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White Horse is a half-day school: classes meet Monday through Friday from 8 am-12:15 pm. By cutting out non-academic periods typically seen at a full day school, like lunch, study hall, and gym class, our students spend roughly the same amount of time learning in a teacher led classroom. It also empowers parents to be more involved in their children’s lives, since students have a better school/home balance, which leads to superior academic outcomes.

For the 2025/26 school year, WHA will enroll students in Kindergarten through Fourth Grade. We plan to add at least one grade each subsequent year, ideally growing into a full K-12 Academy.

Although your child’s Classical Christian education is on its own a worthwhile investment, we strive to make this education accessible to families across the economic spectrum. The primary way we accomplish this is through the part time nature of our operating model, which allows us to set tuition at less than half of the average independent private schools in town.

In a mission directed effort to make the school even more accessible, we are pleased to offer financial need based scholarships to qualifying families, thanks to the generous support of our donors. This financial aid application will be available during the spring enrollment season, and will only be made open to families after they have been admitted to the school. If you would like to discuss admissions and financial aid, please reach out to schedule a visit and we’d love to have a conversation.

The Latin phrase “Virtus Tentamine Gaudet” translates to “Strength Rejoices in the Challenge.” For countless generations, most children were taught using Classical Christian Education (CCE), the aim of which is not perfection, but rather mastery. Certainly, the curriculum is robust, but students who feel the accomplishment of mastering something difficult are much more likely to move onto something more challenging and more likely to enjoy learning. Of all your educational options, CCE is the best at cultivating in children the skills required to educate themselves, become life-long learners, and embrace self-mastery. Do not sell your own children short; rather push them to achieve more than you thought possible.

While White Horse Academy is novel to Bloomington-Normal, we are actually implementing a time tested model built on certain eternal truths concerning Human Nature and the Divine. This Classical Education tradition dates back to the foundations of Western Culture and Christianity, and was the dominant educational model in Europe and America for generations upon generations of families and Christian schools.

This means we aren’t reinventing the wheel or experimenting in the classroom by using your kids to test out the newest fads and trends in academia. Instead, we stand firm on the shoulders of the countless saints who have walked this road before us. Learn more about why we are so excited about Classical Christian Education.

At White Horse Academy, we embrace beauty as a transcendent virtue, intricately linked with truth and goodness. It is a beauty that leads toward God, who is the ultimate embodiment of all that is true and good. Through experiences like the elegance of cursive writing, the harmony of classical music, and the depth of timeless artwork, we guide students’ aesthetic sensibility to appreciate the beauty that reflects God’s divine order. This stands in contrast to fleeting, modern subjectivism. Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder: beauty is objective and knowable because it is of and from God.

This focus on beauty is more than a matter of taste—it’s a deliberate path to holistic formation. By engaging with beautiful practices and art, students develop refined tastes, appreciation, and a sense of wonder, all of which align their hearts with God’s design. In this way, beauty becomes a bridge to the divine, nurturing complete Image Bearers attuned to the harmony of our Creator.

We believe that parents partner with educators in the instruction of their children and are so called by God ( Eph 6:4). The core curriculum and any new topics will be taught in the classroom by the teacher. Parents will reinforce concepts, help students practice at home, and ideally read the Great Books along with their child, to both model and inspire them to become life-long learners. This is guided through age appropriate amounts of homework to cultivate a healthy school/family life balance.

Unlike many other schools that require parents to submit to a yoke of mandatory “volunteerism”, we instead hope that parents would willingly and joyfully spend time serving their students and their school. So we ask that parents generously give of their time in whatever capacity available.

White Horse Academy currently has a student to teacher ratio of 8 to 1. We believe this more intimate environment helps both teachers and students build strong relationships, engage in deeper conversations, and maximizes the potential for educational outcomes and moral formation.

Just like adults wear “work clothes” when in the office, we believe that school uniforms help provide an intentional transition between home and the classroom. Children more readily shift into a focused learning mindset, leaving behind a more casual home environment. Beautiful uniforms can also elevate the culture and help foster an appropriate level of respect and equality among the pupils, creating a shared sense of belonging and comradery. Additionally, uniforms often neutralize many peer to peer fashion issues that might arise when students do or do not own clothes matching popular trends.

See our Dress Code Policy

Why do Classical Christian schools teach Latin or Greek? Because 60% of English words derive from Latin and Greek, and over 80% of the words in many romance (Roman) languages like Spanish, French, and Italian originate from Latin. Therefore, understanding Latin and Greek help students understand their own native tongues better and educate them to recognize the linguistic similarities between many other languages. Additionally, students can gain the ability to read many classical texts in the original words of their authors, including the New Testament writers, St. Augustine, and Aristotle. Latin instruction will begin in upper Grammar school.

While White Horse Academy leases space from a local church, our school remains a separate non-profit organization. We intentionally do not fall under the ecclesiastical authority or ministry of any particular church or denomination. This independence is crucial to minimize any secondary doctrinal issues that tend to arise in the American church, as well as secure our ability to curate a curriculum and methodology that pursues the full knowledge of God’s created order. We believe the Church’s core mission is evangelism and ministering to the needs of the saints, which is complementary yet distinct from the responsibilities of a Christian School to focus on discipleship and instruction for the children of believers. WHA generally adheres to the “Reformed" Theology and believes in the Christian tenants expressed in the Westminster Catechism. See our Statement of Faith as well.

We are proud to be members of the Association of Classical Christian Schools (ACCS), the nation’s premier Classical education organization. Their advice and resources have been crucial to building a firm foundation and our future success. We are also inaugural members of the The Herzog Foundation’s “Schoolbox Network”, which provides us with numerous complementary training and mentorship opportunities. Finally, we are a Hillsdale College K-12 “Curriculum School”, which allows us to access their robust educational resources to use at White Horse.

These independent organizations provide invaluable advice and enable us to better execute on our vision with faith, intentionality, and humility.