School starts at 8:25 AM. Parents are encouraged to have their child dropped off and on the school campus by 8:20 AM. Students can arrive as early as 8:00 AM without having to sign up for early care. School ends at 3:20 PM for middle school. Elementary school ends at 3:15 PM.

There are numerous studies that show homework for elementary age students is not effective and can be detrimental especially when it replaces other activities. We do not assign regular homework. Children will be encouraged to read and to study for tests. Instead, we encourage our children to enjoy time with family and develop their creative skills through play, sports, clubs, or other activities.

Yes. Woodland Elementary Academy students can be dropped off in the gym starting at 8 am. If you need to drop your child off earlier than this time, you can enroll them in the before care program for an additional fee. After care is also provided for an additional fee.

Students can be dropped off starting at 6:30 am and must be picked up no later than 6 pm.

We do not have a school cafeteria for our elementary students. Our students have the unique opportunity to eat with their class families in the classroom. Students bring their own lunches to school. They have the option to purchase a hot lunch from Chick Fil A on Wednesdays and pizza on Fridays. In addition, the children have a morning snack time. Parents will need to send a healthy snack from home..

Our school follows the Manatee County school calendar. Please refer to the calendar section of our website for specifics

We use a standards-based grading system. Rather than a traditional letter grade system, standards-based grading provides students and families with much more detail about how the child is progressing in each subject area. Students receive a report card 4 times per year with 2 conferences during the year. Teachers are always available through email to answer parent questions about a child’s individual progress.

We use the SAT 10 and administer the test in April. This assessment is a nationally normed test and shows how our students are performing compared to students across the nation who are at the same grade level. Students are assessed in both reading and math.

We believe that students learn behavior in much the same way as they learn academics. When a child misbehaves, it is our job to figure out the root cause of the behavior. Rather than focus on punishment or humiliation, we use logical consequences that help the child to see the connection between their behavior and what happened as a result of the behavior. Our goal is to help decrease unwanted behaviors and increase engagement. All classrooms work to build their community through daily morning meetings and closing circles. In addition, all children receive social thinking instruction during their Enrichment time so that they can learn to think about others and how a person’s actions impact others. Finally, Dunn Prep is a RULER school, which is a program launched by Yale university. A team of our staff members traveled to Yale and were trained in this curriculum, which focuses on helping our students to become emotionally intelligent.

Yes. Our students have the opportunity to attend Bible class once per week as part of their Enrichment program. Each month’s Biblical theme and memory verse is integrated into the classroom. In addition, each class has morning and lunch prayer time. The entire school gathers once per month for a Worship Rally when the monthly Bible theme is introduced and the students worship together through song and prayer.

Yes We believe that field trips are a great way to bring learning to life. Our students take approximately one off-campus field trip per month.

We have a school district speech/language pathologist on site who works with students who have a services plan for speech and/or language. Occupational therapy is provided for students who need this service.