Is this still Northfield?

The Northfield School campus now hosts two autonomous schools, one of which is the Star-Splitter Academy. As part of this community, we share infrastructure and some of our pedagogical approach (i.e., learning the tools of the trivium). We are profoundly grateful for Northfield’s support of our school.

How much is tuition?

Tuition is $5,000 per year. Math instruction is an additional fee, and is made directly to Mr. Lanning. Please contact him for that fee and schedule of payments.

Are you accredited?

No, we are not accredited. We are a new school, and a small school, so accreditation is not our priority at this time. What is our priority is preparing your student for the future. In the sixteen years that Mr. Coleman taught at Northfield, a school which is also unaccredited, he led students through the processes of close reading and essay writing that helped them gain entrance to colleges and universities from Vanderbilt to KU to Reed College. He brings that experience with him to the Star-Splitter Academy.

Star-Splitter graduates have learned how learn, how to think critically, and how to organize their thoughts and express them in concrete form. These are essential skills and habits of mind for any subject they will encounter in college.

What does the daily/weekly schedule look like?

Four days a week, Monday-Thursday, students begin the day with Wake to Wonder at 8 a.m., an online class that features presentations by artists, actors, writers, teachers, musicians, and other community-makers from throughout the country.

Most students then go to math class (unless they have already completed those requirements).

Then, over the next four hours—10:30-2:30—the Star-Splitters learn with Mr. Bill Coleman, who often brings in other experts to conduct 3-week “deep dives” into all manner of subjects using the tools of the trivium: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. In 2020, they studied comedy, the moon, law, Shakespeare, the science of sleep, and more. In 2021, they studied Constitutional law, theater, clinical trials and the life cycle of a research question, the world history of Cinderella, and the deep structures of poetry, among others. This year, they are diving into digital and sentential logic, Macbeth and The Gunpowder Plot, America in the 1920s, U.S. History Through a Study of Iconic Jazz Albums, and much more.

Juniors and seniors are encouraged to enroll in classes at Friends University as guest students and/or to take dual-credit classes (which are taught by Mr. Coleman on our campus but count toward credit at Friends University).

On Fridays, students have math class at its regular time, and then have the option of taking Art and Movement with Jamie Schmidt, followed by an elective class with Mr. Coleman (last year, Mr. Coleman taught The Art of Theatre, which was available for dual-credit through Friends University; this year, Mr. Coleman is teaching Classical Rhetoric as a dual-credit class with Friends). Fridays are also devoted to one-on-one tutorials with Mr. Coleman.