Welcome

All-School Chapel: Monthly event for Young Fives thru 8th grade that parents, grandparents, and families are invited to attend as we all gather to worship our Lord and Savior. Elementary students also have grade level worship times held once a month and middle school students have weekly chapel.

Batons: Each student receives a baton in kindergarten. These are batons of spiritual growth and encouragement passed to each student from their teachers. Teachers share comments each school year, passing back batons to their students at year end. Parents are invited to add a note of their own over the summer each year. Students then pass their batons to their new teachers the following school year. At the end of 8th grade, students receive their baton one last time as a journal and keepsake of their spiritual journey at ZCS.

Counseling Services: We are blessed to be able to provide short-term counseling services to students at Zeeland Christian. At the request of parents and/or teachers, a counselor will see students for 3-4 sessions during the school day and then make recommendations if any further support might be helpful. Our school counselor is also available to support families who are involved in adoption or foster care. ZCS also has a full-time social worker available to families.

Family Groups: Beginning in 1st grade, students are assigned to a family group they will stay with throughout their time at ZCS. These groups include a few students from each grade level, 1st-8th, who gather to study the Bible and work on projects together several times each year.

MAP Growth: MAP stands for Measures of Academic Performance and is developed by the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA). Each 2nd - 8th grade child takes a MAP growth assessment in early fall, mid-winter and late spring. MAP® Growth™ measures what students know and informs what they’re ready to learn next. These reports are shared with parents twice a year.

Middle School Small Groups: Every middle schooler is placed in a small group with other 6th-8th graders, and together they have a Bible study and discussion time on a regular basis throughout the year.

PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Support): We want all of our students to behave with Christ-like AMOR (Acceptance, Mindfulness, Ownership, and Respect). We have amazing students at ZCS and we want to be vigilant in acknowledging the positive behaviors that are happening all the time. We want our efforts to be focused on the behavior that we expect from students, because the behaviors we’re most attentive to are the behaviors we’ll see more of in the future. We believe that behaviors need to be taught and retaught, and we strive for clarity for students and unity among our staff. 

PBL (Project-Based Learning): Students at all grade levels work to develop deep content knowledge as well as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and communication skills through this approach to learning. A real-world problem or complex question is taken on by students over an extended period of time, culminating in a public product or presentation for a real audience. 

Spiritual Journals: Beginning in kindergarten, students make three journal entries each year expressing spiritual growth during that school year. The completed journals are presented to students at their 8th grade banquet, highlighting each student’s personal walk with our Lord during their school career at ZCS.