The mission of Chatham Academy is to cultivate confident, independent learners who embrace their strengths, understand their challenges, and develop the confidence and self-advocacy skills necessary to thrive in all areas of life with a sense of resilience and empowerment.

 

Chatham Academy Foundation, Inc., a school for children with Specific Learning Disabilities and Attention Deficit Disorders, was founded in 1978 by a dedicated group of parents and concerned citizens. Its mission was to address the need for a full-day instructional program tailored to children of average intelligence who struggled to succeed in a traditional classroom setting.

The school began with just eight students in the Central Wing of Candler Hospital. Thanks to a generous donation from Christ Church, the program became a reality. As enrollment grew, the school relocated to the Bull Street Church of Christ and later to Grace United Methodist Church, where it remained for thirteen years. Today, Chatham Academy is the only school in the Coastal Empire specializing in educating students with learning differences.

In the summer of 1995, Chatham Academy merged with Royce Learning Center. To preserve the established reputations of both entities, the merged organization retained the Royce name for the center, while the school program continued as Chatham Academy. 

Over the decades, its students have successfully transitioned to more traditional schools, trade schools, traditional colleges, and the workforce.

Chatham Academy will be a regional leader in special education services and a resource for educators. We will be a catalyst for change in the way children with learning disabilities are supported, educated and empowered.

Chatham Academy believes that a student’s self-concept, attitude and past experiences affect the daily learning process of the child. Remediate academic defecits and develop indepent learning and executive functioning skills. In order to teach these skills, daily instruction is on-going and constant. Built into the curriculum, sequence of skills and teaching style is the constant review of key ideas and skills so that the information is transferred from short to long-term memory at each student’s individual level.

Orton-Gillingham Approach Applied Across the Curriculum

The Orton-Gillingham (OG) principles guide instruction at Chatham Academy beyond reading, providing the structure of our curriculum.

• Small Class size (10:1 student to teacher ratio or less)
• Instruction based on cognitive science
• Simultaneous multisensory instruction
• Concepts taught directly and explicitly
• Consistent encouragement to understand what they are learning, why it is important, and how it applies to future learning.