Brilliant Minds

St. Catherine’s offers a comprehensive academic program designed to meet a number of student needs: enrichment, acceleration, review, and strengthening of basic skills. Small classes, taught mostly by St. Catherine’s faculty, afford optimal opportunity for individual attention. Students may concentrate on a single course or two for a focused learning experience. A relaxed, informal atmosphere and dedicated faculty help to create a pleasant learning environment.

Course Offerings

Brilliant Minds offers a variety of credit courses, including Algebra I, Spanish I, Chemistry, Digital Photography and many others. The enrichment and review offerings include different courses in English, math, Spanish, French, Chinese, Latin, keyboarding, and SAT Test Review.

Students may create a full-day Brilliant Summer experience by combining academic courses with enrichment classes or camps. (Please see our Brilliant Choices and Brilliant Moves offerings.) Contact

the Brilliant Summer Office for assistance in planning a full-day program. Students signing up for a full-day program may eat lunch on campus for an additional cost.

Professional Development

St. Catherine’s School is committed to outstanding professional development and is pleased to offer an array of courses designed to better equip today’s educators with the tools needed to instruct the students of the 21st century classroom.

Brilliant Minds questions should be directed to Chris Carlisle, Director of Summer Academics, at 804-288-2687 or ccarlisle@st.catherines.org.

Admissions and Credit

Enrichment courses are filled through a rolling admissions process as applications are received. Students enrolling in credit courses must receive permission from their schools and include the signature of the appropriate school administrator on the grade report form. Grade reports will be issued at the end of each session, and students from other schools may use them as transcripts. If non-St. Catherine’s students would like their school to be mailed a report, they must indicate this on the grade report form and provide the full mailing address. Midterm reports are sent home for six-week credit courses.

St. Catherine’s students wishing to take a course for credit must receive permission from the department chair and the director of Upper School prior to enrolling in Brilliant Summer. A minimum grade of C- must be earned to advance to the next level in math, foreign language or English. The St. Catherine’s Upper School Registrar will be notified of all grades earned by St. Catherine’s students when courses are taken for credit during the summer. Upper School credit courses completed by St. Catherine’s students are taken for advancement and will not be used in the calculation of a student’s GPA; however, these courses will be recorded on the student’s transcript. Non-credit classes will not be listed on transcripts.

St. Catherine’s reserves the right to cancel or make modifications to any course as required. Students affected will be notified immediately.

Course Fees

2010 Brilliant Minds will run from June 7 – August 13. Course fees and dates are included within each course description. All full-credit courses run for six-weeks and half-credit courses run for three-weeks. Enrichment courses vary by length during this date range.

All fees must be paid in full by May 15, 2010. No refunds will be granted after that date unless the course is cancelled. A $100 non-refundable deposit for each course will reserve a place until May 15. This deposit is applicable towards the full fee. If all fees are not paid by May 15, the student’s place in the course will be offered to the next person on the waiting list. If enrolling after May 15, all fees must be paid in full, before a student will be permitted to attend a class. There will be a $100 discount given to students who register and pay for the class in full by May 1. Financial aid may be available to St. Catherine’s students who receive financial aid during the regular school year. A written request for aid is required.

Please note: The course fee includes textbook rental from the St. Catherine’s bookstore. Books will be distributed by the instructor on the first day of class. Likewise, instructors will collect all books at the end of the session. There will be a $75 lost book charge for any book that is not returned.

Tutoring Program

Brilliant Minds is delighted to offer a comprehensive tutoring program. Students are given the opportunity to work one-to-one or in small groups with experienced tutors who in most cases are St. Catherine’s teachers. This is a great way to get a head start on your child’s upcoming school year as well as review and practice the previous school year’s work. Tutoring sessions may be purchased in increments of five hours for $225. To schedule tutoring times, please contact the Brilliant Summer office at 804-288-2686.

Policies and Student Responsibilities

All students are expected to adhere to the academic and personal standards of conduct and behavior as outlined in the St. Catherine’s Handbook for Parents and Students. A copy of the handbook is available upon request.

Absences

Six-week credit courses meet 4 hours daily and are equivalent to yearlong credit courses. Likewise, three-week credit courses meet 4 hours daily and are equivalent to semester-long credit courses. Classes do not meet July 5 due to the Fourth of July holiday. Any anticipated absence longer than two days must be cleared with the director of Summer Academics prior to the start of the summer session. A student who misses more than one instructional day during a three-week course or more than two instructional days during a six-week course may not receive credit for the course. If a student is unexpectedly absent, please call 804-288-2686 by 8:30 am on the morning of the absence.

Conduct

Students are expected to uphold the traditions of an academic community with an Honor Code, where all members accept responsibility to do their own work and to give credit to sources that they use. The St. Catherine’s Honor Code does not tolerate plagiarism, lying and cheating. All students are expected to abide by the rules and regulations outlined in the St. Catherine’s Handbook for Parents and Students.

Stealing, damaging, or destroying the property of any member of the school community, as well as the school itself, will not be tolerated. Students who are found to be responsible for such actions will be liable for the cost of repairing or replacing the items involved and will be subject to disciplinary action, which, at the discretion of the director of Summer Academics, may include expulsion from the program. If expulsion occurs, tuition will not be refunded. Please note that food and beverages cannot be consumed in the classroom or hallways.

St. Catherine’s Acceptable Use Policy for Technology.

Each student and a parent/guardian must read and sign this policy and return it to the Brilliant Summer Office no later than June 1st. Use of computers at St. Catherine’s School will be denied to any student who does not return the signed form.