Kirby Hall School Facts

·        Kirby Hall School is a college preparatory private school serving pre-k through twelfth grade.

·        Class sizes range from 12:1 to 15:1 on average, allowing for a Socratic teaching method and enhanced instruction.

·        We are a Christian non-denominational school and value the opportunity to instill in the children Christian virtues and values.

·        Kirby Hall is housed in a historical building near the University of Texas campus, and was built in 1924 as a women’s dormitory.  It has been Kirby Hall School since 1976.

·        The average SAT score during the 2006-07 school year was a 1400 and a 2080, with the new writing portion factored.  The average SAT score for the last three graduating classes is a 1380.

·        Recent graduates have been accepted to the University of Pennsylvania, Pomona College, Wesleyan University, New York University, St. John’s College, University of Wisconsin, Pomona, Vassar, and the University of Texas.

·        The Class of 2007 has three National Merit Scholars, one at the commended level and two semi-finalists.

·        Since we first began competing in the Private School Interscholastic Association academic competition in the year 2000, KHS has placed first both district and state-wide at both the elementary and middle school levels.

·        We take advantage of our location near the University of Texas campus.  Beginning in the seventh grade, our students learn how to do research at UT’s PCL library in both the stacks and on its data-bases.  We also take them to exhibits and performances at the University, including those at the Blanton Art Museum, the Harry Ransom Center and the annual London Stage Actors Group’s performance of Shakespeare.

·        Our upper school students have the opportunity to travel abroad each year.  Past trips have included Australia, Italy, Costa Rica, France, and England.  Additionally, they frequently travel to Mexico during the winter holidays.

·        An explicit phonics program is used to teach the children to read, write and spell.  It is based on the works of Romalda Spalding, which have been published by the Riggs Institute of Portland, Oregon.  By using the program, those students who began kindergarten not reading are typically doing so sometime between Halloween and Christmas.

·        An intense study of grammar and composition is achieved through the use of The Shurley Method in grades two through eight, preparing them for the advanced writing skills necessary for their upper school years.

·        Kirby Hall uses Saxon Math, beginning in the pre-k program and continuing through Algebra II.  It is an incremental, spiral curriculum, which is serving our students very well.

·        We begin teaching Spanish in pre-k and continue through the twelfth grade.  It is not unusual for our students to earn college credit through placement exams or AP exams.  Graduates have earned as many as twenty college credits from the University of Texas as a result of performance on Spanish placement exams.

·        Kirby Hall has adopted the history and literature curriculum from Core Knowledge for our lower elementary grades.  The Core Knowledge Foundation is the result of the works of Dr. E.D. Hirsch from the University of Virginia.  He wrote the book Cultural Literacy.  He is also responsible for the series of books What Every Kindergartener Should Know, What Every First Grader Should Know, etc…through the sixth grade.  The foundation provides curriculum support through the eighth grade.  The children spend half their year in the study of American history and the other half learning about world history, both contemporary and ancient.  Their literary selections correlate with the time periods they are studying.  With this excellent program, our first graders are learning about ancient Egypt and the early colonization of America; the second graders are learning about ancient Greece and the writing of the Constitution; the third graders are learning about ancient Rome and Indian tribes of America; while fourth graders are studying the Middle Ages and the making of a Constitutional Government.

·        Kirby Hall School is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement.