Grace Preparatory School is a non-denominational Christian University-Model School®. GPS Ministries is incorporated in the state of Virginia as a non-profit ministry.   

In August of 2003 a group of Christian families from Stafford met together to discuss the need for a new alternative in education for their community.  The need grew out of their shared desires to be serious and active in carrying out their unique responsibilities as parents in the total education of their children.  Their known alternatives at the time were traditional public, traditional private, and home schooling. They discovered that, while each had its positive aspects, all were in some way less-than-ideal for their family’s needs or life situations. Prayerfully, they agreed to work together to start a new school that represented a different alternative – one that incorporated positive aspects from the others while embodying its own special set of distinctives. If they succeeded in addressing their own concerns regarding parental involvement, it seemed appropriate that they should begin sharing what they learned with other parents who, like them, were seeking better ways to educate and raise their children. The result of their efforts was the formation of Grace Preparatory School in Stafford, Virginia, a private school with plans to serve students in grades K-12 from Stafford County and its surrounding areas.

     Grace Preparatory School classes opened in August, 2004 for grades 6-10. Grade 11 was added in 2005-06. Grade 12 was added in 2006-07, along with the launch of Grace Christian School for grades 1-6.  Kindergarten was added in the 2007-08 school year.

    Grace Preparatory School is a unique private Christian school that utilizes a university-type schedule and a teacher-parent integrated instructional approach to produce a high level of academic achievement while enabling strong ties between parents and their children. The school is a concrete example of a new educational model called University-Model SchoolingÒ (UMS) in which two proven elements of educational success – the professional classroom instruction of a teacher and the caring at-home mentoring of a parent – are combined into a single, unified, college-simulated program. Other proven elements of the school’s program include character education, low student/teacher ratios, hands-on learning, a strong work ethic, an effective college-preparatory curriculum, character-building student activities, and servant-minded local operation and management.

     The school was officially incorporated on January 13, 2004 and opened for its first day of classes on August 23, 2004 . Grace Preparatory School, along with her sister university-model schools in other parts of the country, are now demonstrating that it is indeed possible for both parents and teachers to effectively work together for the common goal of providing God’s children with a high quality, Christian education that is both cost-effective and strengthening to families.

Our mission for Grace Prep is to assist parents in educating their children in a way that is both academically excellent and God-honoring, preparing students for higher academics and a life of serving Christ wholeheartedly.

To find out more about University-model schooling, our Educational Philosophy, our Doctrinal Beliefs, our Position on Denominational issues, and who our Board members are, click on the menu items at the top left of the page.