Guide to Enrolling in Great Hearts Texas Schools in San Antonio for 2024–25

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Great Hearts Northern Oaks classroom in October 2019

Great Hearts Texas is a network of charter schools that offers a classical education model in a tuition-free, public school setting. Great Hearts Academy campuses in Texas will begin accepting applications for enrollment for the 2024–25 school year during open enrollment, November 1–30, 2023. We have put together a guide to help you learn more about Great Hearts Texas charter schools in San Antonio and take steps to enroll your child for the next school year.

About Great Hearts Texas Charter Schools

Since its founding in Arizona in 2003, Great Hearts America has focused on cultivating the hearts and minds of students through the pursuit of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. The Great Hearts teaching philosophy follows Socrates’s assertion that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” Students are encouraged to analyze what they read, discuss it among their peers, and make definitive judgments about right and wrong.

Great Hearts schools follow a distinctive curriculum that gives students a college preparatory education with a foundation in the liberal arts, as well as math and science. They are proud to teach the Great Books and ideas of Western civilization. The study of virtues—namely: courage, responsibility, friendship, citizenship, honesty, wisdom, integrity, and perseverance—is woven into classroom instruction.

Drama at Great Hearts Northern Oaks in October 2019

Students in all grades—kindergarten to 12th grade—read entire works of literature, history, and philosophy. To get a sense of which books the students read, look at Great Hearts Northern Oaks’ most recent Classics to Keep lists for K–5 and 6–12. In addition to the books on this list, students also memorize poetry. Classes will challenge each other to poetry wars to see who can recite more poems and declaim them with more verve. 

High school students earn credits in English language arts and social studies by taking courses in Humane Letters, a double-length class that functions as a Socratic seminar. The students read and annotate their books before class—no e-books here—and come to class ready to defend their ideas by referring back to the texts. The teacher guides and gently redirects the discussion by occasionally asking questions, but for the most part the students respond directly to each other, respectfully stating and challenging each other’s ideas. Starting in second grade, teachers begin introducing skills—sitting in a circle, looking attentively at each speaker—that students will need to fully participate in Humane Letters seminars.

Humane Letters class at Great Hearts Northern Oaks in October 2019

Great Hearts Texas campuses offer in-person instruction at their bricks-and-mortar location, whereas Great Hearts Online—Texas offers full-time, online learning using Great Hearts curriculum, and Great Hearts Microschools offer flexibility and a sense of community.

To read more about Great Hearts Texas charter schools in the news, we recommend that you click on the articles linked at the bottom of this post. Also, we invite you to join the San Antonio Charter Moms discussion group on Facebook and ask questions; the group includes current Great Hearts families who can comment with answers based on their own experiences.

Playground at Great Hearts Northern Oaks in October 2019

Great Hearts Charter Schools in San Antonio

In 2024–25, Great Hearts Texas will have six schools in the San Antonio region—or seven, if you count Monte Vista as two campuses. On their district report card, they earned an A rating; the list below includes links to each campus’s school report cards. 

Download the free San Antonio Charter Schools app for an interactive map that includes these campuses and many more. You can also find campus information about Great Hearts (and many other schools of choice) on our page Guide to Charter Schools in San Antonio.

PE at Great Hearts Northern Oaks in October 2019

Enroll at Great Hearts Charter Schools in San Antonio

Families can apply online to enroll their children at Great Hearts Texas charter schools. Open enrollment for 2024–25 will begin on November 1, 2023 and will continue through November 30, 2023. On January 24, 2024, Great Hearts Texas will begin sending enrollment offers to families. For students who receive an enrollment offer, their families can begin the registration process; for the remaining students, they will be placed on waiting lists, and will be notified if a spot becomes available. Re-enrollment for current students will be March 4–29, 2024. Find more information in the FAQ and the policies and procedures.

During application season, there will be information sessions and other events in the community for families to learn more about Great Hearts Texas charter schools.

Joining a campus interest list will subscribe you to email updates about enrollment, information sessions, and other news.

We also recommend following these Great Hearts social media accounts:

In addition, please join the San Antonio Charter Moms discussion group on Facebook to post questions and search previous discussions about Great Hearts Texas charter schools.

Math class at Great Hearts Northern Oaks in October 2019

Facts About Great Hearts Academy Texas

Great Hearts schools have a culture of ordered joy. The consistent structure helps students know what is expected of them. In kindergarten, at the beginning of the school year, the teachers spend time teaching the students how to sit in scholarly position—an attentive posture, not slouching. Initially, an observer might question whether it’s worth so much instructional time to build habits around how to move quietly through the hallways and what materials students should put on their desks at the beginning of a lesson. But the Great Hearts model seems to prove its worth when even young students in the Lower School are able to concentrate on challenging material, like making inferences based on textual evidence when defending an assertion about a character’s motives, or using bar models to visually explore algebraic concepts. 

The Upper School experience at Great Hearts hearkens back to older traditions of classical education, and so there are significant differences from the typical Texas public schools experience. The pop culture rule asks that students leave contemporary media culture at the door: no iconic characters, teams, or big logos on backpacks, jackets, etc. The school wants students to dwell on their common experiences at school—the books they are reading, their sports teams and clubs—not images or messages from mass media that may divide or exclude. Students are forbidden to use cell phones on campus, except in limited circumstances to contact a family member. For families who want to limit screen time and shelter their children from the pressures of social media, Great Hearts is an oasis. 

Great Hearts Texas is a partner of Choose to Succeed, a nonprofit organization working to attract the nation’s best public charter schools to San Antonio.

If you like what you have learned so far about Great Hearts charter schools in San Antonio, we recommend that you apply for enrollment. You are also welcome to join the San Antonio Charter Moms discussion group to learn more and interact with current Great Hearts families.

Recess at Great Hearts Northern Oaks in October 2019

Charter Moms Chats

Watch Monet Lessner, Executive Director of Special Student Services at Great Hearts Texas, and April Hufty, Senior Director of Enrollment and Engagement at Great Hearts Texas speak with Inga Cotton on Charter Moms Chats on October 26, 2023 at 4:00 PM Central live on Facebook and YouTube.

Monet Lessner is the Executive Director of Special Student Services at Great Hearts Texas.

April Hufty is the Senior Director of Enrollment and Engagement for Great Hearts Texas, serving all campuses with enrollment and operational resources. April has worked for Great Hearts for over six years and prior to her current role, served as Teacher and Office Manager at Great Hearts Northern Oaks. She also launched Great Hearts Forest Heights as the first Director of Campus Operations in Texas. April is passionately committed to the mission of Great Hearts and supporting the operational needs of Great Hearts’ campuses. 

Read More About Great Hearts Academy Charter Schools

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