structure in place to positively reinforce the good choices that students make and to better provide pastoral care within the middle school. In addition, the House System will foster a greater sense of community as the students will form Houses with students across all three grade levels at the middle school.

MIDDLE SCHOOL HIGHLIGHTS

HIGH SCHOOL

HIGHLIGHTS

HIGH SCHOOL OVERVIEW

During the 2021-22 school year at SJA Jeju, we stood firm together in the midst of an everevolving global pandemic and continued to provide our students with a high-quality education. All the while during the Covid-19 pandemic, we came to school every day, we taught our students every day, and we stood shoulder to shoulder every day to do what we needed to do to get the job done. We are very proud of the courage, perseverance, and strength of character in each and every one of our students and faculty. We continued to strive for and achieve excellence throughout this school year, and we will continue to do so into the future.

HIGH SCHOOL HIGHLIGHTS

TEACHER RETENTION AND EXPANSION The high school teacher retention rate for 2021-22 is 93% which is a fantastic rate and a strong testament that the high school is a positive and supportive working environment. Typically most top-tier schools of our size have a teacher retention rate in the low 80% range. This is a very positive trend for high school to have a percentage of 93%. Additionally, the high school maintains the highest percentage of teachers with a Master's degree or higher at 90% division-wide. This is a testament to good hiring practices. For 2022-23 the high school is expanding from 330 students to 380 students. We are also added two English as an Additional Language (EAL) teachers to support our student's needs. This is the first time in the history of SJA Jeju for EAL teachers to be hired in the high school division and a major success for our Student Support Team. Additionally, for the first time in SJA Jeju history, we are adding a Chinese student support teacher who will provide scaffolded language and learning support for our Chinese-speaking families. We will also add a full-time Social Emotional Counselor to our SST.

STUDENT SERVICES DEVELOPMENT We have expanded our course offerings for all students next year, and with these new courses, students will have more options to explore their path toward educational excellence. We expanded our Student Support Team with the addition of a Dean of Students. The Dean of Students led our advisory relaunch and incorporated Character education into our new advisory program. We created and implemented student orientation and advancement programs, including but not limited to New Student Orientation at the beginning of the year and our Student Ambassador Program. We launched foundational level classes to support students at all levels, including Algebraic Foundations, Integrated Science, and English Foundations. These courses helped students develop the executive functioning skills and life skills necessary to be successful in high school. We enhanced our student programs through our Student Ambassador Program, National Honor Society, National Student Council, and Computer Science Honor Society. These are all first-time programs in the history of SJA Jeju.

On March 4th, 2022, we celebrated our first National Honor Society (NHS) Induction Ceremony. We welcomed 44 new members of the SJA Jeju NHS Chapter. Programs such as our Student Ambassador Program, National Honor Society, National Student Council, and Computer Science Honor Society allowed student leaders to develop their skills by leading student groups and creating a number of school activities. Some of these activities include our first ever SJA Jeju high school prom, our high school Halloween dance, and our first-ever SJA Jeju TEDx event, which was developed and run by student leaders. These types of opportunities grow student efficacy and develop student leadership at SJA Jeju.

HIGH SCHOOL HIGHLIGHTS

DEVELOPMENT OF NEW LEARNING SPACES As the SJA Jeju High School is expanding, we have met the needs of our students and teachers by designing and creating new spaces to support our students learning and development. These spaces are typically flexible, functional, and operate as shared spaces across the secondary. With the addition of more faculty for our SST team, we created a flex space called the Academic Bullpen to support our SST team and students who need support. We created a new office space for our Social Emotional Counselor. We created a new office space for our Dean of Students and an additional Administrative Assistant. We created new learning spaces in the Sports Complex, Blackbox Theater, and MU130. We relocated the Kiln room and incorporated the kiln into the 3D art classroom space. We created a shared calendar system to share space equitably. We also created and developed a middle school/ high school shared medical center.

HIGH SCHOOL HIGHLIGHTS

PARENT COMMUNITY OUTREACH The High School hosted multiple parent information sessions throughout the year. These informational virtual coffee sessions were designed for secondary parents to explain the different models of learning and keep parents up to date with high school news. These parent coffee mornings were held virtually due to Covid19 and were a mix of prerecorded and live presentations that included question and answer sessions. Parents were encouraged to participate in these coffee morning presentations. These information sessions were a huge success and hosted on average 100-120 parent participants depending on the topic. They were also recorded and are available for parent viewing on the High School website. In addition every month throughout the school year the high school administration met with the high school parent association representatives. These meetings were vital in helping to keep the parents and community connected virtually and up to date on high school current events.

