Thank you for your interest in Providence Classical School!
Student life at Providence is planned and spontaneous, formal and casual, quiet and lively. Programs both academic and extracurricular can foster a particular interest, but the school’s intimate size always makes it easy for students to try something new.
Our Grammar School students experience history through the re-enactment of the Trojan War, President’s Day, Shakespeare’s plays, a live American History Museum, Medieval and Egyptian Feasts, and much more.
Our Upper School students experience the Logic and Rhetoric phase of the trivium, while experiencing the House System and Student Organizations. Student organizations provide arenas for new ventures, new responsibilities, and new experiences that can profoundly change how students see themselves, their world, and their place in it.
Grammar and Upper School students are brought together at chapel services in which each grammar student is paired with a chapel buddy, as we come together to honor each other and the work that Christ is doing in our lives and community. Chapel buddies also enjoy lunch together once a month.
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The House System
The house system had its beginnings in academic institutions. In the early Middle Ages, students who desired an education would gather in a city where a Master Teacher was living. With this Master, they would share a house and devote themselves to study. The Master not only taught these students their academics but also disciplined them in their Christian walk. These gatherings of students were the foundations of the great universities of Europe. Today, the term “house” refers simply to groupings of pupils, with no buildings involved. Goals of the PCS House System include:
- To assimilate new students into the PCS culture
- To provide Godly accountability on campus between students.
- To enable students to form bonds of fellowship around common interests and goals
- To foster a desire to walk in obedience to the school staff and God
- To foster a love of learning and academic excellence
- To inspire a vibrant walk with God
- To more effectively serve the school and the community.
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Athletics
Athletics can play a vital role in a student’s education by teaching the value of self-discipline, commitment, teamwork, self-control, setting and achieving goals, perseverance, fellowship, loyalty, and cooperation. Visit our Athletics page for more information on sports offered at PCS.
Our Paladins
In keeping with the school’s mission, PCS Athletics exists to create courageous and confident young men and women to honor the Lord with their hearts, minds, and bodies. The PCS Upper School is a 2A member of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS) and competes in District 6 in the following sports: Basketball, Cross Country, Golf, Soccer, Swimming, Tennis, Track, and Volleyball. Students in grades six through eight participate at the Middle School level in the South Division of Houston Area Private Schools (HAPS). With a strong emphasis on teaching sports fundamentals, Middle School currently has a no-cut policy.
Paladin Sports
Look What PCS Athletics Has To Offer
Cross Country
Basketball
Baseball
Tennis
Volleyball
Track & Field
Swimming
Golf
Clubs & Organizations
At Providence, students have the chance to participate in several different clubs and organizations that enable them to consider new interests or pursue passions that lie outside of the classroom. These opportunities are a wonderful way for students to display servant leadership, forge new friendships, develop skills and talents, and build community.
Providence offers the following:
Visual & Performing Arts
Research has shown that studying fine arts is an essential component of a complete education because it enhances learning and integrates all subjects. These are valid reasons but they are not the primary reason. We study these disciplines seeking to reflect the beautiful image of God as we sing, play our instruments, and paint with our brushes. Learning fine arts teaches us how to worship our Lord in good, true, and beautiful ways and is a vital part of the education at Providence Classical School.
The study of Fine Arts is an essential component of the classical and Christian education received at Providence Classical School. The Fine Arts are not seen as a singular discipline, but as the full integration of mathematics, history, language, and physical coordination expressed in the truth, goodness, and beauty of God.
The Fine Arts curriculum is woven into all grades at Providence Classical School. Students study visual art, music, and drama and how they have been influenced and affected by culture through the ages. Musical instruction begins in Grammar School with dedicated weekly classes that teach students how to read music and sing properly. Performance-based musical groups, including the string ensemble, the handbell choir, the upper school choir, and the recorder ensemble, work to teach students to be musically literate worshipers of our Creator.
