Membership,
enrolment, and tuition

ACRES was built by parents and other school society members in the conviction that education, like all of life, must be biblically based and directed. They recognized that there must be unity in what children are taught at home, in church, and in the school. Furthermore, they were convinced that reformed education was a necessity and not an option, because parents promised at baptism to instruct their children in the fear of His Name, and the school would assist them in carrying out this task.

Although providing reformed education for the youth of the church is a matter for the entire church community, we call ACRES a parental school. By means of this term, we acknowledge that the education of children is firstly the responsibility of the parents. The LORD commands parents to bring up their children in the fear of His Name. Parents may enlist the help of the other church members. Parents who send their children to ACRES delegate the academic aspects of that task to teachers who, together with the parents, submit to the authority of the infallible Word of God as it is summarized in the Three Forms of Unity, the confessional standards of the Canadian Reformed Churches. In this sense, ACRES is a parental school.

The task of the school, although distinct from that of the home and the church, serves the same ultimate goal–to equip the children of the covenant for a life of obedient and thankful service in that covenant. The instruction given at home, at school, and in the church must all contribute to that training in godliness which equips children to fulfill their calling to be prophets, priests, and kings. The children of the covenant must be able and prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls [them] to give account for the hope that is in [them] (1 Peter 3:15). The school shares in the task of telling the next generation about the glorious deeds of the LORD so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments (Psalm 78: 4,7).

Within this covenantal framework that must shape all instruction, the school specifically assumes responsibility for the academic knowledge and skill which children need in order to carry out their task.  Because the education of our children takes place within this framework, this training may rightly be called covenantal education. By means of this term we acknowledge that the reason why our school exists has everything to do with the promises and demands of the covenant which the LORD has made with believers and their children.