AP COURSES AND UNIVERSITY PLACEMENTS A big part of high school is preparing students for success and acceptance to the world's best universities. This year at SJA Jeju, we have made significant improvements to our Advanced Placement (AP) courses and college counseling department. Advanced Placement (AP) courses prepare students for the rigors of university-level academic work. As students build their transcripts with high-level courses, admission officers recognize our students for their abilities to perform at the highest levels of academia, leading to high placements for our students and enhancing the reputation of SJA Jeju. This year we have made the following updates to our AP program: We have redesigned our AP program to make classes more accessible for students. This design has allowed more students to take AP classes. 80 unique student registrations 20-21 160 unique student registrations 21-22 215 unique student registrations 22-23 34% increase in student registrations New AP offerings: 14 AP offerings 20-21 20 AP course offerings 21-22 23 AP course offerings 22-23

College counseling has been very successful this year at SJA Jeju. We have added a 2nd college counselor and began the development of our SJA Jeju Pathways to Success Program, which focused on supporting grade 9 and 10 students. This program helps our students begin the process of learning about universities earlier and will help our students make more informed choices. As of April, 85% of our graduates from this school year have been admitted to the world's top 100 universities. Top Placements This Year Two accepted Northwestern (9) Three accepted Washington Univerisity (14) Three accepted UCLA (20) Three accepted Emory (21) Two accepted Berkeley (22) Two accepted Carnegie Mellon University (25) One accepted University of Virginia (26) Three accepted University of South California (27) Three accepted NYU (28) One accepted Wake Forest University (28)

HIGH SCHOOL HIGHLIGHTS

TEACHING

& LEARNING

ACTION PLAN Following our successful accreditation with NEASC in May of 2021, we embarked on year one of our 5year action plan. All of the goals and tasks in our action plan were derived directly from our accreditation process and based on the feedback we received from all stakeholder groups. As a young school, much of the work in this first phase of our action plan focused on developing and aligning programs. To accomplish these tasks, all 165 SJA faculty members joined one of 26 committees that met once each month during Wednesday late start time. The work that has been accomplished by the committees is truly remarkable. Some examples include: Improving and aligning 5th to 6th grade and 8th to 9th-grade transition programs Researching and developing a framework for Service Learning at SJA Jeju Designing and building a Student Portal as a one-stop-shop for SJA Jeju students to access important information and resources Researching and aligning Social-Emotional Learning curriculum for all divisions And much, much more! We are pleased with our progress in implementing our action plan and look forward to moving into year two of the plan in 2022-23.

TEACHING & LEARNING

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING During the 2021-22 academic year, SJA Jeju provided 165 faculty members with access to a wide range of professional development opportunities! These opportunities included onsite workshops and courses led by a worldrenowned expert and focused on strategies to support and include all students in order to ensure every child reaches their potential. In addition to these courses and workshops, more than 120 faculty members accessed external professional learning opportunities. We have incredible faculty at SJA Jeju, and a major component of our professional development plan includes job-embedded learning, facilitated by our own in-house experts. This year nearly 100 faculty members provided internal PD for their colleagues. These teacher-led PD opportunities included faculty sharing their learning from external PD they had attended as well as the best practices they use in their classrooms every day. Finally, to round off our professional learning program, our two incredible instructional coaches partnered with more than 50 teachers over the course of the year to ensure highquality learning outcomes for students.

TEACHING & LEARNING

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT AND ALIGNMENT This has been an exciting year of growth and alignment at SJA Jeju! As our enrollment continues to grow, the school leadership team has been thoughtful and strategic with the expansion and development of our academic programs. Some of the highlights include: Opening the middle school STEAM program, including Robotics, Computer Science, and general STEAM courses Aligning STEAM courses from elementary to high school, including AP opportunities Hiring an Aquatics Coordinator to help align and build our K-12 swim programs as well as athletics and after school activities Developing an instructional coaching model to ensure optimal teaching and learning in our classrooms Aligning our curriculum from K-12 in the areas of Science, Health, Math, STEAM, and Korean as a Foreign Language Redesigning our After School Activities program to include increased offerings (We have nearly doubled student participation in ASAs this year!) Expanding our athletics program by doubling the number of training opportunities for middle and high school and significantly increasing opportunities for elementary students Expanding AP course offerings to include a total of 20 different courses

TEACHING & LEARNING

COLLABORATION Research has consistently shown that teacher collaboration is a decisive factor for the improvement of a school and its members. Our accreditation process underscored the need for collaborative time for teachers as paramount to our continued improvement as a school. In 2020-21 we partnered with our parent representatives to design a model that created consistent time and space for professional learning and collaboration for our teachers. In 2021-22, we launched our late start Wednesdays, coupled with five full professional development days for teachers. We managed to accomplish this with little to no reduction in learning time for students. The results of this collaborative time have been truly remarkable. Some of the highlights include: Grade-level teams have been able to develop powerful and innovative projects for their students. Teachers have been able to learn directly from other teachers who have expertise in specific areas. Instead of only one teacher being an expert at a particular strategy, now all teachers share that expertise! All faculty have participated in workshops and training from world-leading experts in education and have had the time to put that learning into practice with their colleagues. We are already seeing improved learning outcomes for students and are confident that our continued focus on collaboration will lead to even greater outcomes for our students.