Art
Art Curriculum
Grammar school art classes offer instruction in a wide variety of genres and techniques that integrate with classroom subject matter. Students also learn about great artists from their history time line and work to imitate beautiful masterpieces. Upper school art classes focus on studio work, building upon drawing skills learned in grammar school and basic design, followed by advanced art classes emphasizing a greater development of expression in design composition.
Music
Cantamus
Cantamus is the Providence Upper School choir for students in grades seven through twelfth.
Being a part of Cantamus gives the students an opportunity to serve their community through expressive and inspiring musical performances to glorify the Lord. The choir members will learn: proper vocal production, breathing, sight-reading, solfege, acting, dancing and staging. The repertoire will include sacred and secular music as well as indigenous folk songs from the world repertoire.
Liberi
Liberi is the Providence children’s choir for students in third through sixth grade.
Being a part of Liberi gives the students an opportunity to serve their community through expressive and inspiring musical performances to glorify the Lord. The choir members will learn: proper vocal production, breathing, sight-reading, and solfege. The repertoire will include sacred and secular music as well as indigenous folk songs from the world repertoire.
Adoro Christi
Adoro Christi leads the music for chapel and is a student-led group with faculty mentoring and facilitating rehearsals. Fourth through sixth grade students lead the music for Grammar School chapel and seventh through twelfth grade students lead music for Upper School chapel. Adoro Christi meets before school to learn the chapel repertoire, singing and playing beautifully to the glory of God.
Spiritus
Spiritus is an Upper School recorder ensemble that takes its members beyond the basics as they explore the full range of the instrument, as well as the alto, tenor, and bass recorders. These instruments, which thrived during the Renaissance and early Baroque periods, were played by kings and queens as well as the common man and are featured in compositions by composers such as Bach, Handel, and many others.
PCS Handbell Choir
The PCS Handbell Choir began in 2013. These students regularly perform a repertoire from traditional songs to movie music. It is rare that one player will ever play a complete melody. This fosters an incredible sense of teamwork and awareness that teaches students to be effective leaders and followers.
PCS Strings Program
The Providence Classical School Strings Program is open to all Providence students. The program is directed by Laurilyn Butin, a professional violinist, experienced music educator, former violinist with the Honolulu Symphony, and SAA certified Suzuki Teacher. The strings program is comprised of four classes of varying levels that meet before school.
Senior Thesis
The thesis serves as the capstone of the Trivium, requiring the student to apply skills acquired throughout their education. At the beginning of both the junior and senior years at PCS, the students go through the process of selecting topics about which they have a keen interest. Once their topics are selected and approved, they move into the process of developing their thesis statement and researching their topic. Students glean information that they will need to prove their thesis and to offer rebuttals to the counter-arguments. This research then becomes the foundation for a clear and persuasive thesis paper. Once the paper is written, students then re-craft their argument as a speech to be presented to the entire community. This speech then must be defended before a panel of interlocutors. Please take the time to enjoy the thesis presentation recordings from the PCS class of 2017 below.
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Senior Italy Trip
Prior to departure, the students research some aspect of the trip that interests them, and they then serve as the guide for that part of the trip. Students teach each other about topics as diverse as the life circumstances of the Vestal Virgins in Rome, the intense rivalry between the regions of Siena, and the intricate engineering of the Duomo in Florence. The course of the trip, which takes place during the first week of June, follows carefully the flow of Western culture, moving from Ancient Rome to medieval culture in the cities of Assisi and Siena, and finishing with an examination of the flowering of the Renaissance in Florence and Venice
Cities & Sites Visited on the Italy Trip
- Rome (Catacombs, Roman Forum, Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Galleria Borghese),
- Vatican City (St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican Museum)
- Florence (Accademia, Uffizi, Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, Tuscan countryside)
At Providence Classical School, we believe that the study of Western Civilization, the “Flower of Christianity,” is central to our students’ understanding of the world in which they live. To properly understand the grand achievements of Western culture, however, we also believe it is necessary to examine them firsthand. For this reason, as a capstone to our students’ educational experience at Providence, our graduating seniors have the opportunity to travel together to Italy.
