By Katie Brown

Atlanta has many great things to offer families, including a multitude of innovative, award-winning schools. If you’re moving to Atlanta with a family, or about to start a family, you’ll be glad to know your children’s education will be in good hands. Along with the public and private schools, Atlanta has many diverse schools to fit your child’s every need. From boarding schools, to charters and schools focused on children with special needs, here are a few non-traditional schools that are a cut above the rest.

Atlanta Girls’ School
Atlanta Girls’ School is a middle and high school for girls that emphasize the ability to learn and adapt academically. The school also believes that girls-only education is an important way for young women to learn in today’s world. With a strong college prep curriculum, the students at Atlanta Girls’ School are in an environment designed to foster the potential of each student and enable her to contribute to society. Atlanta Girls’ School boasts its use of technology as part of the learning process, including a one-to-one program in which all students have an Apple Macbook laptop to access curriculum resources, software and more.

Atlanta Girls’ School is located in intown Atlanta. For more information, visit atlantagirlsschool.org or call (404) 845-0900.

Atlanta International School
Atlanta International School, or AIS, is a school based on international education and is one of only 10 schools in the country that offers the full continuum of the International Baccalaureate curriculum for grades K4 through 12. The school’s mission is to give students the intellectual and cultural confidence to succeed in a globally connected world. AIS also has award-winning theater and robotics programs with a new cross-curricular arts, sciences and design building opening soon.

AIS is a kindergarten through 12th grade school for both American and international students. Current enrollment is approximately 1,000 students, with 50 percent being American and 50 percent international. At graduation, students take a test to receive a prestigious International Baccalaureate Diploma.

Atlanta International School is located in the heart of Buckhead. For more information on AIS, visit aischool.org or call (404) 841-3840.

The Cottage School
From humble beginnings—a one-room office with a lone set of table and chairs and one teacher—The Cottage School has grown into a dynamic school community on a 23-acre campus with five cottage-style classrooms. The Cottage School began as one teacher’s dream to help academically frustrated students. The school planted its roots as a tutorial after-school program, but quickly parents requested full-time education. In time, The Cottage School evolved into a fully accredited middle and high school with a curriculum designed for hard-working students with learning differences. Many of the school’s students have become discouraged in traditional academic settings—The Cottage School finds that these students often flourish within its cottage-style classrooms and its specialized curriculum.

The Cottage School philosophy teaches students basic work skills that they can implement as confident and productive adults. The curriculum is also designed to uncover each student’s individual talents, helping each one develop a path for success beyond graduation. In addition to its specialized curriuculm, The Cottage School offers a diverse athletic program, arts education, career and post-secondary preparation, tutoring and much more.
The Cottage School is located in Roswell. For more information, visit cottageschool.org or call (770) 641-8688.

High Meadows
Established in 1973, High Meadows School’s innovative integrated curriculum emphasizes a love of learning, creativity, meaningful connections, environmental responsibility and excellence. High Meadows School has 400 in preschool through eighth grade.

The goal is for students to become “confident, creative problem solvers, accomplished speakers, experienced team players, critical thinkers, life-long learners and self-advocates who connect with their teachers and peers.”

Co-curricular programs include debate and public speaking, visual arts, theatre, music, environmental studies, foreign language, physical education and media and technology.

High Meadows School is located in Alpharetta. For more information, visit highmeadows.org or call (770) 993-2940.

The Howard School
The Howard School is a K-12 independent school for children with learning differences and language learning disabilities. Howard offers integrated programs including the use of technology with an assistive technology program, a full-time math lab specialist, art and music, physical education and athletics.

Last year’s enrollment was made up of 232 students in preschool through 12th grade. The school has 47 teachers, including six speech language pathologists, five literacy specialists and 28 faculty members with advanced degrees. In 2009, the percentage of graduates who went on to post-secondary institutions was 93 percent.

The Howard School is located in Atlanta. For more information, visit howardschool.org or call (404) 377-7436.

Mill Springs Academy
The traditional classroom with a blackboard at the front of the room, desks in rows and one teacher to deliver instruction just doesn’t work for every student. Mill Springs Academy offers an environment designed to nurture students who haven’t realized their full potential in a typical school setting. The academy, located in Alpharetta, welcomes students in first through 12th grades.

Learning strategies are developed for each student through information collected from psycho-educational evaluations, previous school records, diagnostic skills assessment and observations and communication with the student’s current and previous education professionals. Students take part in a structured curriculum that includes the academy’s community levels system, daily values groups and life space interview techniques.

Mill Springs Academy takes a total-child approach to providing an atmosphere where students can thrive academically, socially and physically. For more information about Mill Springs, visit millsprings.org or call (770) 360-1336.

Notre Dame Academy
Notre Dame Academy is an independent school serving 460 students in Pre-K through 8th grade. In 2011, The Marist Provincial approved Notre Dame Academy to become a full Marist School. Notre Dame Academy is accredited by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IB), the Southern Association of Independent School (SAIS) and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).

The school welcomes a diverse learning population and employs a full-time learning specialist. Extra curricular activities include soccer, basketball, cross country, track and field, golf, hip-hop, ballet, Lego League and Junior Lego League, Odyssey of the Mind, and Girl Scouts/Daisies.

Notre Dame Academy is located in Duluth. For more information, visit ndacademy.org or call (678) 387-9385.

Sophia Academy
The mission of Sophia Academy, a non-denominational Christian school devoted to students with learning differences as well as traditional learners, is to provide personalized education tailored to meet student needs in a faith-based environment. By offering small classes with multi-sensory learning as well as team sports and other extracurricular activities, there are many opportunities for student involvement and leadership.

Technology is an important learning tool at Sophia Academy, which has a student body of a 100. With the Assistive Learning Evaluation Center, students are able to use technology, such as online textbooks and software that reads textbooks aloud, to improve learning.

Sophia Academy is located in Atlanta. For more information, visit sofiaacademy.org or call (404) 303-8722.