TEACHING & LEARNING

ADMISSIONS

& MARKETING

ADMISSIONS OVERVIEW We proudly entered our fifth year at St. Johnsbury Academy Jeju in August 2021 and started with our largest group of students to date at 1056 at the beginning of the year despite the challenges we faced with Covid. 2021-22 will be our third graduating class, and over the past three years, we have had students graduate and attend some of the top U.S and Korean universities, Ivy League schools, and topranking international universities. We are proud of our students and their achievements and look forward to the future graduating classes and their successes. St. Johnsbury Academy Jeju will continue to seek students for all grades from PreK3-G12 and offers an application process that is a fair and measured indicator of a student's ability to succeed at school with our academics once they start at SJA Jeju. We offer all applicants an interview from grades Pre-k3 to G12 and a MAP test for applicants from grades 3 and above. All applicants are considered based on the results of these two items as well as academic transcripts and references requested in the application.

ADMISSIONS & MARKETING

GROWTH As we have grown through the years, our recruitment has moved at a strong pace. Our initial two years saw the highest growth and the school student population has increased 99% from our opening day to the present day. We are moving towards our goal of 1,254 total capacity.

2021-2022 16%

2018-2019 41.5%

2020-2021 13.8%

2019-2020 28.7%

ADMISSIONS & MARKETING

Korea

USA

China

Canada

Ireland

South Africa

Argentina

Chilie

Colombia

Mexico

Sierra Leone

NATIONALITIES 2021-22

11% OF OUR STUDENTS ARE INTERNATIONAL In 2021-2022, our students came from 13 different nationalities, with the highest being Korea and the United States second. 31

ADMISSIONS & MARKETING

ANNUAL REPORRT 2021

INFORMATION SESSIONS With the continuing Covid restrictions, we have adapted to new ways of promoting the school to families and students from all over Korea and the globe. St. Johnsbury Academy Jeju has started to offer online information sessions targeted at specific age groups each month to provide more in-depth and informative information to families about the school and the years they are interested in applying. The school has hosted live monthly online events for Elementary school and Middle and High school combined events to provide more in-depth information to parents when they are looking at applying to the school. During each session, we outlined the curriculum, critical points in learning and development, and how students can benefit from a St. Johnsbury Academy Jeju education. Families would have the opportunity to ask questions during the live link, and we aimed to answer as many questions on the spot to provide a real-time event that is useful to parents seeking entry for their child. This year, our final session was focused on College Counseling, whereby we discussed our approach to preparing students for their college applications worldwide, including in Korea. Our successful approach has led our students to top universities in North America, Korea, and internationally. Due to the large interest in these events, we will continue to hold online info sessions post-covid as well as in-person events to provide as much information and opportunities to our prospective families as possible.

ADMISSIONS & MARKETING

ATHLETICS

& ASAS

FALL SPORTS Soccer, Volleyball, Swimming, Tennis, Cross Country, Badminton, Ping Pong, Netball, Baseball, Golf, Touch Rugby Season 1 started our year off with a lot of hope. We managed to compete in the KISAC tournaments for Tennis, Soccer, Cross Country and Badminton. Each year, as we grow, we seem to exponentially improve at sports. Tennis once again proved successful with us taking the boys singles gold and silver and the gold, silver and bronze in doubles. We also scooped the gold in the girls singles and doubles. Cross country is always competitive and we did well to win gold in the boys middle school and silver in the boys high school categories. Our tennis stars crossed over seamlessly onto the badminton courts where we took silver in both boys singles and doubles.

ATHLETICS & ASAS

Unfortunately, nearly all of our inter-school competitions were canceled this year due to COVID. We were very lucky to still have a sports program, and we made up for the missed matches with intramural tournaments. We were also very fortunate to get a high school volleyball tournament, for the first time in two years. Our very young boys team battled bravely and finished 4th in the A division. Our girls had their best ever result and came home with the bronze medal. Our volleyball teams once again held an intramural outdoor tournament. Faculty joined in and it was an awesome day outside.

ATHLETICS & ASAS

WINTER SPORTS Basketball, Volleyball, Ping Pong, Swimming, Screen Golf

Winter sees our athletes move indoors for swimming, high school basketball, and middle school volleyball. Winter was our worst hit in terms of cancellations, sadly we didn't get to play any competitive matches with our season being cut very short after the Winter break.

