NEWBERRY — When the Jennings family moved to Newberry, one of their main priorities was finding a good education for their four sons — David, Benjamin, Caleb and Michael.
After living in Brazil for over 13 years, Angela Jennings said their family moved to Newberry in 2010 when her husband, Andre, accepted the position of Development Director for the Boys Farm in Newberry.
Jennings said all four of their children were born in Brazil and while there attended a brick and mortar school.
“When we moved here, we had the opportunity of choosing from many new school options that had not been available to us before,” Jennings said. “Our priority when making that choice was to find quality education that would prepare our boys for college, but would allow us as parents to be involved in their education.”
When a friend told the Jennings family about the South Carolina Connections Academy and they looked into it, together they felt it was a great option that met their family’s needs.
“It is a free quality school with great curriculum to do at home with the flexibility and family involvement that comes with that,” Jennings said.
According to a news release, the South Carolina Connections Academy expected to serve approximately 3,700 students throughout the state this year, entering its eighth year of providing high-quality, personalized online education to South Carolina students.
The curriculum, Jennings said, was like that of a public school that studies core curriculum. Jennings said she believed they used a lot of the same textbooks used in public schools. Each of the Jennings’ sons also participates in the standardized state testing required of public schools.
“We kind of follow the same schedule as well as far as when it starts and vacation days,” Jennings said.
The advantage to her sons’ schedules, Jennings said, is that they have a certain number of vacation days but they can be taken whenever they wanted.
“If we want to take it at another time, we have that flexibility,” Jennings said.
At the end of every year when the Jennings boys are re-enrolled into the SC Connections Academy, they automatically are sent a box for each child with their textbooks.
“Each gets their own box with materials they need,” Jennings said. “It will have textbooks, an art kit, science kit, reading books and headphones they will use for live lessons.”
Each student at the S.C. Connections Academy has a live lesson once a day as part of the curriculum. Jennings said her boys will go to their homepage, click on their teacher’s link and will be taken to a live lesson classroom that’s done in real-time.
“The teacher will be there along with the other students and she will go over materials,” Jennings said. “It’s a way for the teacher to connect with the students and keep them involved as well as teach the material.”
While students do have live lessons, they also have lessons they are to complete on their own each day.
The S.C. Connections Academy has a teaching center in Columbia, where many teachers are based. However, some teachers do work from home and are located throughout the state.
Jennings is a learning coach as a parent, which means she also has her own homepage and can see what each of her children has to do on a given day. She also has access to their grades and any emails that they receive from teachers, also come to her.
“My main job is to supervise and just making sure that everything is going fine and that they’re doing their lessons and not having any difficulties,” Jennings said.
Compared to traditional public school, Jennings said one of the main advantages was the flexibility of being able to do that on your own time.
“It allows them (the boys) to be involved in other activities in addition to the lessons,” Jennings said.
David is on his third or fourth year of guitar lessons, Jennings said, while Caleb is in his second year of piano. All of the Jennings boys have participated in soccer, she said.
Michael Jennings, 9, is in the fourth grade of the S.C. Connections Academy.
“We learn how to do a lot of stuff and every year it gets harder,” Jennings said. “I do math, language arts and science, but I like math the most.”
Jennings said he also enjoys the science kits and being able to do science experiments.
Caleb , 11, said he liked that he was able to advance to seventh grade math and was also able to take gifted and talented language arts classes.
“I like that I can finish my work so early in the morning some days,” Jennings said about schooling.
Standardized testing for the boys is done in Lexington, their mother said.
Different locations are set up throughout the state for the school and each student can pick a location closest to them to take the test.
“For Newberry, we usually carpool with a couple of other families and take turns driving,” Jennings said.
Having been with the S.C. Connections Academy for almost five years now, Jennings said she has been very satisfied with the quality of education that her children receive.
“I think it really is preparing them for college and pursing a career after high school,” Jennings said.