Cheongna Dalton School
Cheongna Dalton School is a secular international private college preparatory school situated in Cheongna, Incheon, South Korea offering an American curriculum following the Dalton Plan in an English-only setting.
Cheongna Dalton School first opened its doors to students on September 1, 2011 and has classes from pre-kindergarten to the 12th grade.
The present site is 46,200m2 and is located in the Cheongna area.
The school provides the dormitory life and day-school but the elementary students could not use the dorms. They share the certain philosophy with Dalton School in New York and they accepted the Dalton Plan that Helen Parkhurst established during her careers. They got an accreditation from WASC and the school provides the AP system which could further develop the students’ educations.
The Western Association of Schools and Colleges, based in California, accredited Cheongna Dalton School for a six-year term on July 2, 2012. As a condition of attending the school, a student is required to have at least one parent who holds a foreign passport, or the student must have been out of the country of Korea for more than 1,095 days at the time of enrollment.
Campus & Facilities
The school has computers for student use, and all classrooms and facilities are fully networked. There are two libraries and several science laboratories. The auditorium, known as the Dalton Hall, is used for parent and teacher functions, fine arts productions and concerts, and it is fully equipped with lighting and sound systems. Music students are offered a range of facilities from orchestra and choir rooms to sound-proofed practice rooms.Athletic facilities include a gymnasium, an equestrian course with four horses, a tennis court, a heated swimming pool, a soccer field with grass turf, and a dance room.
At the entrance of the school, there is a golden statue of Founder of Bongduk Education Foundation, Madame Bongduk Lee.
The campus consists of the High School block, the Middle School Block, the "First Program", soccer field and residential facilities include the dormitory for students, and the Town House and Guesthouse for foreign teachers.
Education Courses
Students in the school are mandatory to attend Korean classes, World Language classes and extracurricular activities. In Middle School, basic subjects such as Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1 geometry, social studies, science and physical education. In High School, there are more extracurricular activities such as band. Students can learn their target subjects for college, and they have different levels. Counseling sessions are offered for students who struggle with getting along with friends, AP Courses and college counseling sessions are offered for High School students, so that they can find a suitable college to attend after graduating.In CDS, there is a team championship known as the Dalton Cup, where students in different Dalton Cup teams compete in many subjects, such as sports, music, Accelerated Reader programs, writing competitions, math competitions and many more daily life activities. Teams who achieve the highest score achieves the Dalton Cup trophy. This helps motivate students to be more competitive, sociable, alert and powerful characters.
Daily schedules are oriented according to the three principles of the Dalton Plan : House, Laboratory and Assignment. House is a session in the morning where students gather in their homeroom classes, and listen to announcements, upcoming events and reminders. The Laboratory, known as Lab Time, is a 30-minute session after lunch, where students can visit teachers for assignments or play sports with friends.
The school follows the 6 principles known as the 6Cs: Character, Curiosity, Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration and Community. The grades split into three categories which is the first program, Middle school, and the High school. The students who are grade 1 to 8 and have Korean nationalities are required to take a Korean language course. They have 2 house teachers in one class and the students have the opportunity to go to the University in Korea if they fills the 102 hours of studying Korean History and Korean. Every class is operated by 75 minutes and they have 10 minutes break time. Also, the students from the school is mandatory to do the service works. In addition, they should take the foreign languages just for the middle and high school students. The unique system of the school is that the school offers the Lab time that the students could ask for the teacher for helps of their homework or other tests.
Extracurricular activities
There are many clubs such as Golf club, Horseback Riding club, Film Club and so on. Also, the school provides several sport activities such as basketball, soccer and swimming. The education of the school in musical area is developed by the Middle and High school Orchestra. In addition, the school provides the service learning projects which would develop the student the value of compassion and empathy. The school also offers the Winter school program for the elementary and the middle school students. It is the great time that could further develop their English abilities and other club activities. The school have many activities after school which is the Drama club, swimming, dancing, horseback riding and so on. Also, during the PE class they offer diverse activities such as volleyball, basketball and hockey.Admission
The middle and high school students who want to attend the school need to take Math and English tests. However, the elementary students only need a document and an interview for admission. As a condition of attending the school, a student is required to have at least one parent who holds a foreign passport, or the student must have been out of the country of Korea for more than 1,095 days at the time of enrollment.History
In 1952, Bongduk Lee established Seonggwang Civil Education School for the social responsibility for the children who were not educated. She considered education really important for the children, and she began to hire the teachers in the school. She built the school in the tent. Moreover, she did not have money to operate school and tuition for teachers. So she went to Busan for pleading to US battalion and she got fundings from raising the pigs in the farm. Also, she tried to build a rock road for connecting the islands to islands. In 1997, they established Hangaram high school which values the self-studying. The Bongduk Education Foundation raised more than 72,900 students who studied from the elementary to the high school. In 2011, the Cheongna Dalton school got a Korean education accreditation from Korean government.College acceptance
The students from Cheongna Dalton school got 60% of a college acceptance from the foreign Universities. However, there were students who got enrolled to the Korean University and the students had an early graduation. Also the half of the students wanted to go to the Korean university when they graduated from the high school.American Universities & Other Universities:
- Cornell University
- University of Wisconsin, Madison
- New York University
- Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Science
- George Mason University
- Saint Andrew's University
- Michigan State University
- Emory University
- Washington University
- University of Virginia
- University of the Arts
- University of Iowa
- University of Southern California
- Les Roches International School of Hotel Management
- Waseda University
Korean Universities:
- Seoul National University
- Yonsei University
- Korea University
- Kyunghee University
- Hanyang University
- Kookmin University