Ep. 12 Anna Bryan is Shaping Minds with Norfolk Christian's Unique Educational Approach

What if Christian education didn't compromise on academic excellence? Join us as we uncover the inspiring journey of Anna Bryan, Director of Lower Schools at Norfolk Christian Schools, who shares her experiences and insights from almost two decades in the field of education. Listen to Anna's story of transitioning from classroom teacher to influential leader, her passion for developing professional learning programs for educators, and how these efforts reflect in enhanced student achievement. Anna talks about the unique model of Norfolk Christian Schools, which successfully blends rigorous academics with a strong Christian worldview, and the exciting expansion plans in Virginia Beach to meet growing demands.

Anna also sheds light on common misconceptions about Christian education, asserting how Norfolk Christian Schools stands out with its strong partnership with families, treating education as a co-parenting model where every student is personally known and nurtured. She offers a glimpse into her personal life, revealing the joy and challenges of becoming a married mom of six, transitioning from a single mom. Our conversation paints a vivid picture of how Norfolk Christian Schools manages to create a nurturing environment that supports students to flourish both academically and spiritually, maintaining low attrition as students advance through grades. Don't miss this episode if you want to understand the impactful blend of educational excellence and faith-based values at Norfolk Christian Schools.

Norfolk Christian
Anna Bryan
Director of Lower Schools

Virginia Beach
1265 Laskin Road

Norfolk
7000 Granby Street

www.NorfolkChristian.org

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Denise Taylor.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hi, welcome to Good Neighbors Podcast, virginia
Beach.
Today I am with Anna Bryan withNorfolk Christian Schools.
Welcome, anna, hi.
Thanks for having me.
Thanks for being here.
Tell our listeners your journeyto getting to Norfolk Christian
.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Sure, so I'm an educator by trade.
I got into that directly aftermy undergraduate program and
I've been in it about 18 years.
And you know I started out as aclassroom teacher, taught for
seven years in three differentstates, and when I moved to
Virginia I had the opportunityto be part of a team of teachers
that started an office as partof Virginia Beach City Public

(00:56):
Schools Central Administration.
It was all about professionallearning by teachers for
teachers, and in in that role Ireally developed a passion for
designing learning for the adulteducator and how that transfers
into the classroom to have apositive impact on student
learning and achievement, and soout of that I got on the

(01:16):
pathway to become a schooladministrator.
I did some time in the publicschool setting and then a few
years ago made the transitionover to Norfolk Christian
schools as their director oflower schools.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
And how is that going ?
Oh, I absolutely love it.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah, tell us.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
There is a little bit of an expansion, I believe, in
Virginia Beach specifically.
Tell me about that.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Yeah, so Norfolk Christian is a bit unique in
nature.
We're one school in two citieswith three campuses, and one of
our lower school campuses islocated in Virginia Beach.
That campus was built andestablished in the 1980s and is
still standing as part of apartnership with the Virginia
Beach Community Chapel.
It's a church right off ofLaskin Road, and over the past

(01:59):
four years we've just seenexponential growth and interest
in private Christian education,and I really believe that's
because Norfolk Christian does agreat job at academic
excellence through a biblicalworldview.
So they come together.
Academic excellence andChristian worldview aren't
compromising one another in oursituation.

(02:19):
The building in which we'relocated, though, has provided
just some physical constraints,because our families come, they
want to stay, they're notleaving, which is a great
problem to have, and we havemore families that want to come.
So the church has worked withus in partnership to be really
flexible in how we think aboutthe space in our current

(02:39):
location, and we're also lookingat multiple opportunities for
expansion in this area, with thehope to build out to a middle
school here in Virginia Beach.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Oh, that's fantastic.
I know little people love tohear that.
So you've been with NorfolkChristians since?
Is that 2020?
This is my fourth year.
Fourth year running both theVirginia Beach and the Norfolk
Lower Schools, both the VirginiaBeach and the Norfolk lower

