Apple Distinguished School

Empowering Creativity. Inspiring Innovation.

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Day School is proud to be recognized as an Apple Distinguished School for our commitment to innovation in learning, teaching, and the school environment.

For more than a decade, Apple technology has supported our mission of preparing students to think critically, communicate effectively, collaborate meaningfully, and create with purpose. Technology at St. Stephen’s is not an end in itself. It is a tool that helps students explore ideas, solve problems, and share their learning with authentic audiences.

Our ADS Journey

Our journey toward becoming an Apple Distinguished School began with a simple belief: students learn best when they are actively engaged in creating, exploring, and sharing their ideas.

Over the years, our faculty have embraced a culture of continuous growth and professional learning. Today, students regularly use Apple technology to document learning, collaborate with classmates, communicate ideas, and create original content that demonstrates understanding in meaningful ways.

1:1 Stories of Impact

Student Broadcasting: Amplifying Student Voice

The fifth-grade broadcast program empowers students to become storytellers, communicators, and creators. Students take on roles as anchors, script writers, camera operators, editors, and field reporters, collaborating to produce broadcasts that inform and connect the school community.

Using iPad and Mac tools like iMovie, students create and publish content while developing confidence, communication skills, and a deeper understanding of the power of storytelling.

Impact
Students learn that every role matters and that their voices can inform, inspire, and strengthen the community around them.

Building a Thanksgiving Parade Through Engineering

Inspired by Balloons Over Broadway, second-grade students designed and engineered parade floats for Dash robots. Students combined creativity, coding, and problem-solving as they built floats and programmed their robots to participate in a school-wide Thanksgiving Parade.

Through multiple rounds of testing and redesign, students experienced the engineering design process while celebrating creativity and collaboration.

Impact
Students discovered that innovation requires perseverance, teamwork, and the courage to learn from failure.

Sharing Stories Through Creativity

Across grade levels, students used Apple tools to create movies, digital books, presentations, and reflections that captured their learning journeys.

By documenting and sharing their work, students learned that their ideas matter and that creativity is a powerful way to communicate with others.

Impact
Students built confidence as creators and discovered that learning is most meaningful when it is shared with an authentic audience.

Vision

Technology should be purposeful, intuitive, and nearly invisible.

At St. Stephen’s, technology supports learning rather than drives it. Students use digital tools to investigate questions, collaborate with others, express creativity, and demonstrate understanding.

We believe meaningful learning occurs when students are empowered to create rather than simply consume information. Apple technology helps make those experiences possible.

Success

Technology integration at St. Stephen’s is measured not by the number of devices we own, but by the learning experiences those devices make possible.

Evidence of Impact
100% of students create original digital content each year.
95% of faculty regularly design technology-rich learning experiences.
100% of classrooms support collaborative learning and student creation.

Examples

• Digital portfolios
• Multimedia storytelling projects
• Coding and robotics experiences
• Design-thinking challenges
• Community-based research projects

Students leave St. Stephen’s with the confidence to communicate ideas, solve problems creatively, and adapt to an ever-changing world.

Research

Our work is informed by research supporting creativity, student agency, authentic assessment, and deeper learning.

Resources include:

• Challenge-Based Learning Framework
• Creativity and Learning Research

These resources help guide instructional decisions and ensure our program continues to evolve in ways that benefit students.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's Next?

As we look toward the future, St. Stephen’s remains committed to innovation while staying grounded in our mission and values.