Who We Are
Lucy School is an arts-integrated, nature-centered independent school in Middletown, Maryland that serves PreK through 8th Grade.
Our Mission
The purpose of Lucy School is to operate and promote the ideals of an independent, non-sectarian educational institution that provides a challenging and unique arts-based education across all learning disciplines that honor individuals while stimulating and nurturing creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, confidence, empathy, and love of learning, all within a joyful school culture that advances care and respect for self, community, family, and the natural world.
We deliberately keep our classes small with low teacher/student ratios. Resident and visiting artists work closely with classroom teachers, helping further enrich our programs. Our 17-acre farm campus provides many opportunities for exploration and the integration of nature and its aesthetics into the learning process. We value the involvement of families as active members of our school community.
Founding Lucy School
In September 2002, after two decades of teaching and integrating Process Drama into early childhood curricula, Victoria Brown founded Lucy School to showcase the benefits of this methodology. Victoria’s experiences, combined with her colleagues’ work in dance and music, revealed the arts’ profound impact on childhood development. Teachers, inspired by these benefits, adopted these practices, engaging their students in meaningful ways.
Determined to contribute to the arts integration movement and to demonstrate the impact of daily arts integration, Victoria opened Lucy School on a 17-acre farm in Middletown, MD. Starting with fifteen three- and four-year-olds, the school served as a demonstration program and training center for teachers and caregivers.
Lucy School quickly became a place of joyful, curious learners, skilled problem-solvers, and empathetic individuals. Academically, students excelled, often performing one to four grade levels above in reading and math. In the 2022-2023 school year, Victoria Brown and Chris Zachariadis donated the school to a nonprofit that continues to operate it, demonstrating best practices in arts-infused education.
Now, Lucy School serves more than 160 students from preschool through 8th grade.