Officials at the Thales Academy in Franklin have scheduled an open house next week to allow prospective parents to tour the campus, visit classrooms, meet teachers, acquaint themselves with the school’s curriculum, or ask questions.
Franklin Academy officials have scheduled the open house for 6 p.m. Thursday, August 5 at their campus, located at 3835 Carothers Parkway in Franklin. Franklin Academy is an independent and private school.
Franklin Academy Administrator Rachael Bradley told The Tennessee Star on Tuesday that she and other school officials will tailor the open house for anyone interested in applying for the 2022 – 2023 school year. She said she and other administrators have already started the 2021-2022 school year, which is year-round. Starting September 1, school officials will make new applications available for the following school year, Bradley said.
“We do still have a few seats in our fourth-grade and fifth-grade classes. We still have seats available for those grades,” Bradley said.
Bradley said the school accepts students from outside Williamson County and has accepted students from, among other places, Nashville, Spring Hill, Nolensville, Columbia, and Chapel Hill.
“Our mission is to provide an excellent, high-quality education at an affordable cost. Our niche is that our tuition is only $5,300 a year which is a steal. Most private schools are about $20,000 to $26,000 a year,” Bradley said.
“We offer a classical education. It is a style of education that includes three stages. Grammar, rhetoric, and logic. It is a certain style of education. It has more of an impact at the junior high-school level, which we hope to add in the coming years here in Franklin.
Bradley said that the school currently offers classes for pre-kindergartners and up to the fifth-grade. She said the school will add a sixth-grade next year and another higher-grade level each consecutive year.
“We are trying to form well-rounded human beings. We have a strong emphasis on character development. It is a big part of our program. We aren’t just focused on academics. We are focused on character as well and non-cognitive skills, like being able to communicate and collaborate and work as part of a team,” Bradley said.
“We want successful citizens. As far as classical goes, we are relying on the great classic works of literature and founding fathers of thought, like Socrates. We are teaching students how to think and not what to think, and that is a really important distinction.”
In its second year, Thales Academy-Franklin currently has 200 students.
For more information visit www.thalesacademy.org/contact/franklin-campus
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
