Come Grow With Us!

Look no further than Hickory Valley Christian School! HVCS is a private Christian school that strives for the development of each child’s maximum potential: intellectually, spiritually, socially, physically, and emotionally, within a warm and caring environment through an individualized program.

HVCS exists to enable students to become productive, contributing citizens with Christ-like faith and Christian commitment.  It is the purpose of the program to encourage an active partnership of learning among students, faculty and parents. The faculty and staff strive to be Christian role models and are dedicated to encouraging, supporting and nurturing students in the pursuit of excellence.

Academic quality is maintained at Hickory Valley Christian School through its accreditation by the Southern Associates of Colleges and Schools as well as by the Southern Associate of Independent Schools. Our student: teacher ratio is approximately 9:1 in K4/K5 and 12:1 in grades 1-8.

If you would like to learn more about our program, visit our website at www.hvcs.org or call the school for a tour at (423) 894-3200.  The first step is to make application.  Applications are dated and filed in the order in which they are received.  Students visit as openings arise and contracts are mailed following a school visit.  We look forward to talking with you.

In God’s love,

Ginny Young, Principal

“Train a child in the way he should go and when he grows old he will not depart from it.”

As a parent, I assure you that HVCS lives up to this standard.   We love this school and the Christian academic environment it provides for our children.   This school does not disappoint!

Phone: (423) 894-3200 Fax: (423) 894-8665

www.hvcs.org info@hvcs.org

2009 RESULTS

Round	Correct Spelling	Contestant’s Spelling
1	Round One Test
2	heroine	heroine
3	Rabelaisian	rabelaisin

CONGRATULATIONS     TANAY!!!

“Bronchospasm” and “quadrivial” are just two examples of the challenging words spellers faced in the 2009 Regional Spelling Bee, which was held at the UTC Fine Arts Building on Saturday afternoon.

Over 80 kids, ranging from 4th grade to 8th, took part in the competition, but, as always, only one winner was left standing.

“My parents have really helped me prepare, and I’m kind of like astonished,” said Tanay Patri, a fifth-grader at Hickory Valley Christian School and the winner of Saturday’s Regional Spelling Bee. “I’m really happy, but I can’t believe it happened to me.”

In round 15, only spellers Mr. Patri and Kendra Benn were left standing. After Miss Benn misspelled her word, Mr. Patri correctly spelled, “Impetigo,” thus winning the title of the 2009 Regional Spelling Bee Champion.

Trophies also went to the competition’s four runners-up.

“For them to have gotten here, this was huge,” said Garry Grimes, head of Newspapers in Education with the Times Free Press. “These kids, they’ll come off stage and say, ‘I knew (the word) had two ‘m’s’ to it,’ or, ‘I knew it has two ‘i’s.’ And you feel sorry for them because they’ve worked so hard. They’ve studied hundreds and thousands of words to have this opportunity.”

According to Mr. Grimes, the competition has drawn winning spellers from 14 counties in North Georgia and Southeast Tennessee.

“Some of the kids are repeats, and they’re the kids that aren’t flustered,” he said. “They get up and they know what to ask. They’re confident because they’ve been here before.”

When faced with a new word, spellers had the option of asking the pronouncer to explain the word’s origin, definition, what part of speech it is and how it’s used in a sentence.

“The kids will have to know fundamental rules (like) phonics and origins,” Mr. Grimes said. “They need to know the language of origin, and that helps them out quite a bit when they know these things.”

Ada Robinson, a retired educator and judge for the competition, said she was very surprised by each participant’s knowledge.

“Some of the words, I probably couldn’t pronounce them myself,” she said.

In a matter of weeks, Mr. Patri’s will be on stage at our nation’s capitol.

“The winner of this gets the word almost,” Mr. Grimes said. “We send them and a parent to Washington, D.C., for the National Spelling Bee, which will be at the end of May. And there they will compete against kids from across the nation and (territories) of the U.S., like Guam and Puerto Rico.”

Staff Photo by D. Patrick Harding
Tanay Patri gets a phone call backstage from Ginny Young, principal of Hickory Valley Christian School, after he wins the 2009 Regional Spelling Bee.

Mr. Patri will also receive $500 spending money, $100 saving bond and a Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary to help him study.

She is now reading on a 2nd grade 9th month level, has read more books than anyone in her class, and has taken the most AR reading tests of anyone.  She passed her teachers AR reading goal 3x what was orginally set!

Today, she received an award for being The Most Improved Reader, The Most Books Read, and The Most AR Tests Taken! She was beaming! She now loves to read and cannot wait to get to the reading part of her homework.

She has drastically improved in math also.  She went from the beginning of the year from not knowing how to add and subtract to being able to add, subtract, borrow, carry, multiply, and divide!!!  She has a long way to go but has come so far!  Math is still a struggle for her, but she CAN do it. 

Her other school, The Montessori School,  basically put her in a corner and kept her busy which is sad.  They just didn’t take the time to help her.  I am so thankful that God led us to Hickory Valley Christian School this year.  The school is just AMAZING.