ATHLETICS & ASAS

SPRING SPORTS Soccer, Basketball, Tennis, Netball, T-ball, Baseball, Track, Ping Pong, Swimming, Badminton, Flag Football, Screen Golf The Spring season has started with far more promise. We will be sending High School boys and girls soccer teams to Busan to compete in a tournament. This is a huge step forward! It has been three years since we have been allowed to travel to the mainland to compete. Once again, we will be hosting the KISAC Middle School boys basketball championships. Our girls will be traveling to NLCS for their tournament. We are defending champions, so we are delighted to be defending our title in our wonderful facilities.

AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES Last year's aim was to build on our growing ASA program. We shifted our schedules and timetables to make space for more Elementary sports. The results have been staggering. The elementary students get full access to all the sporting facilities, getting exposed to new activities like volleyball, ping pong, basketball, fencing, ballet, jiu jitsu, inline skating, T-ball, kickball, soccer, tennis, netball, rugby, baseball, cross country, swimming, waterpolo, and track. School-wide, we went from offering 420 ASAs and sports last year, to now offering 573. Our athletics department and coaches have focused on exposing students to as many activities as possible. With daily life slowly getting back to normal, next year is gearing up to be awesome!

ATHLETICS & ASAS

RESIDENTIAL

LIFE

ACADEMIC SUPPORT The dorms are connected to the school in many important ways including continued learning support. Opportunities to expand English speaking, listening, and reading skills, easy access to peers and adults for academic support, and our Evening Study program all assist dorm students in their academic growth. This year, we have adjusted Evening Study to provide more teachers each night of Evening Study, a more appropriate length of time for our younger students, and a Peer Tutoring program for High School students to assist Middle School students with their learning.

RESIDENTIAL LIFE

LIVING SPACES Each dorm has 105 rooms. Most students, grades 6-10 are assigned a roommate and share a room. Learning to live appropriately with a roommate and learning to be a good roommate are very important skills. Students in grades 11 and 12 are given a single room when there is one available. Each wing of each dorm has a kitchen with a shared refrigerator, microwave, and tea kettle, while each floor has a water filtration system as well. There is one oven/stove in each dorm that all students have access to. Each floor also has a common room with cable tv, couches, chairs, and comfortable spaces to sit with friends. There are 2 ping pong tables in each dorm, a pool or billiard table, and a foosball table. Each dorm has a karaoke room with frequently updated machines as well. Finally, each dorm has a small study room on each floor and one large study room that is equipped with individual lockers where students can store and charge their computers and phones. This year, we have improved our current spaces by adding murals in several study rooms and the art room. We have added a Clay Room and a Multimedia Room, as well as a piano in each dorm. Each afternoon, the halls are filled with the sounds of students joyfully singing karaoke or playing beautiful tunes on the pianos. All of these spaces are on the first floor of the dorms, so all dorm students have access to use them, regardless of which dorm they live in. Finally, after major construction in 2021, we had zero problems with mold in the dorms this school year. There was no flooding, and no mold as students’ living conditions were up to our standards of safety and comfort.

RESIDENTIAL LIFE

INQUIRY & ACTIVITIES When students are not in classes, there are many opportunities for personal growth, connection, and fun. Dorm students all participate in After School Activities. Clubs and sports meet during this time, and dorm students often find themselves as captains or leaders of these activities. After dorm students and a dorm proctor started our first SJA Jeju baseball team last year, this year, we had 2 MS teams at the school and 1 HS team. Next year, three of the GEC schools will have baseball, following the lead of the dorm program from last year. On weekends, we have required activities for MS students and optional activities for HS students when available. This year, we are finally able to go off-campus occasionally after not being allowed due to COVID. Students have been able to play on Go-Karts, go to a Jeju United soccer match, hike waterfalls, hike Halla, go fishing, and explore local beaches. On-campus, students have learned many cooking skills, have improved our Makers’ Room with some woodworking projects and model rocketry, and they have enjoyed many board games and active games. In addition, we have been able to consistently open the pool this year for students who want to swim. Some students were certified in pool diving, and others learned to play water polo. Boarding students have many opportunities to learn responsibility, leadership, and followership. Keeping track of their daily schedule, keeping their rooms tidy, participating in weekend activities and after-school activities, and problem-solving with proctors are important ways that our students grow.

RESIDENTIAL LIFE

CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP Dorm students have many opportunities to formally lead. Our three leadership groups are the Dorm Leadership team, Dorm Ambassadors, and Peer Tutors. These organizations lead activities, plan events, suggest changes to dorm policies, provide guidance to new students, care for faculty children during faculty meetings, and provide academic support for younger dorm students. This year, in addition to organizing activities and discussing dorm life, Dorm Leadership led two important service activities. First, they organized money to donate Christmas gifts for children at a local orphanage. Second, a group of dorm leaders participated with KG, 4th grade, and HS STUCO to raise community awareness, educate their peers, and donate food to the Jeju Food Bank as they addressed poverty on Jeju.

RESIDENTIAL LIFE