Who Attends Vine: K-8?

Who attends Vine? K-8

Vine Academy is a school for students who are curious and excited to learn.  It is a school for students who benefit from customized, engaging, and rigorous workdays. Since we customize to each student, we accept and embrace students with a wide range of abilities.

  • Vine is an excellent fit for a curious, quiet child. So many students simply hide in the background of larger classes. At Vine, that’s not an option. We make sure that every child is seen, challenged, and nurtured.

  • Vine is an excellent fit for a gifted child. At Vine, we understand the needs and asynchronicities of the gifted child. We know the importance of stimulating these students intellectually, focusing on executive functioning weaknesses, and providing challenges without creating unnecessary anxiety. We know how to help counter the perfectionism that often holds back a gifted child. We understand that giving a child more work is not the same as giving a child stimulating work.

  • Vine is an excellent fit for a twice-exceptional child. Twice-exceptional students are both gifted and have a learning difference, such as dyslexia or an executive functioning disorder. At Vine, we know how to customize to a child’s gifts and challenges. We understand that a child may need high-level, intellectually stimulating work in one area while needing remedial support or extra time in another. We teach to these students’ weaknesses and amazing abilities.

  • Vine is an excellent fit for an anxious child. Some of our students deal with anxiety and benefit from a smaller, more intimate environment. Anxiety is becoming unnervingly prevalent in today’s children; we can provide a rigorous academic environment without the high stress often found in traditional schools.

  • Vine is an excellent fit for a child in need of more challenge. Parents chose us not because their children cannot succeed in a traditional environment but because they want to see their children thrive in the customized environment we offer.

  • Vine is an excellent fit for a child who needs to develop executive functioning skills. From physical organization to assignment management, from structured writing to how to study, from note-taking to time management, executive functioning skills are deliberately taught throughout our curriculum, laying a foundation of these critical skills for high school, college, and careers.

  • Vine is an excellent fit for a child who needs a little more movement. Many students benefit from more movement and flexibility in their day than the traditional school structure provides.


Who Attends Vine? High School 

Vine Academy offers an intimate high school program that focuses on strong, individualized instruction and authentic life experiences. Vine’s high school program is for teens looking for a qualitatively different high school experience than the traditional one.  The students who are best suited to our program...

  • are intellectually curious or want to rekindle their academic curiosity

  • want to take their studies to a deeper level

  • wish for a rigorous academic challenge and authentic learning experiences

  • are easily turned off by busywork and meaningless assignments

  • enjoy reading

  • value a small classroom setting

  • enjoy being a role model to younger students

  • prefer innovative learning opportunities over traditional high school activities such as sports, clubs, or school dances

Can Children with Learning Differences Attend Vine?

Vine Academy is not a special needs school. However, we regularly work with students who have specific learning disabilities, attention deficits, dyslexia, executive functioning disorders, some autism spectrum disorders, and anxiety disorders. We do not, however, accept students with severe behavioral needs or severe intellectual impairments. We do not recommend Vine if your child is more than two years behind grade level across all academic areas. We do not accept students who need a 1:1 aide, extensive social work support, or intensive behavior management plans.


Where do your Graduates Go?

Vine graduates students from both its 8th-grade and high school programs each year. We have 8th-grade graduates thriving at Hinsdale Central, Nazareth Academy, Lyons Township, St. Ignatius, Benet Academy, Downers Grove North and South, and more! We have college students at DePaul University, Loyola University, The Manhattan School of Music, Oxford University, the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana, Lake Forest Academy, and others. Each graduate’s path is individual, but we are confident that we can help your child reach his or her goals for the next level of academic study.