Our Story
Biblical. Relational. Integral. Experiential.
Everything about how we teach flows from who we believe children are: image-bearers of God, immersed in His story, and responsible to seek His truth in everything they learn.
How We Got Here
A story still being written.
2025 · A Prayer
Some friends began praying for God’s heart and people to bring forth a unique Kingdom-minded Christian elementary school in the Durham–Chapel Hill area.
Fall 2025 · A Team Gathers
A team came together with a loose design and began reaching out to families in the area to share the mission and vision for Olive Grove Learning Community — flowing from Psalm 128:1–4.
“How joyful are those who fear the LORD—all who follow in His ways! You will enjoy the fruit of your labor. How joyful and prosperous you will be! Your wife will be like a fruitful grapevine, flourishing in your home. Your children will be like vigorous young olive trees as they sit around your table. That is the blessing of those who fear Him.”
Psalm 128:1–4, NLTJanuary 2026 · The Vision Comes Into Focus
With the Lord’s kindness, we clarified the vision for a K–8, four-and-a-half-day Christ-centered school with the distinctives of small multi-age classes, outdoor education, and rich family involvement — launching in the fall of 2027.
Building With Wisdom
We began training with the Herzog Foundation to coach us through the process of building a school, and officially partnered with the Center for Redemptive Education, which provides the basis of our curriculum model and professional development for our faculty and board.
Olive Grove Learning Community’s vision is a holistic educational community where families are championed, students delight in learning in God’s creation, and the kingdom of God is expressed and expanded by grace and truth. We would love for you to become part of God’s story in Olive Grove’s story.
Our Mission
Engaging young hearts and minds in joyful learning as we explore God’s world and find our place in His story.
Our Vision
A holistic educational community where families are championed, students delight in learning in God’s creation, and the kingdom of God is expressed and expanded by grace and truth.
A Non-Traditional Approach
What is Redemptive Education?
Redemptive Education is a Biblical framework for teaching and learning developed by the Center for Redemptive Education. It asks a simple but radical question: what would it look like for a classroom to align with God’s original design for how children grow, wonder, and come to know Him?
Rather than treating faith as one subject among many, Redemptive Education lets Scripture and the natural world — God’s two great sources of revelation — shape everything: how we structure a school day, how we talk to a child who’s struggling, and how we teach a lesson on fractions or frogs.
In every study, we return to four simple questions, sometimes called the “4 M’s”: How does this match up with God’s original design? How is it messed up, or out of alignment with His intent? What is God’s message to us in having studied it? And what is His mission for us in response? These questions turn ordinary lessons into an ongoing conversation with the God who authored both Scripture and Creation.
Learn more at the website for the Center for Redemptive Education.
The Four Pillars
BRIE: Biblical, Relational, Integral, Experiential
BRIE isn’t an add-on to our curriculum — it’s the whole of it, and these four convictions shape every classroom decision we make. See what each pillar means to us on our home page.
“We don’t think relational is just a warm feeling or an inviting atmosphere — we understand it as a superhighway for deep learning and long-term retention.”
A Fifth Conviction
Kingdom Community
Beyond BRIE, we hold one more conviction close: that a school is meant to be a community, not an institution.
We want Olive Grove to be a place where the kingdom of God is expressed and expanded by grace and truth — where families are champions in the life of the school, where teachers are known and loved, and where our doors open outward to serve our neighbors in Durham and Chapel Hill, not just the families enrolled within them.
How This Takes Shape