(03:11):
schools.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Can you tell me outside of the school what you
do for fun?
Well, I just got remarried, soI'm from being a single mom of
three to now being a married momof six.
So we are truly like the BradyBunch combined.
We have three boys and threegirls, so there is never a
boring moment in our home and alot of my fun right now really
centers around developing astrong family unit.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
We can all appreciate that.
Can you describe one thing ourlisteners would want to know
about Norfolk Christian?
There's a myth or misconceptionabout the school or Christian
education in general.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
Yeah, I think probably the largest
misconception is that Christianeducation compromises academic
excellence, and here those gohand in hand.
We do school and we aredistinctly Christian.
In addition to that, I thinksomething that really sets us
apart is our strong core valuearound partnership with families
.
At Norfolk Christian, we treatthat like a co-parenting model.

(04:08):
We recognize that this is aninvestment, not just financially
but also with your children,and so we take that very
seriously.
So we come alongside families,we partner with them to know
them and their studentsexcellently, I think you know.
A testament to that is everymorning when kids get out of the
car, they're greeted by name.
Every staff member knows everychild here, and we get to know

(04:32):
them that intimately in theclassrooms as well, so we're
able to meet their needs in realtime.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
What do you see in terms of the lower school, the
rate of those folks stayingwithin that particular Norfolk
Christian community, going on tomiddle school and also to the
upper school?

Speaker 3 (04:53):
The attrition rate from lower to upper.
Yes, yeah, so our attritionrate is really low from the
movement from fifth grade tosixth grade.
That gap has really closed overthe last four years.
As I said, you know, ourfamilies come and they want to
stay and they understand thatthis is really a school that
carries their kids through 12thgrade and on into higher

(05:15):
education.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Now are your classroom sizes.
Are your class sizes bigger inthe lower school or in the upper
school?
Do you have more room?

Speaker 3 (05:27):
Yeah, so the class sizes are larger in the middle
school than they are in ourlower schools.
We are very careful to makesure that we're able to meet the
needs of our learners.
The research shows that thereis a small correlation between
class size and studentachievement.
Really, the strongercorrelation is with the teaching
practices that occur in theclassroom and less with the

(05:49):
number of kids.
But that said, our class sizesare competitively small.
In our lower schools we makesure that our youngest students
have two adults in the classroomto help decrease the staff
ratio.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
When parents are thinking about either making a
move to Norfolk Christian ormoving their child from public
school to a private school.
When should people really startthinking about that transition?

Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah, as early as possible, but any time is the
right time.
I made the transition for myfamily when my oldest was in
fifth grade and you know it maybe you know, decades before I
hear thank you, but I get to seethe evidence of him thriving
every day as part of thiscommunity and you know that said
, like I said, any any time isthe right time.

(06:39):
If you're considering it, cometalk to me.
We'll give you a tour of theschool.
You'll get to see it in action,with the kids present, the
teachers in the classrooms withthem, so you get a really good
feel for what happens within thewalls every day.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
We really appreciate you being here.
Tell us how interested folks toget in touch with Norfolk
Christian.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
Yeah, so we can link the website, probably in the
show notes at the end, but oneof the best ways to do it is
through our preview day.
So we have those datesscheduled out on our website, on
our social media Instagram andFacebook and that gives you an
opportunity to come to our upperschool campus to get the full
picture of what we offer frompre-K through 12th grade.

(07:19):
Tour it while the kids are inaction, talk to the key leaders
and stakeholders, get someparents there who give parent
testimonials, studenttestimonials.
It's just a really greatopportunity to see everything as
it plays out on a normal day.
So you get a good sense of whatdistinctly Christian and
academic excellence look like.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
So it's NorfolkChristianedu.
Norfolkchristianorg Dot org.
Okay, norfolkchristianorg.
Thank you so much, anna, forbeing here today.
We appreciate your involvementin the community and Norfolk
Christian Schools.
Thanks, denise.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
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